Shadespire as a Campaign Setting

 

In the Age of Sigmar: Shadespire boardgame, you take a small band of powerful fighters into a massive ruined city to plunder its secrets. but you come into conflict with another warband with the same goal. 

I first had the idea to create a Shadespire-themed D&D campaign when I read about Shadespire in the Age of Sigmar Skirmish Guide, which is the same idea as the board game, but with normal Warhammer figurines. I was so captivated that I filled a whole Evernote document with my ideas, some of which I've shared below.

The game is essentially an open-world dungeon crawl. There's a timer in the form of a sandstorm that threatens to consume the city in a number of days (let's say two weeks). I find that decisions made under pressure are much more interesting, so I want to constantly put the players under the gun.

Shadespire itself (or whatever we call it in our game) is broken down into hexes or districts or something else I haven't thought of. These districts have their own random encounter tables, with the more dangerous areas having better loot. The most dangerous areas are controlled by one of the warbands.

 

What's that? I haven't mentioned the warbands?

Since this idea came from a tabletop miniatures battle game, I want to make military conflicts a factor. Two (or more) warring factions have come to the city for the same reason as the players: To gather artifacts. The difference here is these military forces are better trained and equipped, but they may be willing to barter or even team up with the players. Much like the zombies in the Walking Dead, these factions aren't the main concern, but rather an ever-present danger in the background of the campaign.

The players have a base camp outside the city that has limited options for upgrades. Improving the Scout NPC would provide better visibility on military or monster movement. Recruiting more NPCs might mean that night expeditions are available to players who want to take control of a different character and maximize their time in the city before it's buried in sand forever.

I have much more to talk about, but these are the ideas that get me excited. I'd love to run a campaign in this environment one day.