Valor’s Edge: A Campaign 6 years in the Making

Dungeons and Dragons is the uncontested most popular tabletop role-playing game, so of course your friendly local game store has to run a campaign. In fact, Gamers XP has been running D&D for years now. Valor’s Edge is the name of the 6th year-long campaign hosted by Gamers XP. Because this campaign has been built on a foundation of years of D&D at the store, we want our players to have a (hopefully) useful guide to understanding how we arrived here in Campaign 6 (C6), what old players should know about the current campaign, and how a new player may jump into Valor’s Edge. 

The Past

When looking back on five years worth of D&D adventures, it may seem daunting to understand the lore. However, I can confidently say that whatever happened in Campaign 1, 3, and 4 (Campaign 2 doesn’t exist) can be completely forgotten going into C6. You only need to know some of the details of Campaign 5 to understand C6. In fact, the lead Dungeon Master on the campaign, Tres (you may have heard of him. He also owns the

store), refers to C5 & C6 as Campaign 1 & 2 as we’ve entered a new era of the story. So what happened in Campaign 5 that is relevant to players in C6?

Valor's Edge Mainland: Sovereign Concord to the west & Dread Dominion to the east

C5 introduced the world of Valor’s Edge to players: a massive continent surrounded by a storm of divine creation that kept the continent separated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The continent was split nearly down the middle into two sides: the Dread Dominion and the Sovereign Concord. Those two sides were engaged in a war that had lasted as long as the storm covered the continent. Big surprise, but that was no coincidence. The storm and the war had been goaded on by the Demon Lord Rakdos until he got bored of watching mortals fight and dropped the storm. Suddenly, a whole new world was open to the adventurers.

We were presented with an ocean of possibilities. Literally. Outside of the game, the DMs had created a hundred islands for players to explore. However, in game, forces were conspiring against the player characters. The cult of Lolth set into motion a plot that woke a dark plague known as the Blight. The Blight swept across the continent tainting our supplies of the magical metal Nyranite, destroying whole cities, and corrupting the players within months. 

In a last ditch effort to stop the Blight, both armies sent the strongest warriors (our characters) to fight the source in the Underdark. However, this was also part of the Cult’s plan to get the adventurers out of the way. In a mysterious ritual, we were banished to the Feywilds. We spent the second half of C5 navigating court politics, bypassing fey deals, and finding a way back to our home. The latter we managed in the epic finale of C5--a two day event that culminated in characters finding their stolen memories and jumping into a portal back to the Material Plane. 

Current Affairs

Now, in C6, our setting picks up 2-3 years after the adventurers were taken to the Feywilds. Though C5 takes place over less than a year, time on the Material Plane has moved much faster than time in the Feywilds. Back on Valor’s Edge, the Blight has completely destroyed the continent. The survivors, including new to our plane Fey creatures, victims of switching places with our C5 characters, have taken to the islands surrounding the continent. Our main port is Eagle’s Rest where Bjorn Gloryhammer, the

100 islands to explore

leader of the faction of adventurers with a mysterious connection to the divine, sends out missions and missives to each team of player characters. 

The Blight had stopped progressing since the adventurers vanished into the fey, but recently, it has begun to spread once more. This time, its touch taints the ocean and the islands around Valor’s Edge. It's a race against time to discover what has reactivated the Blight and stop it from spreading. Players build worthy sea vessels then sail their ships from island to island discovering a fully fleshed out map that DMs poured hours into crafting. Each island on the map has a name and details on the location, so each team may find that the teams before them have affected the island in their previous visits. 

Each team earns points after every mission that are assigned to either Might, Espionage, or Diplomacy. The DMs use these stats to craft adventures to fit each team's unique personality. Might-heavy teams are more likely to see combat; Espionage-heavy teams dive more into strategic adventures; Diplomacy-heavy teams are given opportunities to talk their way out of trouble. 

These teams are discovering that the Cult of Lolth may not be the biggest threat facing the survivors of Valor’s Edge. Lolth herself may not be the final boss. There’s heavy clouds heading towards our current players.

Joining the Campaign

Everything you’ve read thus far sounds interesting, so how do you join? Sometimes, it works out to show up at the shop on a Monday or Tuesday at 5:45pm and ask the event counter if any table has openings. The best way would be to message in the Valor’s Edge group on Gamers XP’s discord and show up at the start of a cycle. Cycles are the almost month-long missions each team runs with a single DM. The last week of each month is a break week saved for emergency sessions and DM recovery. Burn out has drastically decreased since the break was implemented. Characters level up after the break. 

At the start of July, you’ll need a level 7 character using the 2024 Players’ Handbook including the rules for building a higher level character. Some supplemental 2024 books have been approved as well: Heroes of Faerun, Astarion’s Book of Hungers (no campaign-specific content), Lorwyn’s Light, Eberon’s Forge of the Artificer (no dragonmark feats), Ravenloft: Horror’s Within (no campaign-specific content). Your character can be coded as any creature type as long as its species attributes are from the books. For example, you can be a kobold but you'll need dragonkin attributes. You will start with one uncommon and one common item.

Keep in mind the world you’re entering when building your character. Were you a citizen of Valor’s Edge, on one side of a centuries-long war, now banding with your former enemies to survive? Are you a Fey creature displaced from their home because the Cult of Lolth needed heroes out of their way? It is up to you to decide.

In the End

Campaign 6 (or 2 if you’re following the Valor’s Edge plot) is a culmination of years of mistakes, victories, and growth. Tres and the DM team are working hard to share information with all player characters and keep the power level relatively equal. If you like One Piece, pirates, vikings, or just playing DND with a pretty relaxed group of people, you’ll enjoy Valor’s Edge. Come level up with us.