Dimgaard Campaign Guide
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Version 3.22
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Dimgaard Campaign Guide
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Dimgaard Map
Contents
Copyright 2015 Dan Hass Endeavors
® Referenced trademark of Wizards of the Coast
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Dimgaard Map .................................................. 1
DIMGAARD PHILOSOPHY .................................. 3
OVERVIEW ........................................................ 3
Low Magic and Low Wealth .......................... 4
Religion ......................................................... 4
Race Relations ............................................... 4
Tests of Morals ............................................. 4
Adaptable ..................................................... 4
I. PLAYER CHARACTERS ..................................... 5
Races ............................................................. 5
Humans ..................................................... 5
Dwarves .................................................... 6
Elves .......................................................... 6
Uncommon Races ....................................... 6
Additional Race Options............................ 7
Classes .......................................................... 8
Backgrounds ................................................. 8
Equipment .................................................. 12
Feats ........................................................... 12
II. ADVENTURING IN DIMGAARD .................... 14
Recommended Rule Variations ................... 14
Downtime Activities .................................... 14
Languages ................................................... 19
Religion and the One True Faith ................. 19
The Inquisition ........................................ 21
Spellcasting ................................................. 22
New Spells................................................... 22
Economics/Politics ...................................... 23
Treasure ...................................................... 24
New Magic Items ........................................ 24
Diseases and Traps ...................................... 25
Justice ......................................................... 25
History of Dimgaard .................................... 26
A Brief History of the Red Blades ................ 28
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Dimgaard Campaign Guide
Credits
Designer
Editor
Cover Art
Dan Hass
Jeremy Esch
Fernando Olmedo (his work)
Joining the Community
You can participate in the Dimgaard
community by signing up at the patreon
project:
https://www.patreon.com/Dimgaard
Copyright 2015 Dan Hass Endeavors
® Referenced trademark of Wizards of the Coast
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Dimgaard Campaign Guide
DIMGAARD
PHILOSOPHY
make Dimgaard your own and I hope you
enjoy the journey!
-Dan Hass
OVERVIEW
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Dimgaard occupies an area 800 miles East
to West x 1000 miles North to South;
roughly half the size of the continental U.S.
It has natural barriers to the east (the
Dragon Teeth mountains), south (the
Farwood), and west (the ocean). There is a
larger continent and world that is hinted at.
For example, the Tofarian Empire is a
Mongol themed empire that occupies the
northeast and extends beyond the currently
explored map. The history also mentions
human migrations coming through the
Dragon's Teeth but, no one has ever
explored beyond the Dragon's Teeth.
Finally, the dragon's exodus in ancient
Dimgaard history implies that they relocated
somewhere in the world.
One original intention of Dimgaard was
that other settings could be placed
elsewhere in the world and because of the
natural barriers, it wouldn't impact
Dimgaard. For adventures that were
intimately associated with a different setting
there would have a means for PCs to get to
those settings and back to Dimgaard.
Dimgaard has elements of both a low
fantasy campaign and a high fantasy
campaign with mechanics designed for 5th
edition but with a setting suitable for any
rules system. It provides a wide and flexible
variety of player and adventure options.
The Dimgaard Campaign makes use of
the Player’s Handbook (PHB), Dungeon
Master’s Guide (DMG), Monster Manual
(MM), Volo’s Guide to Monsters (VGM). The
adventures and supplements also make
wide use the free Unearthed Arcana online
articles. Dimgaard adventures give the DM
the tools to challenge virtually any
reasonable player character options. The
DM can decide what range to include, but
as a guideline, the DM should consider
posting in the reddit's Unearthed Arcana
with 20+ upvotes and options on DM's Guild
with at least 10 reviews and 3.5+ stars.
Generally, Dimgaard's large patterns are
inspired by, and draw from, actual human
history with an emphasis on the exploration
of racial and religious tensions, political
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While it isn’t as old as chess, from 35+years
of the D&D® experience we can draw some
conclusions. Players approach the game in
many different ways. Many are simply
happy to sit around a table and roll some
dice in a casual environment. Others revel
in creating gods of war capable of
“breaking” any combat encounter. Others
thrill in nearly total immersion – complete
with costumes, assumed voices, and
accents. There are even varying stances on
evil player characters.
