Campaign of the Month May 2026: Wyrms of Airhde

“Ride! Ride for the sapling’s light!
Through thorn and shadow, day and night!
Steel in hand, we swear the vow-
We will not falter now!”

Come with us as we delve into the myriad of mysteries of Castles and Crusades with GM lordrodd in the month’s Campaign of the Month winner: Wyrms of Airhde!

Let’s start with an easy one, all about the GM behind the screen: Where are you from?

Dayton, Ohio USA

What are your hobbies? Are you working on any big projects?

Well, all kinds of tabletop gaming. This includes not only RPGs but board games/war games as well. I have lost track of the number of different RPGs I own and/or have played over the years. I used to run a small game convention in Dayton called FOPcon and I was a player and Game Master in the RPGA for several years, back when it was many different RPGs rather than just D&D and living campaigns. Right now, nothing super big other than working on writing a Castles & Crusades and Amazing Adventures scenarios to run at a local convention here named AcadeCon.

What introduced you to gaming?

I’ve been gaming since the 70’s. My first RPG was D&D when it came out in 1974 that a friend of mine had. I bought the white box and chainmail for myself later. Played many marathon games of Risk back then and went on to include playing many different Avalon Hill games.

What do you like the most about the Castles and Crusades system.

It’s very reminiscent of the old school RPG system I grew up with, yet with a modern touch. The SIEGE system the rules are based around are beautiful in their simplicity and adaptability. While the C&C rules system and mountain of material made it an RPG I knew I would play for a long time, the company, Troll Lord Games, is the reason that without a doubt like C&C will stay at the top of my RPG games. They are very engaged with the community and just down-to-earth nice people.

Are there any downsides to Castles and Crusades that you’ve had to work around?

Not really. I only got into C&C last year after being aware of it for many years. The lore of their published game world, Airhde, is immense, but I have enjoyed getting into it.

Tell us about the world of Aihrde, and your campaign:

Aihrde is the published setting for C&C. It developed out of TLGs homebrew campaign. It is a huge game world with just an insane amount of history and lore built into it. I set my campaign in it because there was just so much available written material and support and it made it easy for me to pick out an area of the world and start stitching together adventures and scenarios in a cohesive way to tell the story that my players and I are telling.

Tell us a bit about your players; how long have you known each other and played together?

I have been playing with them since the early 90’s. They have been playing together somewhat longer than that. We played lots of board games but always come back to RPGs. Call of Cthulhu is a system we play on and off. One of the other players is just in his element when he runs a campaign for us. Making props and stuff like that. I had a character in one of the games that was a pilot and he created a period accurate pilot license for the character. Our most recent games before we started playing C&C were Twilight 2000 and Star Trek Adventures. The plan had been to alternate ST:A with C&C as we like both the Star Trek universe and fantasy settings. We are enjoying C&C so much right now that ST:A is on the backburner.

Where do you play?

We play in person, although during the pandemic we played remotely. One of the players has a nice big room and table and we usually play at his house.

Your adventure logs evoke a sense of camaraderie and adventure. How important are those themes to the feel of the campaign?

We are all old, LOL, and the initial reasoning for the logs was just so we wouldn’t forget where we left off. Because many of us are creative types I think it’s only natural that it becomes more of an outlet for those creative juices.

Are there other pertinent themes?

With one of the players playing a paladin and we have a knight in our groups, one of the themes that has more naturally emerged is one of serving justice and goodness. One of the things I like about RPGs is how various themes and elements come out during play that you could never plan for and end up enhancing the experience. Back in the mid to late 80’s I was stationed in then West Germany in the army. We would play various RPGs in the barracks. I was running two different D&D campaigns then with the same group of people. One was a “good aligned” campaign and in the other the characters were all evil alignment. It was remarkable to me how the players would either be arguing or untrusting in the one and full of cooperation in the other. It was just a natural outcome of the different themes but seeing them occur side by side was enlightening.

The video clips you’ve used for your NPCs are very innovative. What inspired you to do that?

Whenever I create NPCs to add to a game they are usually based on some character or other that I recently enjoyed from a book I was reading or a movie/show I was watching. I’m also a geek and a very visually oriented person. I like play around with AI. I would never use AI to create something to sell but using it to enhance the story I’m trying to tell or the scene I’m trying to set just seemed like the next step in things I do to add immersion to a game I’m running. I like to use my NPCs to help tell the story and add the players experiences with their own characters. I have also used them to help draw out the more reserved players at times to help them get more invested in the story.

