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Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate writer behind Norse-inspired D&D 5E RPG book

Grimnir and bear it.

Explore the watery world of Grimnir in the Norse-inspired roleplaying game book for Dungeons & Dragons 5E, Raiders of the Serpent Sea, created by Brent Knowles - one of the writers behind the Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate video game series.

Raiders of the Serpent Sea as players venturing into the Norse world of Grimnir, a land containing vast seas and forests populated by all sorts of dangerous monsters and threatened by the return of the dreaded Yoten. As members of the Vanir, the player characters must remain vigilant for the armies that drove their people into Grimnir and attempt to break the cycle of Ragnarök.

The 250 page fantasy RPG book features an overview of the world of Grimnir - including several maps of its various locations and lore behind its people - as well as a campaign that’s designed to be used with D&D 5E and will take characters from 1st to 10th level. Throughout this journey, the player characters will encounter a bestiary’s worth of monsters to fight, all of which are inspired by Norse mythology - there will also be magic items to find and use.

Raiders of the Serpent Sea artwork

When creating their characters for Raiders of the Serpent Sea, players will have access to four different backgrounds that will serve to provide motivation for their adventures in Grimnir. A selection of playable species and class archetypes influenced by Norse legends and Viking history will also be available to choose from including the half-giant tallfolk; wolfriders; wooden constructs; raid leaders or bards who can tell the future.

Besides creating the Raiders of the Serpent Sea book - alongside writing for Dragon Age: Origins and Baldur’s Gate 2 - Knowles has also written for the Neverwinter Nights video games series, which is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, as well as Jade Empire, a roleplaying video game published by the studio behind Mass Effect, Bioware.

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Raiders of the Serpent Sea is set to be released by Arcanum Worlds - a company formed by two ex-creative directors for Bioware - the studio behind the Odyssey of the Dragonlords RPG book for D&D 5E, alongside the publisher responsible for the Dishonored tablerop RPG and Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, Modiphius.

The Kickstarter campaign for Raiders of the Serpent Sea is live until November 20th, with a pledge of CA$ 72 ($58/£43) getting backers a copy of the book in April 2023. Alternatively, a digital PDF version of the book is available for a pledge of CA$ 29 ($23/£18) in January 2023.

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Alex Meehan avatar
Alex Meehan: After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.
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