The most exciting thing about this setting, for me (and this is saying a lot because the entire setting is exciting in every way), is that the books seem to work as a kind of How-To on running a long-term sandbox campaign, and creating a rich, vibrant setting.

The beauty of random charts is not just the emergent gameplay (which is so fun) but even the DM is surprised and delighted by the roll.

What sells me is the thought of a campaign with so much green space

Just thought of something re: the triple alliance. It was an alliance of fighting-men, magic-users, and clerics-the first three classes in 0D&D.

XP for treasure is awesome.

Ooooh! p. 380s “Designing Dungeons”!

Oh snap! It's here, the big one!

Good god. Every time I see it I think, "Am I just making a lesser Dolmenwood?". It's so good. Lots here to steal from. I'm planning on my Frostmire campaign being a hexcrawl with a megedungeon beneath it. Locations on the hexmap revealing different entrances to the dungeon below.

There are a pair of books, called, “The Time-Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England” and “The Time-Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England”, that I think are useful for someone building a Medieval/Renaissance themed world. The advice there about making the Pluritine Church oppressively strict is more indicative of Elizabethan England than of Medieval England, based what those two books describe.

That picture on page 9 reminds me of the more cartoony picture on p. 21 of the OSE Rules Tome.

Your the best Jon, thats for all you for the community!

The Ambassador is straight out of Jonathan Strange - love it

Been waiting for this!

Very much looking forward to reading this particular book. An abundance of fascinating GM information.

Thank you for these videos. It seems like Gavin is about to set the golden standard for RPG releases, honestly. Everything is well laid-out and eminently game:able. P.S. If there are any other RPG products that excite you, I'm sure we'd all enjoy more content in this "Deep dive" vein.

i've never been so enthralled by a setting before, thanks for the coverage Jon!

The current version of this book has a pronunciation guide in the appendices. I appreciate that.

Gavin has the gift of layout design. All the ose is well organised.

I just made my pledge. It’s my birthday present to me! I’m so happy! Thank you, Jon!

Was waiting for this deep dive :) Very enticing world!

Me and my buddy both backed this. Cannot wait to tag-team this!

I was wondering where the dwarves were. You can play a dwarf, but you would be a total outsider. My guess had been that dwarves weren’t included because they were more “continental” fey beings, while fairy in the British Isles were more elves and brownies and leprechauns and such.

These books have kept getting better and better, everything is so cohesive and evocative - I just want to dive straight into the pages and absorb everything. Thank you for such extensive coverage, I've been thoroughly taken!

Ooh! DM henceforth means Dolmen Master! Yeah, no need pushing me over this particular edge. That was accomplished with the Wormskins way back when. But i really enjoy and appreciate these unique and well structured deep dives spiced with your enthusiasm. I'm really really looking forward to seeing your players make a comeback. The campaign was so much fun to watch.

I have only watched the first 20 minutes of the video but I'm already in love with this setting

God I can't wait to give this setting a whirl! I don't know why, but ever since seeing him in the preview I've been obsessed with doing a campaign involving Malbleat and the other Longhorns. The illustrations for the Key NPCs in general are absolutely phenomenal but Malbleat by far has my favorite look

Thanks for doing these videos. These books clearly show all the love and care that was put into their creation. I am a proud backer of the Kickstarter now, very excited about this.

Thank you so much for all these hours of excellent deep-diving into Dolmenwood. Your effort is highly appreciated!

I was hesitating to buy the three books because it would be to steal ideas and it seemed to me too much material and too “concrete”. This last video convinced me of them being a perfect How-to for my own stuff, and flexible enough to mix. Thanks!

Thanks for these previews and your views on this stuff. I think you and your players do the best example of Dolmenwood play, with no compromise on the danger so you can really get that sense of dread and fear I remember feeling the first time I played Tomb of Horrors in 1982. I just wish it had more than 22 episodes!!!...Also, I love that you you commented so favorably on the Gygax 1979 DMG. I see a lot of reviews by people who do not understand the context in which that book was written and complain about the lack of usable rules and bad organization. What they lack, in my view, is a perspective of less rules-crunchy pre-video game D&D that seemed to me to be oriented toward answering the question, "How do I make a game that allows the DM & players to create the kind of story in twentieth century fantasy lit in Appendix N." The first DMG does not have all the answers, but it definitely gives the creative DM the ability to become a "master of the rules" as Gygax called it in another one of his books (i.e., someone who could generate mechanics & rules as needed to accomplish the goal stated above for any particular campaign or adventure, rather than needing everything handed to them). I think that this literature-centered approach vs. a rules-centered approach is a huge culture shock for many WoTC-only 3-5e D&D players. Above all, I hope Dolmenwood popularizes that fantasy-lit-based game. Ironically, it seems really the only way D&D can move forward because the traditional D&D lore has become its own set of standardized mythos that actually limit options more and more to Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, and other well-trodden paths that I do not care to look at any more. In fact, I think by giving his own "Inspirational Reading" section, Gavin Norman has already shown that it is important to actually read fantasy lit to be a good Old School D&D player, and esp. a good DM!!...Along with that lore, love the magic items section so no one knows what they are getting!!! The next innovation in D&D games is to hide the spells from players (by not including all the rules and descriptions in the Player's Book so all the magic is revealed to the players before they even start exploring) and show DMs how to invent new spells that players might find and learn!!!! This magic items section is a good step in that direction.

