Stonehome Games won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month, and I hope the timing works out for them because they’re a contender in the 5th Worldbuilding Awards in which you can vote.
In fact, I’ll talk to Drew Whitney, the founder of Stonehome Games, about World Anvil later in the Q&A.
For context, you can find Stonehome Games on DriveThruRPG but there’s also Dromaria.com. The latter is a free website for the Dromaria TTRPG setting.
Who are Stonehome Games
Regular readers will know that when it comes to interviews, I’m traditional in the sense that I like to start at the start. I also discovered there’s an Aberdeen outside of Scotland.
What’s your origin story? How did Stonehome Games come about?
I went to school for publishing at Illinois State University. While there I was working an internship in Milner Library’s Special Collections. There was a huge Talisman board game nerd that worked there and one day we started chatting about game mechanics. I got this itch in the back of my head about making a game where the goal was to lose.
That night when I got home I texted my friend Mitch. We went out to eat and started chatting about the idea which became a game called Martyrdom. Eventually, that evolved into Renown: the Card Game. When we started talking about getting it published, Mitch and I founded Stonehome Games.
That was ages ago now, and things have changed a lot. We’re still broke and trying, but thankfully wiser and more capable. We’ve also picked up a few others along the way.
Kyle Sheldon works as an important tech guy at Discover and helps us with bigger picture concepts. Kari Docekal is our Art Director. We send her whatever crazy ideas come up and see if they are possible.
About two years ago Chuck Edens joined as Steward of Dromaria, a role dedicated to knowing everything about our TTRPG world. He has become a vital part of the operation, taking on jobs as a writer, editor, mapmaker, social media aid, and way more I’m missing.
I see you’re from Aberdeen in the States? Aberdeen, Scotland, is known as The Granite City. A convenience?
I live in Aberdeen, Washington in the States. Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula and hometown of Kurt Cobain. It’s a nice dreary little town near the Pacific.
Has there been more than one era of Stonehome Games?
I would define Stonehome in three eras. We had our founding period. During that, we were figuring out what kind of games we wanted to make and how to do any of it. This was our longest period. Coming up with concepts, trying things out, failing, and moving forward.
With Renown, our first attempt at making something, we had a Kickstarter that failed. Despite it sucking at the time, it helped us pivot and change things. We decided that we had to be way more prepared.
That became the second era and creation for 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. My writing partner Chuck joined on and we started making new things happen. We collated years of mixed-up notes and writings and then took as long as necessary to get everything into a readable place. During that time I learned CSS and began setting up Dromaria.com.
I had a vision of a world website that had everything on it. Most tabletop sites are either Wikis or sales platforms. DnD Beyond is its own thing, but even that you can’t go browse just Eberron and see mechanics made for the world without coming across the Forgotten Realms or Rick and Morty. So I wanted a website devoted to Dromaria, the main setting for everything we do.
Now we are in our third era which is actively doing things day to day. Creating, writing articles, doing our own interviews, and getting products ready for release. This period has been all about keeping up with the present and pushing. A lot of big projects are in the works, most of which can be seen in their playtest or release form online.
- Dromaria: The Covenant is our 5ed campaign guide for everything Dromaria.
- The Red Keep Adventure. A campaign for levels 3-6 and our first big release.
- From the Village Vaults. We’ve been doing weekly releases since September and will have a collection of them soon when we reach 30.
- Kindred Comics. The prologue is available on Dromaria.com already and issue 1 is nearing release.
- Renown: The Card Game. We are 29 cards away from the completed formatting on the final version of Renown.
Dromaria and Stonehome Games
As foreshadowed and now mentioned by Drew, we’re on to Dromaria but I won’t stay here long since the site is free to poke around.
What’s Dromaria?
The short or the sales pitch: It’s a fantasy world, primarily used as a tabletop setting.
A world teetering on the brink, held together by an edict between dragonkind and mortals known as the Covenant. Ancient horrors roam the land once more, released from their broken prisons. Fey run free, far from the Otherwyld; a wave of unchecked mischief spreading too quickly to contain. In response to the changing world, heroes are rising, blessed by the Ancestors to combat threats, old and new.
Players can use Dromaria’s unique races, such as the four-armed desert dwelling Malkari, or the elementally gifted small folk, the Embers. Tackle challenges as one of five new subclasses, like the devout Covenant Dominion for clerics, or a warlock trapped in the icy grip of the elemental Polaris. Play as the new Bondsman class and lessen the burden of your companions by taking it on yourself.
GMs have access to a bestiary of illustrated creatures only found in Dromaria. Monsters like the abominable megaboss Meagoloth the Apex, or the all-consuming Disasterpiece. Dromaria features a full gazetteer, interactive map, GM Advice, spells, magic items, and a ton more.
The long: I created Dromaria back in the late 1900s for 2nd Edition AD&D, quickly switching to 3ed. The world became something more years later when we switched once again to Pathfinder 1st Edition. At that point, we had been playing in Dromaria for about a decade, so I decided to sit down and make something more of it. Now it has become the focal world in a much larger solar system of other planets.
Dromaria is DnD setting, with plenty of unique elements. There are dragons, dwarves, and many of the tropes you expect to see in such worlds. It is meant to be familiar and welcoming as you step in.
The world is defined by the Covenant, a pact between the dragons and the mortals allowing them to live together in peace. Depending on where a person lives, dragons are likely a part of daily life.
