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!
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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.
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.
Much goes on in a smuggler-infested village, day and night. The character of these events, however, are often different depending on the time of day. In particular, in human villages nefarious, dark deeds tend to occur at night. Use these lists, to add depth and flavour to the smugglers’ villages in YOUR campaign.
Read MoreTaprooms are not dull, bland places devoid of interesting features. Sometimes, the inn keep decorates the room with rare, esoteric or just downright odd items while other times prior events leave their mark on the area.
Read MoreRed dragon hoards can be immense in scope and value. Among the treasures and trinkets, however, most dragons have also accumulated objects that might not fall under the traditional heading of treasure, but which are interesting and flavoursome none-the-less.
Read MoreA thriving village is the last thing a traveller expects to find on a cracked and blasted volcanic plain belching lava and poisonous gases. However, Vulcanbridge defies expectations and offers a haven for wayward souls and desperate travellers alike. Primarily home to dwarven and gnomish engineers and miners, the village also attracts adventurers and greedy merchants keen to turn a healthy profit. The village relies on trading valuable metals and gemstones harvested from its surrounds for necessities, and this influx of wealth has also attracted the wrong kind of attention. Vulcanbridge seems like a tempting target to raiders who see an isolated village endowed with treasure. This threat adds to the dangers posed by the environment itself and the fiery creatures dwelling in the magmatic caverns beneath the plain. Then there are the dark rumours the deep-dwelling owner of all the treasure harvested by the villagers has awoken and intends to take it all back...
Read MoreMagic items should be wondrous objects, but these days they often seem to be relegated to nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold like any other (expensive) item. That’s not right, and an evocative, flavoursome description of an item can help to reestablish the the sense of mystique and excitement that should surround such items.
Read MoreMagic items should be wondrous objects, but these days they often seem to be relegated to nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold like any other (expensive) item. That’s not right, and an evocative, flavoursome description of an item can help to reestablish the the sense of mystique and excitement that should surround such items.
Read MoreA library is nothing without books. Some libraries hold but a few dozen tomes while others hold thousands. No matter the size of the library it no doubt has books on a variety of subjects.
Read MoreFrom the common wand of magic missiles to the awesomely rare and much coveted staff of the archmagi, rods, staves and wands can channel awesome power. Such items rarely appear to be nothing more than a tapered stick or quarterstaff.
Use this list, to determine the appearance of the item found by the characters.
Read MoreOn what was once the lonely crossroads of two rarely used roads sits the village of Lady Cross, a tight community of stone houses surrounded by a high stone wall. Now a popular rest stop for travellers and merchants alike, Lady Cross is known for the heady spirits distilled in the village and sold at the local inn, The Lady’s Rest. Unknown to most, it is a different type of spirit the villagers fear—a sinister secret wreathed in foul treachery and hysteria that speaks to the darkness and greedy lurking in men’s souls.
Read MoreWherever people come together to buy and sell, they also exchange news, rumours and gossip. Thus, marketplaces and common rooms are a great place for adventurers to learn more about the town, its surrounds and recent events. Not all the rumours they hear will be relevant to the party’s needs or have anything to do with their upcoming adventure. They do, however, enable a GM to create verisimilitude and depth to the party’s visit to the marketplace.
Read MoreBeggars, petty thieves and vagabonds are a feature of most settlements bigger than a borderland hamlet. Most such folk give powerful—and probably violent—adventurers a wide berth. A few, though, may approach the PCs for some—probably nefarious—reason.
Read MoreGloya’s Bridge is a village swathed in secrets. Wearing masks and veils in the streets is normal, giving a chance at unparalleled anonymity and the freedom to indulge in a variety of entertainments with minimal restrictions. Those who want a second chance flock here, in no small part because an unconventional order offers a chance for criminals to leave their pasts behind and be recognised as reformed. Yet, not everyone has the will to reform or the patience to prove it, and the work of the Merciful Order is not enough for all the foes dogging some troubled souls. The offer of a new life for anyone is an important promise to many in Gloya’s Bridge, but the richest patriarch has designs on a new, firmer order. And deep below the surface, a conspiracy threatens to dim or even extinguish this beacon of hope as it gathers the hidden secrets of dangerous and troubled people who have come here from across the region.
Read MoreA monastery is far more than the sum of its buildings. Most monasteries feature surrounding gardens, a graveyard, outbuildings and the like.
Read MoreSahuagin, the so-called sea-devils, are the bane of ships and coastal towns alike. Striking from their undersea kingdoms they raid the surface for slaves and treasure for their twisted religion or purely for the enjoyment of murder and destruction.
Read MoreLong voyages can be deathly boring, and sometimes the GM just glosses over the journey. Occasionally, pirates, sea monsters or worse intercept the ship, which relieves the boredom!
Other times, minor events of interest may punctuate the day, providing some light relief for the PCs and the GM with a way to add detail and verisimilitude to the session.
Read MoreThe ghoul is a creature of nightmare for any adventuring group. From the packs of mindless, carrion-eating undead to the ancient civilisations deep underground, screaming adulation to their sheep-headed god Orcus, all ghouls have one thing in common. An eternal, gnawing hunger that no amount flesh can ever sate.
Read MoreStanding on the fringes of a vast and noisome swamp, Thornhill is a miserable, hard place of cloying mud, grasping thorns and insular, superstitious folk. There is a little cheer to be had in Thornhill; the few visitors describing it as dull and dreary as the surrounding swamps. For all that, though, a steady trickle of adventurers visit Thornhill for the half-buried and drowned ruins of several tombs said to lie forgotten in the surrounding marshland and the villagers have friends among the nearby degenerate lizardfolk who make excellent guides in the trackless, far reaches of the swamp.
Read MoreFrom well-dressed dandies to undercity scum you never know who covets your wealth from the shadows. Whether it’s through violence, trickery, misdirection or subterfuge they know a hundred ways to liberate gold from their victim’s pockets.
Read MoreRuled over for centuries by the scheming, ambitious Lorsch family, Woodridge is little more than a backwater village standing on the eastern bounds of the Duchy of Ashlar. Standing astride an ancient, now little-used trade route the village is a poor, but seemingly peaceful place. Its folk tend their small fields, pay their lord his due and are content to be left in peace. But all is not as it seems. Spies lurk among the populace, and dark forces gather which would see Woodridge’s lord, Hilduin Lorsch, converted to their faith or dead.
Read MoreOgres are generally stupid and brutish creatures, but they desire the safety and protection of a home.
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Far below the sunlit surface lie places and things undreamt of by decent commonfolk. Some such things have never seen the light of day, while others have escaped into the Underlands to escape the hated sun.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.