Dimgaard strives to provide a setting
where all these options are welcomed presuming a willing DM and the time to
explore them.
With that said, I have found that the best
sessions are those where the players and
DM collaboratively build an epic story implying several things:
First, the PCs are the heroes. The worst
sessions are those where the DM imposes
his story on the players. The DM should
present the challenges and then judge. The
story should be the story of the heroes.
Second, for a story to be epic, the PCs
need to face obstacles rising to the level of
an epic challenge. This will vary by level,
but there is no epic story if the PCs simply
walk through an adventure. Frodo did a lot
of hiding on his way to Mordor!
Finally, an epic is only an epic if there is
the ever-present and real concern that the
heroes may fail. Without the sincere
possibility of failure, Lord of the Rings would
just be a story about exploration. And it
follows that the heroes are going to fail at
times. Boromir is killed by the orcs, Gandalf
is killed by the balrog and captured at
Isengard, and only one of the Argonauts
makes it home alive.
Similarly there should be PCs who are
killed from time to time if the game is being
run correctly.
Much that I've written about Dimgaard is
deliberately defined just enough to provide a
framework. I hope that players and DMs will
tailor it for their own needs. This guide isn't
carved in stone – it’s more like "this is the
way Dan runs his version of Dimgaard" so
Copyright 2015 Dan Hass Endeavors
® Referenced trademark of Wizards of the Coast
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Dimgaard Campaign Guide
machinations, and moral ambiguity. But,
elements of high fantasy are also present
with adventurers battling fierce spellcasters,
marauding undead, and vicious humanoids.
Islam. People at all levels are extremely
dedicated to the One True Faith (OTF).
They are indoctrinated from birth that is their
only hope to have an afterlife that is not the
persistent despair of their current life.
Similarly, any supernatural phenomena that
aren't explained as benign by the OTF is
considered a horror to almost everyone.
Volo’s but No SCAG?
While the Sword Coast Adventurer’s
Guide is an “official” release, it is focused
very narrowly on the Sword Coast of the
Forgotten Realms. It would take a great
deal of campaign adjustment to
accommodate it in its entirety. However,
Volo’s Guide to Monsters is a
compendium of material that is (mostly)
not campaign specific. To that end VGM’s
content is much more easily adapted into
the Dimgaard campaign.
Other qualities of a Dimgaard campaign
include the following:
Race Relations
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Dimgaard is a low-wealth and low-magic
campaign setting. A first level character’s
starting money (for most classes and
backgrounds) puts him well into the upper
middle class of most Dimgaard
communities. Players should expect their
characters to be mostly using their inherent
abilities along with mundane equipment
rather than expecting to come across magic
items. The minimum level to craft even
common magic items is 3rd level. And there
are not a lot of 3rd level casters around.
Compound that with the Inquisition's
intolerance of spellcasters, and even
common magic items are hard to come by
compared to other campaigns. Acquiring a
single magic item is often the focus of an
entire adventure arc.
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Low Magic and Low Wealth
Religion
Dimgaard draws heavily upon the cultures
of Dark Ages Europe and Pre-Columbian
Meso-America. These were extremely
superstitious people who were strongly
influenced by their religion.
Imagine the reaction if a half-orc walked
into a Dark Ages village? That is
comparable to the way the humans in
Dimgaard will react.
Further, the One True Faith is patterned
on elements of medieval Christianity and
Many settings tend to display a high level of
interracial harmony. Dimgaard does not.
While it may accommodate a wide variety of
races, the setting is distinctly human-centric.
Every community is highly xenophobic.
Dimgaard recognizes that the history of
civilization is in large part the struggle for
supremacy by various races, religions, and
commercial enterprises. With very few
exceptions, the races do not live in
cosmopolitan harmony. Races form an
organizing principle that allow similar
creatures to form groups and then compete
for limited resources with other groups.