You are using the bounties page, and it looks quite nice. What is your favorite aspect of the bounty system that you’ve built?

The C&C game has a variant Hero Point rule. In other games I’ve run I’ve always tried to add some mechanic that may allow the player to overcome a string of bad dice rolling. I modified the Hero Point rules to match what I wanted, and the Bounties page seemed to be the best way to implement them.

Has it helped with encouraging your players to contribute to updating wiki pages and POV logs?

Yes it has. Often on the day we are playing I’ll see an adventure log post or something else hit the site earlier in the day. They like their Hero Points (and burn through them quite often).

Music shows up frequently in your adventure logs; is music an important thematic element in your sessions as well?

I like immersion in my games. Even when playing boardgames at home I usually have some type of theme appropriate music of movie playing in the background. I even have playlists for different genre of games. In RPGs, for many years, I’ve used Syrinscape for background sounds and in combats to enhance the feel. In the combat sound sets there is always a Wilhem Scream option. In our current game during fights, I hit that when the players dispatch a bad guy/monster. I’ve noticed them waiting for the sound after they tell me how much damage they’ve done. Once again I’ve used AI to help in creating some music and songs. We have a main theme on the homepage, and I’ve liked using songs to recap some of the sessions. I usually write what the recap is and then convert that into a lyric. Then I will translate that lyric into a Chaucerian Middle-English lyric with a heroic couplet. I pop that lyric into a song generating AI to make a song using medieval style instruments. I’ve been having fun with it. I may change up musical styles at some point. Throw in some modern music here and there.

What does prep time look like for your typical gaming session?

I usually over prepare. We never get as far as I think we will. I normally do a read through before starting an adventure to get the overall story in mind and decide what, if any, changes need to be made to fit the campaign. During the week I’ll take some time in the evenings to read up on the upcoming encounters. If I have the time I will create images of the descriptions of locations or encounters. Some of them I will animate. I normally text those to the players during the game right after or right before I read the description.

What inspired you to create and run Wyrms of Airhde?

Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to run a C&C game and the Aihrde setting was a great big sandbox of a world to play in. Earthwyrms is the name of our gaming group, and we often just call ourselves Wyrms. I’ve used Obsidian Portal for many years running many different games. I looked at my account earlier today and the first game I used OP with was the Serenity RPG back in 2010. It’s nice having that historic record of past adventures.

Are there any specific adventures that you are particularly looking forward to that you can give us a glimpse of, without ruining the surprise for your group?

The adventure I’m running is Beneath the Canopy of Green, which is a grouping of semi connected adventures. It is published by Troll Lord games. I have a side adventure that is tied to one of my NPCs in which hints of have already been dropped here and there during different adventures. When the main part of that starts depends on when it fits best into the story. I’m looking forward to that happening.

You’ve been a member of Obsidian Portal for eighteen years now. What keeps you coming back to Obsidian Portal?

As I spoke to above, I like immersion in my games and OP helps with that. I like how I can revisit older campaigns and reminisce on the adventures had and stories told.

What do you find the most helpful Obsidian Portal feature to be?

There are many things. I have enjoyed the development of OP over there years. I find it easier now to set up and manage the campaigns that I used. That is probably a combination of your enhancements and my familiarity with the tool. Feature wise I like the Adventure Logs the most. I like the Character/NPC section, Maps, and the new Bounties page is something I can see using in any game I am running. That really encourages involvement from the players, which is great to see.

As a final question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights can you offer the community this month?

Something that took me some time to learn over the years is this, players will get out of a game what they put into it. As a GM you create the environment to tell a story and your players are story tellers with you on that journey. I’ve had players whose biggest enjoyment is just the gathering of friends, and the game is second fiddle. Don’t get offended if a player or players don’t seem to be putting in the effort with their characters that you put into the game. This is a hobby and is never supposed to feel like work. I put the effort I do into running a game because I enjoy that. When it starts to feel like work or if you start to feel like you’re not being appreciated for the effort, then you are putting in too much effort. Be adaptable. If something is not being enjoyed by the players be willing to switch up or try something different. Another thing I’ve learned is that I am a control freak. I had a problem railroading players down the tunnel of the game/story I wanted to run. Once I learned to set up the sandbox of the game or scenario it’s much more liberating to let the players guide where the story goes and keeps me thinking on my toes. At my age the more thinking I can do the better. If the story you want to tell is not the story they want to tell let that guide you into telling a story that everyone wants to tell.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure June 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Update Post – April 20, 2026

Hail, Portal People!