Dromaria is massive and a long way from being completely available online. We have a lot more to write and get ready for release. So for now we put it online when it goes from notes to fully written. We started with the Southern Tritos Dominion. This area should give readers an example of what they can expect site-wide in the future.
Most recently Dromaria became an award-nominated TTRPG campaign setting!
How do Stonehome Games work with World Anvil? Why don’t more publishers do that?
We are proudly powered by World Anvil and use them as our website host. When we went looking for what was available it became a hard choice. Arguably the best way to host Dromaria was to have our own site that we had complete control over, as it would give us the best creative freedom. But there were technical things that were way beyond my knowledge to handle. Especially the interactive map. I wanted people to be able to go from the world map all the way down to the local tavern and back out again and World Anvil made that possible.
I had to learn a lot of CSS to make it work, but in the end, I’m super happy with the results. Dromaria.com’s interconnectivity is possible because World Anvil made it so easy to do in creation. The creators, Janet and Dimitris, have been super supportive and have assembled a great team.
It costs money to have full access to everything and there is a learning curve to make it all work. But to be honest, what we did with Dromaria is not necessary to have a great site on there. To anyone thinking about it, check out the World Anvil discord and get a feel for the vibe. There is a wonderful community who are all eager to support one another.
What are the plans for Dromaria? Is it ready yet :)
Dromaria is ready, although far from finished. Our website has everything on it in the current playtest form, so there will be a lot of updates coming. But there are over 700,000 words up there for people to read through and explore right now.
The biggest thing happening right now is World Anvil’s 2025 Worldbuilding Awards. They are underway until March 22nd. A vote for us would be much appreciated!
We hope to finish strong in the World Anvil 2025 Worldbuilding Awards, where we are nominated for 5 categories, including Best World (Dromaria) and Best Article (Chapter Nine: Wildlife).
At the moment I am finalizing the Red Keep Adventure book layout and we are preparing the last stages of art so it can be released soon.
The first issue of Kindred is also being finalized, with the lettering phase being completed by our friend and artist Ben Watson.
After our 30th release in 2 weeks, we will create a collection of the From the Village Vaults on DriveThru and Ko-Fi. We will take a short break from releasing them as we get the Red Keep Adventure and our campaign guide finished.
Soon after the Red Keep Adventure we will be finalizing Dromaria: The Covenant.
The Stonehome Games model
I bought a friend a World Anvil subscription for a birthday once. It was more generous than I can usually afford, and I’ve never had a paid for account myself but I did so to try and encourage a creative friend to document their world. Ergo, I know World Anvil is not free. I can also see Stonehome Games cost hardly anything.
Are the “From the Village Vault” adventures linked or is the prefix more like a subbrand that lets DMs know they’re buying one of your one-shots?
From the Village Vaults are designed to be one-page, one-shot adventures with everything you need to run a successful game. Each release from the vault takes place somewhere in Dromaria, linked to the local stories and lore that are occurring. This allows a GM the chance to run adventures wherever they are. We’ve designed them to fit into any world with a bit of tinkering. Instead of being the Dromaria specific Port City of Bastor, it can just as easily become a port in your world.
The current plan is at least 30 adventures in every new area of Dromaria, to shine a light on the region we are currently focused on. We wanted to cure the problem of, “I haven’t prepped.” Pick a city, point of interest, or region and an adventure from the vault will be there with enough flavor to keep characters invested.
Each From the Village Vault comes with maps and they can all be found free on the website, or for a $1 PDF at our other locations.
What’s your pricing strategy on DriveThruRPG? I’m asking because Stonehome Games’ products are very generously priced?
We want to keep everything on Dromaria.com free. For now, the From the ViIllage Vaults are only a small avenue of income. We will always keep them free on the website and sell PDFs if people want to own them or to help us out.
(hopefully) We will soon be selling prints of art to help bring a little more money. Yury Nikifarau (Instagram) is our go-to guy when it comes to monsters and we are working with him on doing a full series of his art.
Before too long we will be selling physical versions of our content and merchandise for revenue, but the website will remain free. We never want to gatekeep our content behind affordability and this ensures everyone gets to enjoy Dromaria.
How important is Patreon to the business?
It’s slow growth. There are so many things to juggle and we haven’t promoted it as much as I’d like. Although we don’t have a ton of people there at the moment, we still update it weekly and all our FtVVs and other content is there. We have a Minecraft server available for all members, including the free tier, which is always a good time.
Patreon is a long term goal which we will be continuing to grow as we do. We welcome ideas and suggestions of what Patrons would be interested in.
We’ve also been using Ko-Fi as a storefront, alongside DriveThru RPG.
What’s next for Stonehome Games?
Big releases. We have a lot of projects in the works all reaching completion around the same time. Renown: The Card Game, Kindred Issue One (shoutout to our amazing artist Kati Drinkwine), The Red Keep Adventure, our yet to be named FtVV collection, and soon Dromaria: The Covenant.
No specific dates, but we will be doing a Kickstarter or two in 2025. I would also love to attend more conventions if at all possible, time and money permitting.
Stonehome Games
- Dromaria
- Dromaria: The Covenant
- The Red Keep Adventure
- Kindred Prologue: Shadows Over Tao
- Bluesky
- Patreon
- Ko-Fi
- DriveThru RPG
… and that voting link.