Tests of Morals
Almost no one and no organization is pure
of thought and deed. All have motivations
and goals that they pursue, and their tactics
often involve rationalizing bad acts to
achieve a greater goal. Almost every
adventure uses this in some form to test the
PCs’ morals. Slavery, drug addiction, and
ransoms are part and parcel of a Dimgaard.
Adaptable
Mechanically, Dimgaard adventures are
designed so that a DM can scale
encounters to test the strongest PC combat
builds, or tame things down for the more
casual parties. Any DM can adapt an
adventure to fit their players abilities but the
Dimgaard adventures have made this even
easier with optional abilities added to many
foes that can be used or not used to quickly
adjust an adventure or just a single
encounter. The published adventures have
a focus on rewarding good roleplaying by
providing positive and alternative
consequences for parties that take time to
explore non-combat options.
Copyright 2015 Dan Hass Endeavors
® Referenced trademark of Wizards of the Coast
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Dimgaard Campaign Guide
I. PLAYER CHARACTERS
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Races
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A character may be of any race allowed in
the PHB, DMG, UA1 – UA9, and EE. There
are four human subraces: Tlingets,
Cheynas, Teulons, and Tofarians. Most
areas will have a dominant human subrace,
or perhaps two competing human races.
Other human sub-races, dwarves, and
halflings will be considered second class
citizens and subjected to degradations and
harassment.
Other races will be persecuted outright. If
a player chooses a more exotic race, they
should expect to have to do a lot of
disguising, persuading, intimidating, and
fighting around NPCs.
This leads to a high degree of xenophobia
reflective of actual human history. It also
provides a nice launching pad for many
adventures, and challenging roleplaying
hooks for player characters.
Humans
Tlingets (about 15% of the human
population) are clannish. They establish
small, communal settlements where they
find resources to support themselves by
fishing (preferred), hunting, or gathering.
They rarely cultivate crops. Their industry
is usually restricted to whatever tools they
have readily available to support
themselves. Very productive settlements will
augment their existence by trading the
excess they acquire - furs, for example with neighboring communities of other
races. They rarely enter into a feudal
system, and resist vassalage to the point of
armed resistance. If resistance is
unsuccessful, they will almost always either
relocate the settlement or dissolve it into
nearby Tlinget settlements.
Cheynas (about 25% of the human
population) are tribal hunter-gatherers.
These are patterned after the Native
American plains tribes. But the progression
of civilization in Dimgaard has forced many
of these groups to abandon following large
herd animals and establish permanent
settlements.
Within the tribes they are organized by
clans. They generally only establish
temporary settlements to gain access to
wandering herds or a seasonal wild
vegetable/fruit source. Some Cheynans
have adopted the Teulon feudal model and
established permanent fiefs, but these are
rare, and often tied to a significant Cheynan
location like a burial ground. Though
virtually every tribe nominally professes the
One True Faith, they almost all still follow
the tenets of various pagan gods as well. As
their hunting grounds have been put under
pressure by the permanent settlements of
the Teulons, raiding has slowly become an
integral part of their culture.
Teulons are the plurality (about 45%) of
the human population. Though they arrived
after the Tlingets and Cheynas, the Teulons
dominate large swaths of Dimgaard. They
are ambitious city builders (well village and
town builders, mostly :). Most Teulon
civilization is feudal in nature with
oftentimes complex vassal relationships.
Tofarians (about 15% of the human
population) hold lordship over the
northeastern portion of Dimgaard. Tofarian
culture is centered on the belief that
Tofarians are the master race (even among
humans). While they follow a feudal system,
Tofarians would never become a vassal of a
non-Tofarian; to do so would be an open
invitation for invasion by neighboring
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A PC may be of any race or class listed in
the PHB, the DMG, the UA (excluding
Awakened Mystic (UA6) and Ranger variant
(UA7)), and EE. Additional class and race
options can also be found in this guide. New
PCs should use a 27 point buy for their
ability scores, and receive maximum
starting hit points and money. Alternatively,
PCs may agree to generate an array of 6
stats using the 4d6 method that all the new
characters will use for ability scores. This
works best when characters are created
together and when it is used consistently
with each newly created character. The DM
should attempt to integrate a new PC's
background into the area the PC starts play
in.