The season clock has chimed again, so it’s time for another reckoning. See below for all of the new features and bug fixes that were added to OP since the previous Update Post.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, feel free to post them in the Community Forums, or email support directly at [email protected].

Campaign of the Month April 2026: Alien

My mommy always said that there were no monsters – no real ones – but there are. It only took us a little over two thousand years to find them in the cold dark of space, where no one can hear you scream.

Our Campaign of the Month for April pushes us down the frightening and lonely space lanes of 2189 through the eyes of the crew of the USCSS Sherwood as they encounter MU/TH/UR, Weyland-Yutani’s better worlds, and, of course, the iconic Xenomorphs in Adoraith’s awesome Alien Evolved campaign setting.

First off, please tell us about the person behind the GM screen. Where are you from? What do you do aside from gaming? Alter Egos? Life partners? Family? Where can we interact with you on the internet?

My wife and I live in New Orleans with our dog Maggie. We have 4 kids, but they have all grown and moved on to bigger and better things. Aside from gaming, most of my free time is spent indulging in everything that New Orleans has to offer. Music, food, art, and festivals are a constant in the Big Easy.

I do have a couple of “professional” social media accounts that I used to peddle my 5e adventures and supplements. They can be found on Instagram and Youtube as The Pickled Dragon. I still pop on weekly but don’t post nearly as much as I used to. I had a few bestselling 5e books that can be found on Amazon, Drive Thru RPG, and the DMs Guild. Kelsey Dionne (of Shadowdark fame) and I wrote a monster manual together called the Monstrous Lexicon. The Days of Blight trilogy (DMs Guild) was another series that I was particularly proud of. Around 2021 I took a step back from publishing to focus on my home game and the things that made me happy.

Your campaign is set in the Alien Universe. What was it that fascinated you with this setting enough to create and run a campaign in it? Was it the roleplaying game from Free League itself, or is there a deeper underlying fascination with the expanded franchise? What’s your favorite movie from the franchise that inspires you the most?

Alien was one of the first movies I remember seeing when my dad took the family to a drive-in double feature. The body horror of a parasitic creature smothering the victim but keeping them alive to incubate its young, still shakes me to the core. Follow that up with the horrific birth of the alien and you have the literal stuff of nightmares for years to come.

I have tried to recreate the alien experience several times starting with Star Frontiers in the mid 80s. I took a stab at designing the xenomorph for DnD in the 90s with AD&D 2e. It wasn’t until DnD 3.5e that the design really coalesced into something that was inspired by rather than pure rip off of the xenomorph. By the time 5e rolled around, I was happy enough with the design of the hive demon to include it in the Monstrous Lexicon.

Free League’s Alien RPG perfectly captures the experience in gruesome detail. They have created one of my top 3 favorite games of all time. I love that the system is fairly rules light and easy to learn. The rules are elegant and can facilitate a faster pace of play (Aliens) or be used to create an atmospheric horror experience (Alien). My absolute favorite mechanic is the stress dice. What a stroke of genius.

My favorite film of the franchise really depends on my mood. The first two films are far and away, the best of the collection. However, Alien and Aliens are very different movies. For a slow burn suspenseful sci-fi horror experience I go to Alien. Aliens scratches that itch for the sci-fi blockbuster action film with a dash of body horror.

Tell us about your players and your typical gaming sessions. How often do you play? Online? Tabletop? Who does what in any typical session?

My players and I meet at my place every Sunday from 1 to 6. I have tried online gaming a couple times and just couldn’t get into it. In my opinion, the essence of the roleplaying game experience is human interaction which goes beyond simple conversation. There is no substitution for the tactile feel of dice, miniatures, a hug, handshake, the celebratory high five, and the all-important breaking of bread together.

I will let my players speak for themselves.

Scott – I’ve really enjoyed getting to play Alien RPG with Matt and the
rest of the crew. I usually play fantasy RPG’s so this game was brand
new in a lot of ways for me as I journey into space. One thing I love
the most is the “panic” dice. Your stress response can either fuel you
or have you fall apart under pressure, masterfully mimicking fight or
flight. Space travel was really interesting and had me thinking about it
in the real world. Distances are vast and injuries are real; there’s no
magic and death is always around the corner. Alien is a top tier RPG and
I’d definitely recommend it for a thrilling Sci fi game.