Thank you Jon for posting these. I’m proud to have backed the Dolmenwood campaign. The PDF is glorious! Gavin/Necrotic Gnome really is on a whole new level when it comes to the OSR movement. Out of all the campaign settings throughout TTRPG history (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, etc.), I think Dolmenwood might be my favorite, which is a bold statement. On another note, you have the most enjoyable RPG channel on KZfaq! Your games and players are truly special and engaging. Thank you! 🤘⚔️🔥

So tempted to run a campaign where the hero’s are Drune battling to keep the Dolems active against “something” (the big secret) trying to bring back the Cold Prince

Loved this series. I would have been more than happy to watch you go through all 200 hexes.

The campaign book is like a best practices recipe book for Old School Refereeing. Amazing. Can't wait to get my copy

Thanks for this walkthrough as well. Absolutely FIENDING I need dolmenwood at my table yesterday!

Thanks for the deep dive. Really enjoyed it, hyped like you couldn't believe. Gavin is clearly a master of creativity and layout - imagine being in the industry and having to compete with this! At the same time, if everyone with current products in the works isn't reassessing their layout to be as good as this, they're dinosaurs, soon for extinction

This is my third time watching through this because I'm so hungry for more Dolmenwood!

These previews are great. Was your AP that convinced me to go dolmanwood as my first OSR game since the 90s. Thanks DM Jon.

I've only just learned about Dolmenwood over the past few days and I've already contributed to the Kickstarter. I cannot wait to try this out. I've never run, or even played, an old school style game for any real length of time, but Dolmenwood looks like it will make things so easy with the breadth and depth of information in these books. Side note - I've mostly used digital tools since 5e came out, but I can't wait to have these physical books and flip through the pages.

I'm a backer, I was already sold on it, and now I'm super hyped to get to take a look at the books.

Nice thing about the fairy gates they can take the PCs anywhere. At some point I would like to play the D series as it connects to my previous campaign and the players previous PCs. So a fairy gate that leads to the underdark and the drow and a faerie lady called the nightmare queen (lolth). Good design mr necrotic gnome as your setting fires the imagination.

I've just invested in OSE and was not going to bother with Dolmenwood, until now. Really nice coverage Jon, thanks! Until it's released, I shall be keeping occupied with OSE with Greg Gillespies The Barrowmaze!

Definitely already converted, but I nevertheless really enjoyed this whole Dolmenwood review series - totally agree with all the praise & thank you for your infectious enthusiasm!

Your three deep dive videos were awesome. Super excited for Dolmenwood now

34:56 headless stag lord s a reference to the anime Princess Mononoke.

Thanks for the great content, your dolmenwood campaign is truly an inspiration! Can't wait to get my hands on the books.

I was already a fan of OSE and when I saw this was coming to Kickstarter, I knew I had to get it. As soon as the campaign launched I found your channel in the video section and have been making my way through the Dolmenwood campaign. Currently on episode 13. Thanks for doing these deep dives. Your excitement just continues to build my excitement. Cannot wait to get this product in hand and start playing!

The more I see the more I think I can ditch most of the houserules I've been using to modify OSE. For example the awarding xp part (even just Gavin's notes). I've used simplified xp (1-3 xp per category, 10 xp to second level etc) with xp given for exploration etc. But I've been drawn more and more to xp RAW as in Dolmenwood. What I'm seeing more might seal that deal. I think the only downside to Dolmenwood is not wanting to touch any other games and settings 😅 Oh, and if there will be carousing tables that's just a bar of chocolate on top of the cherries on top of everything in the books.

I'm thinking of telling my players, "your ultimate goal is to one day explore every hex in Dolmenwood." And then don't tell them anything else.

Hey Jon did you get a more finished version of this from Gavin himself? I don't have one from late July with a treasure section. I would desperately love that so that I could work on my dungeons LOL. Thank you so much for covering this, and getting my mind back in Dolmenwood, as my health prevented me from continuing GMing a game in Dolmenwood that I and my players had loved.

