Dungeons and Wagons, Beasts and Dragons
The Delver's Guide to Beast World
is a third-party campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition published by Heartleaf Games. Unlike most settings which are populated by elves and dwarves and other demi-humans, the Beast World is instead inhabited by anthropomorphic animals (and humans, who are known as "Brethren" here).
Fifteen years ago the Beast World was invaded by an army from a dying world, however morale in the desperate invaders was meager at best and once they realized that the natives were not mere "wildlife" deserted in droves. As part of their surrender the goddess Pirhoua transplanted the last human city from their Broken World to the Beast World, but something else followed.
The Dungeon, an immense underground complex that seems almost like a living being, began to creep up to the surface, spilling out hoards of monsters. But, those brave enough to brave the monsters and traps within the Dungeon were richly rewarded. Thus the profession of Delving was born and soon whole caravans of Delvers were scouring the land for leads on new Dungeon entrances.
The Delver's Guide to Beast World is unique in not only the playable species available, but also the "homelands" system where characters from different countries might have different abilities from members of the same species from other countries, as well as elaborate rules for building tricked-out wagons that act as mobile bases-of-operations for parties.
Books can currently be purchased from Fenris Publishing, as well as on Itch.io (but only for digital purchases). This campaign setting even has its own animated trailer, which can be seen here.
Tropes:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Kobolds get a +1 to any ability check where they don't have any other bonuses to that ability, due to being "unburdened by the paralyzing effects of analytical thinking". This becomes +2 if their Intelligence is 9 or lower.
- Alternative Number System: Vinyotian uses base 12, a sidebar challenges DMs to make a Vinyotian gold piece worth 12 silver or 144 copper.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Played With
- Dragons are Color-Coded for Your Convenience like in default D&D, but unlike most settings they hatch colorless and translucent and develop pigmentation based on their moral choices in life. It's possible for the progeny of two good-aligned gold dragons to become an evil red dragon or vice-versa.
- Dungeon monsters are fabricated by the Dungeon as antagonistic forces and are not sapient, even if their stat block has a positive intelligence bonus.
- Fiends sneak in through the Veil separating the Beast World from other worlds with the goal of unraveling it.
- Undead are beholden to Veronette, goddess of unlife, and while mages might be able to control them for a little while they ultimately further her goal of scouring the Beast World of life.
- Liches in particular are beasts who willingly offered themselves to Veronette, usually sacrificing their families in the process.
- Vampires, the classical "tragic undead", are classified as fiends, and every one of them has voluntarily accepted a fiendish passenger into their body with the goal of becoming a bloodsucking bane to sapient life. The closest thing to an involuntary vampire is a Fiend-Vessel Spawn, and they don't need to drink blood in the slightest.
- The only exceptions to "undead are Always Chaotic Evil" are the Mummies of Yttrus. Created from wizards who couldn't leave The Dark Arts alone, they serve the God of Knowledge by hunting down magic users obsessed with Things Beasts Were Not Meant To Know.
- Another Dimension: The "planes" of typical D&D settings are known as "worlds" here. And each one has a different means of accessing it. Ranging from an eight-hour ritual involving several expensive ingredients and blood from a native to visit the Broken World, to a 2nd-level spell and a 10gp flower to walk the Dreaming.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: The Beast World was roughly at a Renaissance level of technology before the Invader War, but refugees from the alternate-1990s Broken World have started to influence fashions. As such it's not uncommon to see someone dressed in blue jeans and sneakers standing next to one dressed like a Landsknecht, especially Delvers.
- Bigger on the Inside: Extradimensional cubes are a common, if not essential, wagon upgrade. Each cube adding a new five by five by five block to the interior without affecting the exterior.
- Burger Fool: While it sells desserts (and "Ghoulash") not fast food, Littfeld's Delver Delights fits the bill. It's a wagon with kitschy Dungeon theming, punny menu items, and the sole employee is a miserable Brethren teenager dressed in a troll costume.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Broken World curios are items from a world which had a technology level broadly similar to ours. The "sound spool" is a cassette tape (and the "sound spool spinner" with "whisper tiara" is a Walkman and headphones), the "vertical burn-slot box" is a pop-up toaster, the "pet-care training toy" is a Virtual Pet and so on. Many of the curios are made of "crossworld resin", i.e. plastic.