Courtney – I’ve enjoyed jumping into a new system between longer
campaigns. I was initially concerned that I’d be a bit lost since I was
not well versed in the lore, but most of the events from the movies are
classified or only rumored. We watched the first two films as a group
which also got us into the world with the right lingo and vibes. I’ve
been playing Dr. Beatrice Mott, a young xenobiologist straight out of
university. I wanted a palate cleanser from playing a barbarian, but I
didn’t know how lucky I would be with shooting my service pistol after a
short training session with one of the marines. ‘One Shot Mott’ is
racking up kills at a faster rate than my barbarian ever did. Another
surprise is how much fun it is to be tech savvy, even if it’s just
make-believe. I can’t wait to see if any of our characters survive this
campaign. I tend to get attached to my PC’s over time, but we knew how
likely a TPK would be this time around. If she must go, I hope Dr. Mott
has a glorious end.

Jeremy – I’ve never played Alien before and to be honest, I tend to not
really get into Table Top games where the PCs are closer to real life
humans than not and get pitted against entities that can easily squish
them. I went into the game expecting we had good potential to TPK in any
given encounter much like people got squished and tossed around in the
movies. I settled on trying to be a space mechanic that enjoyed
conspiracies and had his own literal tin foil hat just in case. I tried
to be a coward in the beginning for survival while also aspiring to be a
Colonial Marine. Events eventually led my character to mentally just
being done with anything alien or alien-involved scientist related (saw
his in-game ‘Buddy’ die to a face hugger and then survived an alien grab
by punching and screaming until the team arrived).

Alien’s Stress/Panic system has been enjoyable for me in helping to
shape my character and add to roleplay overall. Out of character, I
accepted Stress Dice as super powers all the way up to my character
panic freezing every action. It was fulfilling to test limits in a new
system and see how things would develop or occur. Even started offering
Coffee in game to party members that pushed their own stress (it adds
more stress heh).

Despite my initial expectations of easily squishable, the Alien system
does a good job with character options (given you survive a few sessions
for EXP) to build into enhancing one’s survivability and/or
intractability with the world around them.

Tell us more about the crew of the USCSS Sherwood! What roles do they play, and how do each of the players contribute to their game personalities.

I do love the assortment of characters the players have brought together. My group has always been excellent at filling in the gaps of their party composition without sacrificing roleplaying. Just as an example, our last DnD campaign ran four years without a dedicated healer. Anyway, the crew of the Sherwood.

The captain (Gordi Boudreaux) and lead engineer (Hooper) were both NPCs which actually gave me a ton of flexibility when orchestrating the storyline.

Courtney plays Dr. Beatrice Mott, a fresh out of college xenobiologist looking to kick start her career. Ms Mott was a little shy to start but her confidence quickly grew as the Sherwood was plunged into corporate intrigue and sabotage. Her nickname, One Shot Mott, was earned when she managed to shoot and kill a facehugger as it was hurdling through the air at her captains head.

Scott plays Phil Baxton, a colonial marine gunner with a heart of gold. His strong belief in the general good in people has been challenged but remains strong after witnessing what corporate strongmen are capable of doing in the name of the bottom line. Perhaps, his faith was bolstered by the terribly grouchy Hooper sacrificed his life to save Phil.

Joe plays Kipp Sanchez, a true believer in the Colonial Marine ethos. That was until he learned that Weyland Yutani was the de facto commander of the corps. After learning of Captain Demien Brackett’s splinter group of marines actively working against WY’s effort to weaponize the xenomorph, he ceased sending colonial marine command covert messages on the activities of the crew.

Jeremy plays Rufus Barker, the assistant engineer (roughneck), coffee aficionado, and stress magnet. Hooper and Rufus were best buddies who were both avid conspiracy theorists. Of particular interest was Robert Morse’s account of the Space Beast and his encounter with a woman named Ellen Ripley. To say that there is not enough tin foil for his hat would be an understatement, but he might just be onto something!

Amariah plays Amber, professional stowaway and kid with no home. Amber has lived a very tough 10 years but finds joy in the small things. Her rainbow bright doll is among her favorite possessions and believes that the 20th century doll will make her rich if she can find the right buyer. In the meantime, she is content to chain smoke her Pall Malls and offer sarcastic barbs at the worst possible time.

