The World Rune
In Tales from the Table.
The World Rune was a D&D 5e campaign that I ran between December 2022 and November 2023. Beginning with a noir-style murder mystery in a steampunk city, the story quickly became one of world-shattering events. Traversing the continent by airship, the heroes found themselves racing against the clock to save the fabric of reality from being torn apart. The final part of the campaign even launched off into space and became a spelljammer adventure. All in all, it had just about everything an epic, almost year-long campaign should.
A Dragon Flew Away With the Tavern or: How To Start a Campaign
The party met in a tavern. You won’t believe what happened next! Although it’s right there in the title.
The Story of My Favorite Trap
Traps are a classic element of D&D. You walk down a dark dungeon hallway and hear a click as you step on a hidden pressure plate. You only have a moment to react. Will a poison arrow launch at you from a hole in the wall? Will a boulder drop from a hatch in the ceiling? In The World Rune I created something far worse.
The Only Time the Party Ran Away
I decided to throw some horror in the players’ direction. It was nice.
The Storm Wall and the Astronomically Low Odds of Survival
An unusual boss battle leads to extraordinary things.
The Royal Society of Hat-Wearing Foxes
Deep in the Feywild, there’s a castle full of foxes.
The Vampire's Factory
The one where the party investigates a slaughterhouse and brings the collateral damage into triple digits.
The Cocaine Owlbear
Alright, here’s a quick one about a silly encounter I threw into The World Rune. This was right after the movie Cocaine Bear had come out, and jokes about it were all over the internet. To this day I haven’t seen it (and probably never will) but that didn’t stop me from putting a D&D-ified version of the voraciously drugged out mammal in my adventure.
The Yathea Wildspace System
I made this totally sick high-level spelljammer space adventure as the last detour before The World Rune’s finale. It ripped off drew inspiration from Halo, Outer Wilds, immersive simulators1, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Solaris. It would’ve been glorious. However, the group was falling apart and I had to shorten it significantly. Still, it was pretty cool!