I don’t know what it is about us nerds, but we’ve got real trust issues with the moon. Big bad in Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask? Grinning moon. Ultimate evil in the Dead Space franchise? Meat-moons. The Death Star? Easily mistaken for a moon. If you’re as old and internet poisoned as I am, you might even remember when baby TikTok witches tried to hex the moon. If you, too, harbor a deep suspicion of that ominous celestial body, then you should check out Dead Moon Rising, a D&D one shot for level 20 characters that – yes – lets you kill the moon.
This indie one shot for D&D 5.5e, written by Benjamin Kestenbaum, is set in the Forgotten Realms, and puts the players on the trail of the cult of the Dead Three – worshippers of the same dead gods behind much of the trouble in Baldur’s Gate 3. The hero’s quest will send them “to the desolate moonlet of Atropus, where they will have to confront and stop the Elder Evil”- Atropus, the World Born Dead – before it completes its collision course with Faerȗn, “ending all life within the Forgotten Realms”.
Can you stop the apocalypse in just one session? As Kestenbaum puts it, DM’s could run this adventure as an “introduction to the stakes, narratives, and combats of level 20 play” for new players, “or use it to give your veteran players the chance to fight a planet”. It’s available for $4.95 from the DM’s Guild website.
The module includes “the character creation rules [Kestenbaum] used for the playtests, and guidance for playing at level 20”, plus “guidance for running a level 20 one-shot”. Adventures for level 20 and beyond are notoriously few and far between on the official DnD release schedule, and it really is a very different style of play, so those are good things to include. Whether they’re well written or not I don’t know, as I haven’t tested this module – I’m just tickled by the premise.
Do you harbor a deep-seated loathing of the moon, or another celestial body? Do you have any top tips for playing games at the highest power levels? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