How closely does your game adhere to the canon of the movies and ttrpg? What embellishments have you added? I noticed that you have added several corporations into the mix of those from the core manual that I don’t recognize! Tell us a bit about what inspired them.

I love the canon lore of the Alien Universe and made it a point not to do anything that would contradict or change the underlying story. There is a website that shows all movies, graphic novels, and even video games that are officially canon to the Alien Universe. Fortunately, I already owned nearly all of the material and went back to reread everything. I pulled concepts, story lines, and ideas that I thought could have gone so much further and ran with it. If I were to ever run a long-term campaign of Alien RPG, I would want that to be the Alien Earth War series. This incredible collection of comics and graphic novels is not canon, but the setting would make a great campaign!

All of the corporations I have on the page come from the canon material found in movies, graphic novels, and video games. As a GM, I want to make the game as immersive as possible so I wrote down every detail I could find.

Your campaign has a captivating retro-80s sci fi design, appearance and feel. What tools did you use in setting things up? What advice can you give for new GMs who want to do what you have done?

I love the low tech feel of the original Alien film. That is the esthetic I wanted for the Alien campaign page. I used Adobe Premier Pro to create the GIFs and Adobe Photoshop for the images. Getting a free font that was close to the Alien font was difficult, but I eventually tracked it down. Overall, I took the stance that less is more and ran with it.

There are probably easier ways to do the design of the page, but I am familiar with Adobe products which is why I went in that direction. I would say use the tools you are comfortable with and focus on making the information accessible to your players. I have seen some beautiful websites that are a trainwreck to navigate. Start with accessibility and then adjust to make it pretty.

You post several of your play videos to YouTube in your adventure logs. I find them very instructional in learning more about the game’s mechanical aspects! Were they meant to be such?

Honestly, the videos are just a fun way to remember the events of the session. Any educational benefit they provide is completely accidental!

Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”. What GM insights would you like to offer the community this month?

I am a huge proponent of homebrewing just about everything. I love to create new aliens, talents, and abilities that the players do not have access to or knowledge of. RPG’s has been around for 50 years and there are very few surprises coming out of published material.

I also love the fact that Alien RPG is not a D20 system. There are some brilliant mechanics, like the stress dice, that would brilliantly fold into other games. Don’t be afraid to adopt, adapt, and combine different systems to make your game unique.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure May 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Campaign of the Month March 2026: “Dark Sun: Shadow of the Monolith”

Feel the heat of the blasted skies in this month’s Campaign of the Month winner, “Dark Sun: Shadow of the Monolith” by MYTH_DM. It’s an artistic, anachronistic, Arcanotech masterpiece that blends several old settings into something so new that even seasoned veterans of the sand-swept wastes will raise an eyebrow… or whatever Thri-Keen have. Antennae? Read on and find out!

We would love to hear a little about you and your gaming group — who you are, what you’re into, creative projects you’re involved in, and how you got into gaming.

Our group of 8 (DM +7 players) are all friends who’ve gamed together for differing periods of time. One player has been with me for 20+ years and two are newcomers to the group for this campaign. The rest have all been players in my previous campaign ‘MYTH’, which ran for close to 3 years and finished with an epic finale last June.

I am a graphic designer with the Department of Defense. I have a wife (who is a player) and an awesome 14 year old daughter who is just as much of a gamer as I am. I’m a published illustrator and a writer with Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k & Black Library) and have had a side business building gaming terrain for clients around the world.

What I’m into…that’s a long answer so I’ll just list them…lol: Writing, reading (historical, fantasy, sci-fi), D&D (obviously), Warhammer 40k + multiple other tabletop wargames (Frostgrave, Gaslands, K47, Reality’s Edge, etc.). I’m a bit of a fitness fanatic, love the outdoors and Jeeps. I enjoy painting miniatures and building terrain for my games.

I got into gaming in the 80s with my cousins when I got the original D&D Red Box edition for Christmas. It’s been all downhill since…

PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
I’m consumed by my family and job and love the social interaction and mental detachment after long weeks that this campaign offers. I got into gaming during my active duty time where many of us just needed a fun way to get away from reality and lose ourselves in a positive and creative way.

