Dungeons and Dragons has plenty of whimsical adventures, even before player shenanigans. But a tabletop game this old has dabbled in every genre imaginable, and one setting that players love to explore is the extraterrestrial. Unlike many fantasy games, DnD offers plenty of threats of an alien origin. The recently launched Starblight campaign for DnD 5e takes that to some fun extremes.
The creators cited works such as Annihilation, Dead Space and Elden Ring for their setting. Yeah, Elden Ring sounds out of place initially, but it's a perfect descriptor once you get into the story. Fallen stars aren't mere novelties in this setting. Instead, they are physical harbingers of horrors from beyond the stars. The comet's crash site began to twist everything in its vicinity, from the smallest ants to the fabric of magic itself.
Starblight focuses on a series of tightly written DnD horror one-shots. With 100 adventures to choose from, DMs have a veritable fountain of Lovecraftian experiences. The beauty of these one-shots is they can be woven together into a sprawling epic of world-changing proportions. The alien star's influence spreads, and you must find a way out of its grasp.
That flexibility makes Starblight a fantastic book for any spooky-themed session. You can play the games as they are, or sprinkle them throughout any other games. It could be a fun way to make your long-running campaign Halloween themed for a single night, or ramp up the stakes of a long-teased BBEG.
You can back Starblight on Kickstarter right now. Even though it's already met its funding goal, backers get an exclusive discount, as well as access to backer exclusives. Even better, all of the sourcebooks and assets are VTT ready, so it's essentially plug and play.
For some out-of-this-world conversations, the Wargamer Discord is your personal comet crash site. For some more familiar sources, the DnD books guide will get you caught up.