Mining Kickstarter: Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking for D&D hits gold

AAW Games have been joined by best-selling author Douglas Niles to fund the Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking as a D&D 5e accessory.

Niles is the author of the acclaimed 1986 Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide for D&D, which brought the Underdark to life, expanded the AD&D ruleset, including the addition of a Battlesystem for mass combat. The Kickstarter is at more than 2x campaign goal, and you can join from the pitch page.

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This edition of the definitive guide to underworld survival will contain modular tools and tables, channelling the spirit of the original Dungeonner’s book. It’s expected to weigh in at 208-pages and be co-written by Stephen Yeardley and Thilo Graf (also known as Endzeitgeist).

This tome contains the collected wisdom of legendary dwarven delver Dugmore Dumple. Dugmore takes you through crystalline caverns, fungal jungles and maze-like passages of his home beneath the surface, even skirting the upper regions of Hel itself.

In the book, there will be a taxonomy of caves because they’re very many different types, rules for climbing tools, how to map and run games in 3D environments, rules for momentum and chases, and rules for mining and exotic ores.

The Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking helps by providing streamlined rules for tracking supplies, rules for foraging and hunting, underground rules for spellcasting and combat, help for DMs with combat puzzles and the provision of hazard generators.

Also, there are expanded rules for light and darkness in the black and white guide, a breath-engine for exploration of flood caverns or spore-choked jungles and rules for hypothermia and hyperthermia.

A pledge of $19 is enough to get The Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking 5e in PDF. Stepping up to $29 unlocks the hardcover, but postage costs will be added in later.

There’s also a $39 tier which adds in bonus stretch content. That stretch content now includes more Dugmore comics, the companion Applied & Aggregate Spelunking and an interactive PDF of Tables & Tools.

More stretch goals may yet unlock, which will add more Dugmore comics, more Tables & Tools and an adventure, and some undisclosed bonuses at the $50k mark.

The estimated delivery for The Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking is July 2021.