- Cats Hate Water: Averted, they actually compose the majority of the population of the islands of Al'ar.
- Childless Dystopia: A symptom of a world being solved and starting to die, such as the dragons' Ancestral Homeland, is native willful races losing the ability to conceive unless they emigrate.
- Common Tongue: Common is an explicitly magical language created by the gods to be understandable by everyone, though the different regions have their own languages as well.
- Company Town: The city of Landbridge in Vinyot is being converted into this by the Landbridge Canal Concern (it already owns most of the housing, the guards, the farms, and the canals themselves), though according to the book many people in the country are aware of their aims and it's only a matter of time before things come to a head.
- Creator Cameo: Several of the named NPCs are actually people who worked on the book, such as Cullen McGuire (lead writer), Lexi Ald (editor and layout artist Lexi Fox), and Ayvaire (graphic design lead).
- Cunning Like a Fox: Vulpines get a species bonus to intelligence, and a special ability to see through illusions (such as those produced by celerine abilities). Though averted by Varasta, who prefers to manifest a vulpine avatar and is very much the "foolish" variety of Trickster God.
- Demonic Vampires: Unlike normal D&D, vampires are classified as fiends instead of undead, possessed by demons that were summoned by a club of decadent nobles centuries ago. If the host is destroyed the demon returns to the stone used to summon it and calls to the dead host's children to tempt them into recreating the possession ritual.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Ferals are a Beast hate group who wear iron masks and oppose the Brethren, never forgiving them for the Invader War and accusing them of being "parasites" living off Beast benevolence. They're specifically mentioned as being cowards who would rather run away than have their beliefs be confronted, but their message can take root in a community if it isn't opposed. The parallels to real life hate groups like The Klan are obvious.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Averted, dogs actually get a wisdom bonus.
- Dream Walker: Daisy Walk is a less powerful version of Dream that is only 2nd level, available to all primary spellcasting classes, and allows the caster to visit someone they share at least two intimate memories with in a lucid dream. On the other hand the caster requires an eight-petaled chamomile daisy worth 10 GP and they can't inflict massive psychic damage like with Dream. Though the caster can be harmed in the dream and suffer physical damage.
- Dungeon-Based Economy: Delving has become a massive industry in the Beast World, with some Delver caravans forming mobile towns in their own right and influencing fashions all around the world.
- Either/Or Offspring: Most pairings between different species of Beast (including humans) produce offspring of one parent's species or the other at random, with three exceptions. Dragon/jackal pairings always beget jackals, dragons or jackals mating with other species always produce the mortal parent's species, and kobolds cannot breed with any species but their own.
- Exotic Extended Marriage: Polyamory is commonplace in Allemance. Beylik nobles often keep harems and the Bey has seventeen wives. While the Al'ar stance towards romantic partnerships can be best described as "relationship anarchy."
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- Allamance is a Western European kingdom with elements of both England and France. The quasi-independent area of Glasrún is based on Ireland.
- Oria has elements of Scandinavia (its lodge houses are an extrapolation of Viking longhouses) and Eastern Europe (the titles Batko and Berendy are both derived from Slavic terms).
- Vinyot is Southern Europe and especially Italy, with its own version of Commedia Dell Arte and a capital that's a City of Canals.
- Al'ar is the Carribean, an island chain with a culture of sailing and a recurring Suspiciously Specific Denial about the existence of pirates.
- Arneria is a land sharply split between the rainforest of Bat'yan, which is largely based on the Philippines, with conmmunities called barangays led by datus, and the desert of the Beylik, which is the Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Bey.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Guns are very rare Broken World curios and the editor's guidelines strongly advise against including them. That said, a revolver does appear in the quick-start adventure "Leaving Erin" in Holly's Bar and she'll let the PCs borrow it in exchange for help collecting some deadbeat's tab.
