I’m fairly late to this get together. I’m undecided if there may be something left to be stated about Arcadia Concern 27, i.e. Sharkadia, that hasn’t already been stated. However I’m going to attempt anyway. I imply, actually, on the subject of reviewing content material, I have to maintain shifting or really feel like I’m going to die. Wait, isn’t {that a} trait generally related to one thing else?
Disclaimer
I used to be supplied a overview copy of this subject, however I’m additionally signed up for MCDM’s Patreon, so I additionally obtain a private copy as nicely. I’ve not had the chance to play or run any of the fabric on this subject, however I’m very snug with D&D 5e each as a participant and as a DM. Additionally, it’s in all probability price mentioning that pirates are actually, as they are saying, my shit.
Arcadia Concern 27
Design & Manufacturing
Managing Editor Hannah Rose
Authors Willy Abeel, James Introcaso, Gwendolyn Marshall
Editors Scott Fitzgerald Grey, Amber Litke, Sadie Lowry
Playtest Director Lars Bakke
Format Jen McCleary
Title Brand Tom Schmuck
Accessibility Chris Hopper
Neighborhood Coordinator John Champion
Buyer assist Bobby McBrideIllustration
Artwork Administrators Nick De Spain, Hannah Rose
Cowl Artist Veronica O’Neill
Inside Illustrators “Captain Ralazar’s Information to Sea Monsters”: Zuzanna Wuzyk; “Perils of the Deeps”: Nikki Dawes; “The Ballad of Captain Shivershank”: Elisa Serio
Graphic Design Clara Daly
Format and Formatting
The PDF of this subject is 45 pages lengthy. This features a title web page, a desk of contents, a letter from the editor, a sources web page with hyperlinks to the MCDM Security Toolkit, ship maps and pictures, and an MP3 (!), a web page of creator bios, and a full-page OGL assertion.
- Two-column structure? Test
- 5e SRD customary format for stat blocks and different guidelines? Test
- Really superb paintings of monstrous sealife, ships, and inhuman pirates? Test
What’s within the Maintain?
There are three articles this month, all of which have a nautical theme, and all of which have some connection to the opposite articles on this subject.
- Captain Ralazar’s Information to Sea Monsters (Monsters, Magic Objects)
- Perils of the Deeps (Guidelines, Monsters)
- The Ballad of Captain Shivershank (Journey)
We’ll go into it extra once we get to the ultimate article, however when the article is listed as an “journey,” this text is de facto extra of a marketing campaign framework. You’ll see. We’ll get there.
Captain Ralazar’s Information to Sea Monsters
This can be a monster article written from the angle of a sea captain at present looking the megalodon Shipsnapper, an enormous shark that destroyed the captain’s earlier ship, the Feasting Fin. All the monsters on this part are some variation of shark.
- Hound Shark (Beast, CR 1)
- Wereshark (Humanoid, CR 3)
- Arcane Remora (Monstrosity, CR4)
- Maelstrom Hammerhead (Celestial, CR5)
- Warp Shark (Fey, CR 6)
- Icebreaker Shark (Beast, CR 8)
- Megalodon (Beast, CR 14)
- Aranoth (Monstrosity, CR 16)
I needed to point out the monster varieties and CR as a result of there actually is all kinds amongst all of those monsters even with sustaining the shark theme. Aranoths are gigantic, legendary sea creatures that feed on reminiscences, and switch creatures they swallow to stone. Arcane Remora’s feed on magic and might quickly shut down magic objects. Hound Sharks are sharks expert at monitoring, however they will also be domesticated. Icebreaker Sharks are big creatures that burst out of skinny ice in arctic waters to assault their prey. Maelstrom Hammerheads are celestials that serve gods of storm and sea, and might summon storms. Warp Sharks can slip by way of rifts into the Feywild, spraying blasts of extradimensional water and teleporting.
You possibly can in all probability determine the Magalodon and the Wereshark. I admire this model of the wereshark, however it’s form of ironic. A number of years in the past, I actually needed stats for a 5e wereshark. Now, a couple of years later, I’ve an entire bunch of various stats for a 5e wereshark, though none of them have come from WotC.
I actually love having bizarre and legendary sharks for a seafaring marketing campaign. I believe my favorites are in all probability the Maelstrom Hammerhead (to foreshadow capricious sea gods), Warp Sharks (I imply, they teleport), and the Aranoth, as a large, legendary creature with a construct in storyline that goes with it. I really like the imagery of the stone remnants of previous meals, and the concept of attempting to trace down a reminiscence consuming titanic shark to barter for data.
The magic objects included on this article are:
- Amulet of Shark Tooth (Unusual)
- Belt of Blood Frenzy (Uncommon)
- Slashpoint (Uncommon)
- Sharkboat (Legendary)
The amulet helps you monitor injured prey, and the belt permits you to expend “tooth” to do additional injury, and the tooth-based prices develop again at down. Slashpoint is a scimitar that may summon sharks, and the Sharkboat is a 100-foot lengthy boat that may fold down right into a belt pouch, with a shark figurehead that may chunk, and a tooth cannon. That shoots tooth.
