Welcome to the Raging Swan Press blog. Herein you’ll find resource and advice articles to make your game better. From time to time, we’ll also post exciting Raging Swan Press news!
Check out our recent posts, many of which include free downloads, or visit the Archive to browse all our blog posts.
It’s always the perfect time to game, and we hope you can find something below that will help you have more fun with your friends!
Small roadside shrines appear in many towns and cities. They venerate important saints, local deities, or gods without a formal church in the area and are often tended by a small group of dedicated lay worshippers.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
One or more stables can be found in any settlement of note—and many of those without note.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
At Raging Swan Press, we believe that games set in a richly detailed, immersive world are better than games that are not. It should come as no surprise that we are huge fans of dungeon dressing, but what exactly is dungeon dressing, and why do we keep going on about it?
With Citadel on the Wilderlands now out in the world, our attention turns to the Late 2024 edition of Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands and the Player's Guide to Citadel on the Wilderlands!
Citadel on the Wilderlands is a flavour-rich 5e mini-campaign setting designed for low-level characters intent on wilderness exploration and dungeon delving. Designed to be easy to prepare and easy to run, Citadel on the Wilderlands is perfect for GMs who don’t have unending time to prep for the next session.
Citadel on the Wilderlands is a flavour-rich 5e mini-campaign setting designed for low-level characters intent on wilderness exploration and dungeon delving. Designed to be easy to prepare and easy to run, Citadel on the Wilderlands is perfect for GMs who don’t have unending time to prep for the next session.
Citadel on the Wilderlands is a flavour-rich 5e mini-campaign setting designed for low-level characters intent on wilderness exploration and dungeon delving. Designed to be easy to prepare and easy to run, Citadel on the Wilderlands is perfect for GMs who don’t have unending time to prep for the next session.
There are always those willing to profit from the most odious of all trades—slaving—and to grow wealthy from other people’s misery. Most of the smugglers lurking in the dismal coastal village of Coldwater are nothing more than smugglers.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreThe past rarely stays buried forever, and forgotten and forbidden things have a way of finding their way back into the light.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreOnce the last friendly place in the so-called Valley of Tears the Hall of Nuraduum is now known by a different name of far more sinister demeanour—the Cursed Refuge. Some travellers who pass through its stone door do not emerge again, while others tell terrifying stories of the nameless horrors they encounter in the enduring dark of the old dwarven fastness. Persistent rumours tell of old treasures hidden in the place, and a few old dwarves dream of reclaiming the refuge—so that at least a fragment of long-fallen Vongyth may again be held by dwarves. Will the characters dare the rumour-shrouded refuge, or will they flee the horrors that yet lurk within?
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreFor centuries, the adherents of a strange cult have harvested the skulls of learned folk and interred them in the so-called Halls of the Undying Oracles. Thus, their knowledge is safeguarded for future generations. Now an earthquake has severely damaged the Halls. Was it a natural event, divine punishment for the cult’s blasphemous works, or is something more sinister going on?
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreLost to time and battered by the foulness of its surrounds, the decrepit and mouldering Decaying Citadel of the Fated Warlock slowly sinks into the Salt Mire…
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreSakarias Venemies was a brave warrior, but something he saw on his last adventure shattered his sanity.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreThe wizened half-goblin druid Tal Nar has dwelt alone in the deep, trackless woods for decades. An outcast from his tribe, he has led a lonely life. With only the nameless, atavistic spirits of the primal forest, roving packs of wolves and the occasional bear for company Tal has sunk deep into insanity’s black pit.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Read MoreHidden for long years and wreathed in legendry, the Hidden Redoubt of Gilak Urser ever looms large in treasure-seeker’s dreams. Variously described as a pirate or adventurer in myths and folklore, Gilak Urser is universally thought to have been fabulously wealthy. His hidden lair—and his treasure hoard—has never been found…until now…
Read MoreAn otherworldly evil festers in the bowels of the Lost Eyrie of the Demon King. And now that evil has attracted a powerful servant—a servant wreaking death and destruction on the surrounding countryside and villages. The local villagers need adventurers to eradicate this terrible threat, but will the heroes realise that something even worse lurks in the eternal dark of the Lost Eyrie of the Demon King?
Read MoreFor centuries, the adherents of a strange cult have harvested the skulls of learned folk and interred them in the so-called Halls of the Undying Oracles. Thus, their knowledge is safeguarded for future generations. Now an earthquake has severely damaged the Halls. Was it a natural event, divine punishment for the cult’s blasphemous works, or is something more sinister going on?
Read MoreFor decades, the Erdukr dwarves have been a dwindling folk. But now, all contact with their ancient hold has ceased. What doom has befallen the dwarves? Did they dig too deep, did their ancient enemies, the Orcs of the Flayed Skull, finally triumph, or did some other doom befall them? Whatever the cause of their fall, the answer lies in the Blasted Donjon of the Erdukr Dwarves!
Read MoreAdventurers are drawn to borderland towns like flies to dung. Opportunities for wealth and glory lurk in borderlands and such towns are welcome places to rest, recuperate and resupply.
Read MoreThe House of Yspher sits perched upon a lonely hilltop south of Dunstone. It can be reached only by climbing a narrow, bramble-choked path snaking its way up along the hill’s rugged flanks. Stubborn thickets of holly and hawthorn surround the old manor, and vines of pale ivy crawl across its crumbling face like veins and exposed muscles. Only the sullen, eye-like windows are spared, behind which lurks an utter blackness, even on the brightest day.
Read MoreLegends tell of Blackshard Hold—a dwarven redoubt nested far to the south, in the all but impenetrable Forest of Gray Spires. The dwarves of clan Kildare built the hold around a vast monolith of glimmering black onyx
Read MoreThe most ferocious of all the chromatic dragons, red dragons are terrifying enemies. Their lairs are unique places full of danger.
You can download this material for free as a .pdf and .txt file by hitting the button at the bottom of this post.
Read MoreWoodlands are ripe locales for adventure. Under their boughs old ruins moulder, bandits lair and evil humanoids plot their next raids. Almost every adventurer will one day sally forth into a woodland in search of gold and glory.
You can download this material for free as a .pdf and .txt file by hitting the button at the bottom of this post.
Read MoreDungeon Backdrop: Pit of Unquiet Souls comes in separate releases designed for the fifth edition of the world’s most popular Roleplaying Game involving dungeons and/or dragons, Pathfinder First Edition and Old-School Rules (OSR).
Read MoreSaare’s Pit has another, more lurid, name—and for good reason. The Pit of Unquiet Souls squats at the centre of a nest of macabre tales of madness, horror and death. It is said, those who spend too much time in the abandoned mine often go mad or disappear entirely, and old miners’ tales tell of the pit’s very rocks whispering horrible secrets to those toiling in its bowels. Still, there are those who think treasure yet lurks in the mine and will brave its terrors to retrieve them.
Read MoreStanding on Selka Street, this rowdy inn is a favoured haunt of adventurers, mercenaries and other rough and ready sorts. Run by the grizzled ex-mercenary Rister Osma the place offers cheap, no-frills food, drink and accommodation.
Read MoreLurking twixt the crag-jagged hills south of Dunstone sit the ruined remains of an old dwarven fortress-temple. Rusted helms and broken blades jut from the surrounding soil like cast-off husks of iron grain, betraying the area’s violent history.
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It’s no secret that at Raging Swan Press, we are big fans of dressed dungeons. A dressed dungeon feels more real than an undressed dungeon. A dressed dungeon engages your players’ imaginations, promotes creative play and helps them immerse themselves in the adventure.