- Fantasy Pantheon: The primary gods of the Beast World are six deities who came from another universe looking for something fresh, so they uplifted some chosen animals.
- Aubade, the Sun Bull, middle child between Pirhoua and Veronette obsessed with individuality and war, sex, and art.
- Dramphine, the Moon Wolf, goddess of judgement and enemy of all unlife.
- Pirhoua, the Beast Mother, creator of the Beasts and nurturer of life. Appears as a bovine woman.
- Varasta, Handsome, Idiot Dice Fox, God of Chaos, gambling, and nature. Not infrequently found passed out in an alley behind a Vinyotian casino. Coming to the Beast World was his idea.
- Veronette, the Spiteful Sister, goddess of unlife and patroness of liches. Younger sister of Pirhoua and Aubade.
- Yttrus, the Knowing Mouse, apathetic and genderless deity of knowledge.
- Fictional Currency: While the setting mainly uses the same Gold–Silver–Copper Standard as standard D&D, there is mention of an "Allemagnian Gold Standard" (AGS) and Vinyotian banknotes.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: This is apparently what would happen to any mortal who read the actual details and odds of the great bet between Pirhoua, Aubade and Veronette. The envolope containing these details has been entrusted to Varasta, and sometimes the Idiot God even remembers this.
- Homeworld Evacuation: In an act of great mercy, Pirhoua physically transported a human city with all the surviving Broken World brethren to Beastworld.
- Humans Are Average: Brethren are not much different from humans found in vanilla 5E save for the fact that they get a free Broken World curio at creation.
- Intrepid Merchant: A vital part of any Delver caravan are the merchant wagons dropping in and out to exchange your hard-earned gold for goods and services.
- Invading Refugees: The Invader War, just as it sounds, was the result of humans fleeing their world after something killed their gods, turning it into the Broken World and with the Ghost God managing to open a portal to Beast World. They did not realize that beasts were sentient at first, and more than a few decided to become The Atoner when they realized their mistake.
- Kayfabe: Referenced by name with the Storied Histories League, something like the WWE with weapons or spells. Combatants try to put on a good show without seriously injuring or killing their opponents, and the fights are often fixed but nobody cares.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Humans, aka Brethren, arrived in the Beast World just fifteen years ago, fleeing their dying world. Despite some tensions they've largely integrated into Beast World society.
- Love Sacrificed for Power:
- The first Beastworld vampires were created in a ritual where they deliberately sacrificed their family members to gain immortality by summoning fiends to inhabit their bodies. Most later vampires were created by a Dhampyr committing patricide and taking their fiendish passenger, but there was usually no love there to begin with.
- In the Beastworld the creation ritual for a lich specifically requires the aspiring lich to sacrifice their loved ones to Veronette.
- Magic Librarian: Violet, the proprietor of Violet's Athenaeum in Littfeld, is a 13th-level wizard who will occasionally aid a crew with magical research in exchange for a rare book.
- The Man in Front of the Man: Laurent, an extremely old and powerful lich who sold out the beasts to the Invader Kings, the humans who refused to make peace upon discovering how badly they were misled about beasts being sentient, in order to study their technology and magic. He is technically a subordinate to the last Invader King, but nobody who knows about him thinks he's anything other than the real mastermind and force behind his ostensible master.
- Massive Race Selection: Over thirty distinct species are statted out, divided into eighteen groups.
- Mobile City:
- The Delver caravan of Littfeld stretches a mile long on the move, carrying hundreds of Delvers, merchants, and their families.
- Al'ari buildings are built from timber designed to be easily converted into ships so the whole settlement can relocate to another island come hurricane season, a twice-yearly trip known as the Storm Voyage.
- Not-So-Safe Harbor: Port Tonoro is populated almost entirely by pirates and their fences. The city relocates frequently to avoid naval patrols, though Delvers manage to visit often enough. The agreed-upon code makes docked ships off-limits for pillaging, but crew who go ashore enjoy no such protection.