Your action-packed, visually stunning take on Dark Sun is fresh and outstanding, especially to those of us who played old-school Dark Sun and have been searching for a more modern take. Can you tell us a little bit about the setting and system in your campaign?

Thank You! After finishing my previous campaign ‘MYTH’, my players were eager for more so I spent 5 months over this past Summer and Fall developing DARK SUN. While MYTH was pretty standard fantasy I didn’t want to do that again. Don’t get me wrong, I still love fantasy and still wanted it to be a big part of the next campaign. I just wanted to put an ‘out of the box’ twist on things, add in elements that really sparked my imagination with something new that hopefully hadn’t really been done this way before.
DARK SUN had multiple inspirations. First, three existing campaign settings: the 80’s ‘Dark Sun’ (of course), ‘Eberron’ and the Privateer Press ‘Iron Kingdoms’ world. I also have always loved Star Wars, specifically anything on the desert world of Tattotine.

When the original TSR Dark Sun was released, I was excited, but ultimately did not enjoy the setting the way I thought I would. So, in high school I created a world called ‘Maelsearth’, which combined elements of low-tech Star Wars and Dark Sun together. It didn’t get far but I still kept all of my notes and illustrations which I pulled out this past summer (nearly 30 years later) – and used them to build the bones of my version of DARK SUN.

A new element I added to the setting was a version of steampunk, which I reframed into DARK SUN’s ‘Arcanotech’ – a mix of steampunk style technology and the arcane. Arcanotech drives everything in my version of ‘ATHAS’ – a world that is struggling to survive after a cataclysmic event called ‘The FALL’. Between arcanotech and ‘the BLEED’ (a corrupted arcane power emanating from the fractured Dark Sun) which powers it, the people of Athas have survived to build a new world in the harsh deserts, wastes and ruins of a former golden age.

The system I use in DARK SUN is a heavily homebrewed version of D&D 5e.

What elements or themes of Dark Sun inspire you most as a GM?

There are several themes that inspire me the most and drove me to create this setting. They were a mix of post-apocalyptic/dystopian world flavor, lost/ancient history, and arcanotech/steampunk style technology – including arcane powered guns, armor, airships and walking constructs made for labor and war (laborjacks and warjacks). All of this is combined with an overarching theme: salvaging, survival and rediscovery in a sweeping desert world hiding the mysteries of its own past.

Salvaging is the main premise surrounding the character’s involvement with the world. Called ‘Freelancers’, the characters are ‘salvaging’ lost arcanotech from the blasted remains of the world that existed before the FALL. This offers a means of survival, which ‘might’ lead them down a road to rediscover what happed to their world in the distant past and possibly even a way to bring it back…

Your first adventure log jumps right into action in the midst of a running battle. What do you like about games that begin in the thick of conflict?

This was new for me. I really wanted to start this campaign off with a bang – drop them right into the thick of things, into a narrative that was already moving forward. Specifically, I wanted the first thing I said in at the start of Session 1 to be: “I need everyone to ROLL INTIATIVE!”.

To me, this created instant immersion and set the tone for a campaign centered around danger and high stakes. It allowed me to show them elements of the world through direct action rather than just telling them about it through a long exposition intro.

PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
As a player, it sets the tone and forces each character to come together immediately. In this campaign, we were “thrown” together instead of coming up with a party background. I like the focus on each individual without the need to explain why Ven-Ka is doing whatever with Vale. We were put in a situation and the GM gets to play with how and why. Flexibility and creativity for all of us.

The campaign has only just started, but has already hooked us as readers with a tale of a secret map, powerful syndicates, and dangerous, magical storms. What have been the most interesting parts of the game so far, and (without giving too much away to your Players) what parts are you really looking forward to, next?

Honestly just exploring the world has been the most interesting part, because – to me – it is such a unique setting with something new always around the corner. I love setting up scenes that help show off all these new trappings to the players. Trappings that step away from classic fantasy that we’re all used too.

What I’m looking forward to next is the continued exploration of the world. There is still so much to reveal! Maybe even some stuff about the enigmatic ‘Builders’…

What moments during the campaign seemed to excite your Players the most?

Hard to say, They seem to be enjoying everything so far. I try to keep a balance of combat/action, narrative/story and individual character development with each player getting a chance to explore their backgrounds or having elements of their backgrounds becoming part of the current narrative. Of course, we are still early in the campaign so not every character has had this opportunity yet, but they will. I strive hard to form complete arcs for each character by the time we hit the finale a few years down the road.

PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
While combat is always fun, I really enjoy the snippets of story that gets unfolded each session. Who gets introduced next? Is this a nemesis to someone, or a link to something deeper? Is there a clue to some yet undiscovered puzzle? I cannot wait for the next session!

PLAYER: Kristen / ‘Vale’
I love it when we have to work together on something as simple as a puzzle to figure out a clue or decipher it. I think it helps us figure out our strengths as a group and individually. It gives insight into how each of us thinks about solving a problem, or looking at it from a different point of view. I love learning about other players’ back story (or origin story) in-game and out. What you reveal and how you do it says a lot about the kind of character you play.

Are there any game mechanics in this version of Dark Sun that have been especially fun?

I have enjoyed developing the entire arcanotech / salvaging economy along with developing all magical items around this theme. In DARK SUN there are no pure magic items – or least none have been seen since before the FALL. Magical items are now created in the form of arcanotech devices powered by Bleed by using arcane schema or blueprints. Artificers (or as I call them: Splicers or Relicsmiths) play a huge role in DARK SUN.

Also, an especially fun part of the creation process was developing all the customized character races and classes that fit uniquely within the setting – all of which can be found in the wiki.

A mechanic within those classes that I paid close attention to was the ‘cost of power’. If you are a normal martial or rogue-like character, you’re fine. But, if you are a Bleed Sorcerer, psionic or a divine Shardbound then your otherworldly power comes at a cost…

PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
Ven-ka is the pseudo “Tank”, so the I don’t experience the risk/reward as much as Samara… yet. I’m sure the GM has something planned in time to make me rethink what I’m going to do. This is probably the aspect I enjoy. Bleed corruption causing mutations or negative effects from casting are exciting!

I love the customization based on core D&D. A custom realm, with modified races and classes really lets us put a fresh spin on everything from character creation through game play. I genuinely look forward to each session and what we get to experience next.

Our research shows that you used to make some pretty impressive miniature terrain, back in the day. Has there been any creative terrain or prop-making for this campaign yet? Or does your group rely more on digital tools? Or simply theater-of-the-mind style play?

Yes, I did have a commission studio a few years back called ‘Broken Sword Studios’. It was a pretty successful side business that allowed me to create a lot of terrain projects for clients across the US and over-seas. However, it became so busy that after a few years I decided to put it on the back burner to spend more time with family.

This did not stop me from making miniatures and terrain set pieces for my own campaigns though. I try to do a mix of physical terrain and digital maps (I built a custom gaming table with a tv inset for digital maps). So far, in DARK SUN, we have just had digital maps, but some physical terrain is coming soon!

The art for the campaign is breathtaking and the overall page layouts and design work are top-notch, as are many of your other campaigns on Obsidian Portal. How did you approach the visuals for this campaign and what advice can you give to other designers who want to achieve this level of imagery?

The visuals for this campaign were driven by some artwork I stumbled across online. It was a desert setting with a combination of fantasy and steampunk style technology that really inspired me.

I know a lot of people are down on AI art, but to get everything created in time over the Summer and early Fall to meet the kick-off date for the new campaign, I taught myself Midjourney. To me it was a fantastic tool that allowed me to create some amazing visuals that all lived in the same world – once I figured out my prompting formula that achieved similar/complementary styles/themes.

Some of the other art is derived form Heroforge – the miniature creation tool that you can use to design and 3d print miniatures. I always create, print and paint custom minis for my players so it was easy to use Heroforge to create art for the site that perfectly matched my setting.

Lastly, the general graphic design/layout of the site all comes from my background as a Graphic artist.

Advice: find a theme and strive to stick to that theme/look & feel across everything you create for your campaign in order to give your world consistency.

As we always do, Obsidian Portal loves to ask if you have any tips, sage advice, or inspiring quotations to share for other creative entertainers?

Absolutely! A gentleman named Joseph Staten was the lead writer for the wildly famous HALO video game. He was invited to do the commencement address at his alma mater and this was a portion of his speech – which I have framed and hanging on a wall in my ‘War Room’ – what we call my gaming room 😊:

‘Create more than you Consume’
“We live in an on-demand world, where everything is there for us to consume. I urge you to resist. I am not asking you to turn off the internet, or the TV or the radio. What I am suggesting, if you can, is to ask yourself everyday:
‘What did I create?’
‘What did I contribute?’