My god the hyperlinked hex map 🤯

One element that I will be adding -- because it seems, at this stage, it is not mentioned -- is the element of income disparity. The wide gulf between rich and poor, wealth and poverty, opulence and deprivation, the privileged and the downtrodden. To me, that would add such an amazing aspect of realism to the setting & make the game so much more grounded in the desperation of the common folk. This is how it was in our own history, after all (and still is in many ways). In our own middle ages, a person would live their whole lives never seeing a gold coin. A single silver piece was a significant treasure. I have seen in the play-throughs that some garlic costs 5 gp... I won't be taking that approach. A large trove of gold would be -- at least for the adventurers of commoner background -- the equivalent & rarity of a magical sword or a staff. Pulling oneself out of the ranks of the unwashed masses of the poor can be an early goal of the story as it unfolds. Not the main goal, of course, but the fantastical will seem more immersive & believable if the setting has a foundation of realism, in my opinion. So I think I will need to modify the existing mechanic of currency.

If only my favorite tsr settings were made functional like this. So excited for this! Now need to forget about it so the next year goes by quicker. Thank you for what you do Jon.

If only Avaricios could get his hand on some knobbled mandrake...

The movie that Jon hints is alluded to by The Goblin King is “Back to the Future”, of course.

Very interested in this book in particular for the straightforward, streamlined hexcrawl/survival mechanics. I really want to make a big ol hex map with a point of interest in every single hex

I love everything about this Campaign setting. I started out just wanting to buy it because there is a lot of flavor and story and ideas that I wanted to steal for my in the works homebrew 5e campaign, but it became more and more... that honestly, I think I'll just convince my friends to try a new system lol. One thing I was wondering, is there or will there be some sort of pronounciation guide or a literal how to pronounce kind of spelling brackets behind certain words? That would definitely be helpful to me in using the book on the fly.

This whole campaign looks simply amazing, I’m going to try and give it a go playing solo using Mythic 2e as my GM. I’ve missed the kickstarter, but apparently there’ll be a late pledge opening in the next week or so… do you know if we’ll get the pdf copies of the books next month or will we have to wait until March next year? Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank you for some absolutely brilliant KZfaq content, Jon. Just outstanding work in the OSE and Dolmenwood space.

It would be really cool to hear which modules people have incorporated in their Dolmenwood campaigns. And how they did the fitting. I wonder if anyone knows about such discussion or listing? I've used a few, mostly Gavin's.

Hi, thanks for this video and the Winters Daughter actual play ones too, amazing stuff! I have 'The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford' and love your idea of blending it into Dolmenwood. You say the NPCs became Breggles , do you mean ALL the human town NPCs ? I guess the dead dwarves remained as dwarves?! Do you have a few more details of other changes? many thanks

Another fantastic deep dive, Jon! Great work! I'm currently about halfway through your Dolmenwood campaign here on KZfaq, before jumping into Arden Vul (which seems about twice as long and still going?). Without spoiling anything, are you approaching the end of the Arden Vul campaign, and if so, will another Dolmenwood campaign (now with its own ruleset as opposed to the OSE ruleset) be up next or something else?

I think you’ve convinced me to break my rule against running games before I receive a physical copy of the book. I cannot wait to get my hands on the pdfs. I’m excited to read through the sections at the back, as I find referee advice to be immediately helpful regardless of what you’re running. Thanks for sharing the conversion of Black Wyrm, it’s on my short list of adventures to run 🤙 Also, I’m still using your exploration experience tool, and I’m curious to see what Gavin comes up with in a print format. It’s been a great source of advancement for my group.

Thanks for the awesome run-down on all the Dolmenwood books. Any plans to record another Dolmenwood campaign after the first btw?

Aviceros the left hand of licion needs to find a mandrake somehow in Arden Vul either that or a regenerator in the space ships.

I so badly want to run this campaign, but I would love to create a character to play as well! Do you think playing a dm run character to go with the party would negatively impact the game?

Hey Jon! I watched these videos a week ago, and now I'm 10 episodes into your Dolmenwood play, which is saying something, cause I kinda hate rpg APs... So, great work! Anyway, I backed the kickstarter, and am planning to run 2 different game groups on this. I am curious, though, how much info you actually let the players see. Did you give them the players book, and just say "go hog wild," or did you give them the bare bones of what they needed and planned to fill in the rest as you all played? In your AP, there are a few times when I've not been 100% sure how much information the players had ahead of time. Thanks for the videos, really love all your playstyles. (And especially Argus' CON 5.)

The maps remind me of the ones on the inside covers of the “Chronicles of Prydain”

What’s the best way to play this campaign online? Is the rule set on Foundry? Or can it be played in some other way?

1:44:11 I knew