If you want to try out the Dimgaard
campaign, there are numerous adventures
set in Dimgaard available (several free) on
drivethrurpg.com:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/78
79/Dan-Hass-Endeavors:
Copyright 2015 Dan Hass Endeavors
® Referenced trademark of Wizards of the Coast
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Dimgaard Campaign Guide
Tofarian powers who would view it as a sign
of weakness. The Tofarian Empire
professes to follow the One True Faith, and
their belief system is as unforgiving of the
use of magic and the mistreatment of nonhumans as the other human races.
advanced elf communities. The Dreadwild
elves embrace a more primitive lifestyle
closer to a “natural state” than other elven
communities. They adorn themselves with
trophies from hunts (skins, horns, feathers),
and have tattoos generally associated with
“lesser” races (like orcs and hobgoblins).
While elves of all ilk maintain their isolation
from non-elves, the Dreadwild elves are
isolationists even toward other elven
communities. They prefer to accommodate
short lived interlopers in the expectation that
they will die out quickly (by elven
standards). And as long as the intruders
don’t appear to be a long term threat, the
elves simply enforce an isolation.
Dwarves
Dwarves can be found throughout
Dimgaard. Some secretly maintain pagan
religions to the dwarven pantheon, but most
are followers of the OTF viewing the various
members of the dwarven pantheon as
merely intercessors for dwarves. Dwarves
who dwell among humans are usually
considered second class citizens; even
when they are key members of the local
economy. Since pride is such a prominent
dwarven trait, dwarves tend to form their
own communities, near human settlements
where they can form trading relationships
(usually based around dwarven smithing).
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Elves do not dwell with other races. They
form hidden communities in forested areas.
While some elven communities simply close
themselves off and have nothing to do with
non-elves, most develop a network of
contacts and spies to gather intelligence on
the neighboring communities as a
precaution against being surprised by the
actions of their neighbors. Elves know that
the key to their survival is keeping their
communities’ locations secret. If there is any
danger that a community's location could
become known to entities hostile to their
interests or safety , the elves are known to
take ruthless actions to maintain their
secrets. Elves view every race with a
lifespan less than 200 years as a lesser
race. To elves it is impossible to make
reasonable decisions when one is facing
such a short existence; one simply doesn't
have the time investment required to make
the long-term decisions that are often
necessary.
The Dreadwilds is a dense, daunting
jungle. There are no established
communities for many miles around it. Like
many isolated areas it has a sinister
reputation. Those who have entered and
returned tell of hostile creatures (including
elves) and deadly natural hazards. The
elves there have a reputation for savagery.
They are known to adhere to primitive
traditions and participate in brutal rites that
have been long abandoned by more
What few aasimar there are live mostly
among elves who share their long lives and
affinity for magic.
Halflings have it a little better than
dwarves. There are halfling communities
spread across Dimgaard, but halflings also
don't seem to mind living among humans.
Humans still view halflings as lesser
members of society, but not to the degree
they do dwarves. Halflings are seen as
more cooperative, and generally less dour
than dwarves. While rare, halflings are able
to climb the social ladders in their host
human community. There is a halfling
homeland located between Westwald and
Dimstand.
Both dragonborn and tieflings in Dimgaard
are physically more similar to humans than
in other settings. With effort, they are
capable of disguising themselves as
humans (otherwise they would have been
killed long ago), so their features are less
“monstrous” than in other settings.
Dragonborn, in particular, are extremely
rare in Dimgaard. They have been
persecuted harshly by the Inquisition and
dragonborn (both metallic and chromatic)
generally are hostile towards the One True
Faith (especially the Inquisition).
Occasionally dragonborn will try to establish
a community but, inevitably, such efforts
become the target of crusades.
Typically, dragonborn and tieflings form
secret cells (usually with homogeneous
ancestry) within human communities. There
are various cults across these secret
communities. Most prominent are the Cult of
Tiamat (working in the interests of those
dragonborn with chromatic dragon ancestry)
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Elves
Uncommon Races
Copyright 2015 Dan Hass Endeavors
® Referenced trademark of Wizards of the Coast