Dungeons & Dragons’ 5th edition rules revision is out in the wild right now, and while lots of folks are peeved that their favorite subclass didn’t make the cut, by and large the upgrade is exceptional. But while the powers that be at Wizards of the Coast have been grinding away at refinements to the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the cavalcade of official campaign content has come to a… let’s call it a lengthy pause. So rather than create your own world from scratch, why not borrow one from Chris Metzen, co-creator of World of Warcraft? It’s a fine way to make a nod to the historic MMO’s 20th anniversary.
Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent, revealed first here on Polygon in 2021, is a gritty little thing that came to life in Metzen’s childhood basement in the 1980s. One of my favorite parts of the setting is the prominence of bards, who even get their own Burning Man-style festival to rock out at. But the focus of the game is on the magic system, which is powered by mystical tattoos.
“The Auroboros itself […] is like a primordial force of creation,” Metzen told me at the time. “The more you use it, the more you step into this power that is apart from your actual class abilities. It starts to cause madness and death. It’s like the classic rock star thing — that Jim Morrison overdrive.”
While Metzen’s publishing company, Warchief Gaming, appears to have paused activity (the website isn’t working, so we’ve reached out to them to see what’s up), it appears that the product line’s first few items are still up for sale on Amazon. If it sounds interesting, you’ll want to snag Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent – Worldbook: Lawbrand, the massive setting book that explains it all start-to-finish. There’s also a thematic novel, titled Auroboros: Under the Sun, with Metzen himself as one of the narrators.
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