I particularly like the concept of tooth representing prices, and the tooth rising again. It’s a pleasant thematic callback to the shark theme. I’d love to present PCs a Sharkboat, however that +9 to hit, 5d10 figurehead and that +9 to hit, 3d10 tooth cannon are rather a lot. I form of want there was a lesser Sharkboat as an choice.
Perils of the Deep
Enjoyable reality about me: I’ve a worry of drowning. I can’t even dunk my head underwater. I used to be held underwater as a toddler, and nearly drowned. Descriptions of drowning don’t trouble me an excessive amount of, however something that jogs my memory of the helplessness and incapability to floor, or something that suggests being restrained underwater, is de facto arduous for me. A few of the descriptions of the hazards on this article did begin to set off these emotions, so when you’re like me, maintain that in thoughts as you learn it. There’s a content material warning on the article, so that is completely on me, however take that content material warning significantly.
This text has optionally available guidelines for visibility, strain, currents, and disorientation. Devouring Kelp Forests and Shipwrecks are offered as underwater hazards. There are additionally the next monsters detailed:
- Large Spider Crab (Beast, CR 1)
- Swarm of Zombie Worms (Undead, CR 2)
- Dire Jelly (Beast, CR 4)
- Angler Shark (Beast, CR 6)
- Eldritch Anemone (Aberration, CR 8)
Spider Crabs can shed limbs to protect themselves. Zombie Worms stay within the bones of rotting corpses on the backside of the ocean. A dire jelly is a large jellyfish. Angler sharks are a cross between an angler fish and a shark, that may additionally use their gentle to supply a strobe impact. Eldritch Anemone’s are big mutated sea life that develop close to locations which have been warped by extradimensional energies.
The Random Shipwreck Encounters desk ties this text to the earlier article. It consists of a number of of the sharks of the prior article, in addition to a couple of of the magic objects. One of the crucial enjoyable elements of the desk is that it consists of the shipwreck of the Feasting Fin, persevering with the story parts that began in that article.
The Ballad of Captain Shivershank
As I discussed at first of the publish, this isn’t a lot an journey, the best way the journal often presents adventures. This isn’t a collection of encounters strung collectively right into a narrative which may span a couple of periods. There are plot hooks to introduce the participant characters to the service of Captain Shivershank as a part of her fleet of pirates.
Captain Shivershank is the one remaining member of her species, and her deep darkish secret is that she used a magic merchandise to make a want that, because of her wording, induced the remainder of her species to vanish. Along with utilizing the fleet to do her pirating enterprise, she sends some operatives to search for the artifact that she initially used to erase the remainder of her species.
The PCs will serve on the ship that Captain Shivershank often sends on these facet missions to trace down clues as to the placement of her lacking artifact. There are a number of quest hooks supplied, permitting the PCs to go off on these adventures to choose up clues in between a set of main occasions which are detailed within the article. There may be additionally the chance for the PCs to be recruited for a mutiny towards Captain Shivershank, and there are a number of potential rivals detailed.
There are sea encounter tables that embody each environments and individuals. A few of the wilder environments embody a portion of the ocean the place the ship sails by way of physics-defying feywild skies, or a bit of the ocean the place the ocean is actually mirrored within the sky.
There are ship fight guidelines. On this case a few of these guidelines contain assigning ships various hits, and the ship sinks after it takes all of those hits. As an alternative of monitoring hit factors, the ship solely takes a success from one thing that’s able to doing siege injury, so siege weapons and monsters with the siege high quality are an issue, however a PC with an axe, not a lot. I wasn’t a fan of the alternate ship fight guidelines after they have been launched in Fables, however this technique nonetheless makes use of customary D&D 5e guidelines, like a regular to hit roll and armor class, so I can see the enchantment of “flattening” the foundations to solely monitoring siege injury.
There are additionally guidelines for Sea Terrors, successfully a template for making sea creatures into legendary threats within the vein of Skylla and Charybdis. This template will increase the creature’s measurement, attain, and hit factors, and makes them right into a siege monster particularly good at damaging ships.
Remaining Ideas
There are many enjoyable instruments throughout all the problems with Arcadia, and I’ve by no means regretted supporting the Patreon, however on this occasion, I’d undoubtedly say that when you solely ever get one subject of Arcadia, and you might be ever prone to run a ship primarily based marketing campaign, it is best to in all probability choose up this subject.
By itself, I actually like how built-in all the articles are in tone and content material, in addition to actually referencing each other. However sea-based campaigns are so simply ported to completely different settings, I really feel like this subject is presenting one thing very particular. The monsters all work throughout settings, and the marketing campaign works when you port it to Faerun, Krynn, Midgard, or Exandria.
Now I have to go and determine which of my campaigns goes to function negotiations with a memory-eating shark first.