- The Old Gods:
- The Seelie Court is all that remains of the gods of the world that existed before the Beast World. They spend most of their time asleep and dreaming, tended by their loyal jackal followers.
- The gods of the Broken World are dead, and the Ghost God is their collective ghost, desperate for worship.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons came from another world called the Ancestral Homeland which has become "fixed," divided up evenly between Wyrms who became sterile in the process. Those who didn't agree with the fixation process came to the Beast World and their descendants became closer in size to the natives. The ten standard D&D "colors" are present but their elemental affinity is based on the environment where their egg was incubated instead of their heritage and whether a dragon turns out metallic or chromatic depends on their moral choices. For instance: a "monarch" dragon who decides to uphold justice and good will turn shiny and golden, while another monarch who decides to burn and plunder the countryside will turn a mottled red.
- Our Elves Are Different: Jackals fill much of the role of elves. Enigmatic, near-immortal fey chosen by the old gods who live in cities hidden by dream magic. Up until they appeared to help rebuild after the war with the Invaders many believed them to be nothing but legend.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts are the "lingering image" type, not even fully sentient. However, they're also needed to create most non-consumable magic items so contacting them and talking them into inhabiting artifacts is big business. There's also a Ghost God formed from the deaths of the gods of the Broken World (aka, the gestalt of the human pantheon), who's available as a Warlock patron.
- Our Gods Are Different: Gods in the Beast World are not willful beings like beasts, bretheren and dragons (and some kobolds), but are just the personification of their portfolio. This doesn't mean they don't have something resembling a personality (especially Varasta, as personifying chaos gives you a lot of leeway in how that manifests) and even make choices (such as coming to the Beast World in the first place), but these choices will always be predictably based on what they represent (even Varasta is predictably unpredictable), and they cannot deviate from that.
- Our Liches Are Different: Not that different from standard liches in D&D, but it's explicit that part of the reason they are always Evil Sorcerers is that the lichdom ritual is actually Veronette quietly judging how amoral and loyal they are; one can only be a lich if she permits it, and a lich who looks to be sincerely regretful is quickly disposed of by her.
- Our Kobolds Are Different: Kobolds were created by the Old Wyrms of the Ancestral Homeland as a mix of Servant Race and substitute children. Normally nonsentient, but with such profound eusocial instincts and ability to communicate nonverbally that they form a functional Hive Mind in sufficient numbers capable of incredible architecture, with some kobolds spontaneously developing more of a sense of self and thus, willfulness from a sufficiently complex and advanced nest.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They're classified as fiends instead of undead for one, possessed by demonic "Intruders" summoned by a club of decadent nobles centuries ago. Instead of turning mortals into vampire progeny the hosts procreate with mortals to produce Fiend-Vessel Spawn who inherit a fraction of their sire's power and if their sire is slain they can become his Intruder's new host.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Lycanthropy is a Living Weapon designed by a Feral wizard that turns humans into berserk chimeras of beasts intermittently, so as to drum up fear and paranoia towards Brethren. Ironically, to a beast, it's invariably fatal, meaning the Ferals made an even worse danger to beasts.
- Our Witches Are Different: In Beast World parlance a "witch" is someone who works with ghosts, regardless of any PC class they might hold — not to be confused with necromancers, as ghosts are not truly undead, and thus, not Always Chaotic Evil. Though there is a Bard College of Witches who use their music to call up spectral audiences.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Invader War was this for the Beast World, as the humans appeared suddenly and began the war without any warning. Even more so, considering that they weren't even from the Beast World, and were from another world entirely.
- The Paragon Always Rebels: Zig-zagged. While just as bound to their oaths as any other Paladin, those who take the Oath of Revolution watch over the powerful and incite rebellion when leaders and governments turn corrupt.