If the answer is ‘nothing’ or ‘less than I consumed’, then strive to tip the scales in another direction. Pursue your passion. Time is precious: do not squander it by only reading, watching or playing other people’s accomplishments.

By all means, be ravenous in your consumption because that leads to true inspiration. But do not stop working to create something even more inspiring because it is your own.”

-Joseph Staten

PLAYER: Troy / ‘Venk-Ka’
If you don’t like the answer (or lack of) from the NPC you’ve been looking for, just levitate him until you get what you want!

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure April 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Campaign of the Month February 2026: Mystara

It’s a deadly world when you are a band of adventurers entering frozen caves in search of the Tree of Life. Traps, tunnels, caves, frozen snow, monsters, chambers and violent terror.  Learn how one group handles these dangers as we discuss the February 2026 Campaign of the Month, Mystara, with Game Master Tandamar.

First off, feel free to tell us about the person behind the GM screen.  Where are you from?  What do you do aside from gaming?  Alter Egos?  Life partners?  Family?  Where can we interact with you on the internet?   

Not much to tell, I live in Idaho but have lived many places over the years, I play bass guitar aside from gaming.

Tell us a bit about Mystara, the world where your player characters live out their lives, carving out their story.  It seems quite large, and also seems to incorporate many regions.  Do the party travel much, or do they stick to certain regions.

We use the original Gazetteers for Mystara, mostly by the book but I have some of my own lore added.

Your campaign is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.  What version are you using and what guided your choice in this?

As it says on the homepage we use BECMI with a few house rules, been playing it since 83 but started playing D&D in 81.

Tell us about your players and your typical gaming sessions.  How often do you play?  Online?  Tabletop?  Who does what in any typical session?

I am a forever DM, we play every Sunday and have for around 10 years, players come and go but we have a few who have been there from the beginning.  We use Discord for voice and Tabletop Simulator for visual.

There seem to be quite a few Non Player Characters set up in the campaign, and many of these seem to be dead.  Is your campaign particularly dangerous, or are there any other reasons?

BECMI is deadly as written, some are players who had to leave the game.  Others are just dead PCs.  I keep them on there as a record of our past.

Your campaign has many maps in the Maps section – more than can be found on most Obsidian Portal sites.  How important are these to your campaign?

Maps are important to any campaign.

Who writes the adventure logs for your campaign, and how important are they to the flow of the campaign?  The more recent ones have a nice image detailing treasure gained?  Whose idea was this?  Do you aim to continue the trend?

I started writing the logs but one of our players has taken that role.  Yes, we intend to keep the logs going as they are.

You have chosen to use the Items section in your campaign and yet only have a few items listed so far.  Do you intend to expand on this.  How useful do you feel it is for your players.

Yes, we will add more items as we see fit.  The player writing the current logs does these as well.  We have only just started using it so its usefulness has yet to be determined.

Have you or your players had any favourite moments in the campaign so far?  What have been the most exciting encounters, discoveries, etc.?

“Leading Imperial Legions in battle” Matt

“Yeah, when we were in Castle Mistimere and got stuck with no way out, until we ran into Bargle where we thought we had him.”  Bryan

One of my players PC was bitten in half by a young black dragon, we still talk about it.

How far in advance do you plan your campaign?  Is it a basic outline or are events all well defined?  Without giving the game away to your players, are there any future events you are particularly looking forward to?  You can be as cryptic as you need to be.

I have things outlined but I didn’t go too detailed.  The current game is on the brink of a war with the players playing a role in how it will end.

Okay, as a last question, we always ask for the GM’s “pearls of wisdom”.  What GM insights can you offer the community this month?

I don’t give advice usually, but everyone has their own idea on how to run a game, but the best I can give is what I have learned from the 45+ years of playing, don’t plant too far ahead, player will always find ways to screw up your plans, not intentionally, but you will find they will have ideas you as a DM never thought of.  Learn to improvise ana always have a plan B and C.

Thank you to the community for making this campaign of the month possible! That’s all for now, join us on our next adventure March 1st, and don’t forget to nominate your favorite campaigns for our next Campaign of the Month!

Update Post – January 20, 2026

Hail, Portal People!

The season clock has chimed again, so it’s time for another reckoning. See below for all of the new features and bug fixes that were added to OP since the previous Update Post.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, feel free to post them in the Community Forums, or email support directly at [email protected].