The new edition of Dungeons & Dragons has dropped – at least the Player’s Handbook has – and so we are all a little distracted by that.

I haven’t been blogging much of late. I’ve continued to run my 5E Greyhawk campaign every second Friday, and my Vecna: Eve of Ruin campaign ended last Monday. Next week, we’ll use the 2024 D&D rules to go into Empire of the Ghouls, a level 1-13 campaign adventure from Kobold Press.

Meanwhile, there’s a Kickstarter ending shortly that I’ve backed – The City of Arches. And I wanted to say a couple of words about it.

It’s designed by Michael E. Shea, also known as Sly Flourish, whose work I’ve enjoyed for many years now. His adventure compilation Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Adventures remains one of my favourite adventures of all time. 

He might be a friend. (Can I be a friend if I’ve never met him in person.) I’m hardly unbiased about his work, though.

Mike is probably best known for his Lazy DM books, which help struggling DMs prepare sessions.

So, what does he do with The City of Arches? He presents a setting book with lots of material to help DMs prepare sessions. It goes with his philosophy of preparing games: Get some core ideas about what will be in the session, and then have them in a form so you can react to the unexpected turns the players will make.

Yeah, the map might be drawn, and you might know where the monsters start, but the clues and secrets the players find? Let’s have them detailed and drop them where it makes sense.

Locations and characters are written with adventure hooks because the purpose of the book is to inspire adventure ideas.

The City of Arches is one of those useful places which has gateways to other worlds, though the gateways are not always active. While it’s probably assumed you’d start a game there, it’s also a place to visit. It’s not entirely dissimilar to Sigil in that respect, though it’s designed more as a regular fantasy city than the extraplanar meeting place Sigil is. I certainly have more desire to use it than Sigil.

It’s also a book designed for taking stuff from it and then using it in your own way. Even if you don’t use the city itself. A few campaign outlines, adventure outlines, and then some more fleshed out adventures. (Maps! Monsters! Goals! Treasure!)

The book is primarily D&D-focused (5E and all its variants), but it’s fairly mechanics light.

Am I going to love it? No idea. But I did think it was worth having a look at.