- Physical God: Varasta, the god of chaos, is the only one of the Beast World's gods known to walk the physical world in avatar form. He mostly does it to have fun at casinos.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Cullen McGuire, chief of Littfeld, is there because he's an excellent judge of character and trustworthiness, and absolutely nothing else, being described in the notes as being rather stupid. It got to the point where his Hypercompetent Sidekick was originally a thief who discovered his hidden bills and promptly became his financial advisor out of pity, and if a plot hook where he briefly takes over from Burger Fool Darby and his sweet shop, there are some...interesting changes to the menu.
- Portal Network: The jackals gifted Patrie, the last human city, with a massive crystal obelisk that serves as the Junction of a portal network spanning the Beast World. Major facets are in major cities, are big enough to drive a wagon through, and are generally stable. Minor facets are smaller and less stable, there's even one carried in a wagon in Littfeld.
- Privately Owned Society: The Trade League of Vinyot, each city-state has at least one deed owned by a trade lord whose companies are expected to provide essential services to the inhabitants, and can be forced to sell the deed if they go bankrupt. Though the League places a limit on the population that can be covered by one city deed, and the Brethren pilgrimage has forced a number of cities to split off new deeds, causing no small amount of social disruption.
- Landbridge is unique in that a single company, the Landbridge Canal Concern has taken ownership of not only the city but the canals, most of the houses, farms, the guards, and has started to issue their own scrip separate from the League's currency.
- Rabbit Magician: Celerines (rabbits and squirrels) have different illusion spell-like abilities depending on their homeland, with rabbits also knowing Prestidigation.
- Rousseau Was Right: While the Dungeon is a constant source of disruption, and there is unambiguous evil out there, for the most part the world operates on the principle that people, be they Beast or Brethren, are fundamentally decent at heart. Genuine evil (as opposed to the Dungeon's mindless minions) is shown to be either cowards (the Ferals) or literally empty inside, such as vampires or liches.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Played with, in that these Rubber Foreheads are actually in regards to the World of Funny Animals; bats are not natives of Beast World, but nomads of the Astral Sea. They resemble any other mammalian inhabitant of Beast World, apart from having wings that are portals to an extraspatial pocket dimension.
- Starting a New Life: What every brethren in the Beastworld had to do after escaping the Broken World. Most have adapted reasonably well.
- Stealth Pun: Celerines (rabbits and squirrels) in the setting have taken to wearing Brethren inspired clothing, which is specifically described as a combination of 90's street wear and Renaissance fashions. Which means the rabbits are really into "hip hop."
- Thieves' Guild: The Thieves' Army. Originally an actual Army of Thieves and Whores during the Invader War, General Vincent realised that his people were being forgotten again once the war was over, and decided to use the military training and regimen to ensure that they got the support they needed, whether anyone was going to fund it voluntarily or not. The Thieves' Army expects any criminal in a town they occupy to "join, leave, quit or die", and maintain popularity with the commoners by discouraging most violent crimes (and are genuinely completely opposed to slavery. The most violent crimes commited by the Army are against slavers). The Veterans' Union in Louvain is practically an official Thieves' Army headquarters.
- What If God Was One of Us?: Varasta spends most of his nights anonymously cruising casinos and bars throughout the Beast World, which is why his temples double as casinos. He's not particularly concerned about revealing himself, as he once conjured a twenty-foot tall pillar of solid gold in the middle of an intersection in Pristana, trying to impress a girl.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
- The Brethren Invaders were told that the inhabitants of the Beast World were mere animals, when it became clear that they were not desertions followed.
- In a meta example Dungeon monsters are explicitly stated to be mindless constructs, with the players in the adventure module "Leaving Erin" even discovering a goblin factory.
- World Half Full: The Beast World, while by no means perfect, is definitely not dark and gritty. Though there are places where evil endures such as the world's version of vampires, the Invader Kings, evil gods, and a racist anti-Brethren hate-group, the world is mainly multicultural. Even the hate group is portrayed as nothing more than a group of bullies that will flee when challenged or threatened, rather than fighting.
- World of Funny Animals: The Beast World's main appeal. Most of the playable species are based on mammals, save for the dragons and kobolds.
