As Sombras do Caminho
“The Shadowed Path”
A D&D 5e starter box containing an original campaign for player characters from 1st to 4th level.
“A strange corruption has taken its toll on Dark-Mist Forest and its inhabitants. Already difficult to reach, the forest tests the sanity of any passerby: How long has it been raining uninterrupted? When will the roads open? Why are people disappearing? All these issues have a common source, an invader from another world. Driven by an instinct to grow and multiply, it has found unexpected allies among the local druids, stricken by grief and tragedy.”
When the new 2024 D&D edition was released, there were no published adventures for it, so Arena Porto commissioned me to write an entry-level campaign.
Without existing adventure examples for the new edition, I had to reverse engineer how monsters and player characters would behave, and how new mechanics would come to the forefront, such as the new Exhaustion condition and the Influence, Study, and Search actions.
A box containing a campaign book, rules glossary, and pregenerated characters.
Commissioned by local store Arena Porto to synergise with the new edition's release, and fully translated into Portuguese for local players.
Fully designed, written, and edited by me, following the Creative Commons license and established writing and editorial conventions.
Research:
Creative Commons D&D license.
Official Campaign editorial styles.
Player and monster stats, abilities,and damage.
Onboarding notes and hints for new players and DMs.
Language conventions for translating from English to European Portuguese.
Story: Based on adventures I’ve run throughout the years, I combined them into a single story with a common thread, enemy, and final dungeon, as the project required an additional level at the end.
Art: Working with another commissioned artist, I provided guidelines and requirements for each art piece and handled post-editing to better fit the project's evolving visual style and layout requirements. The main page uses a public-domain artwork.
Testing: Ran multiple playtests with friends and peers to test mechanics, identify where hints were needed, assess writing clarity, and balance encounters.
Interior 1: Index and About
Interior 2: The first chapter, “Whispers from the Mists”
Interior 3: Monster stat blocks.
Balancing calculations for some encounters.