OnslaughtSix tells us about his DMing style, his gaming products and his world, Aerda.

Onslaught uses almost exclusively modules for DMing, but not in the traditional way. Instead of running a module or adventure path from start to finish, he takes bits and pieces from different modules to form a complete adventure of his own. We talked about his use of Curse of Strahd in this episode and there are some minor spoilers.

Onslaught is a game designer with a few different projects under his belt at his own company, Tidal Wave Games. The biggest one is See You Space Cowboy (CUSC), a rules light way to play out scenarios similar to the Cowboy Bebop anime. The first module for CUSC, Ceres: The Planet That Never Sleeps, is coming out soon. Onslaught also gave us a small preview of a new game he’s working on called Crawl, which is focused on the quintessential dungeon crawl that we all know and love. More info is available at Tidal Waves Games website.

And of course there’s also the world of Aerda. Long ago the dwarves came to the surface and met the elves. Upset that the elves were not god dwelling on the surface as they suspected, the generation animosity between the two races began. Dwarves build more dwarves from rocks and earth. Elves reproduce by a simple kiss that makes the recipient woman pregnant. Aerda is defined by cycles of gods leaving and returning to the world. Onslaught has had all of his adventures in Aerda take place over a two month period with different campaigns in different regions of the world. He suspects that an apocalypse is brewing for the world, but who knows for sure?

Onslaught uses a hex map for Aerda. A small portion of it can be seen here.

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One response to “Setting the Stage Episode 21 – OnslaughtSix and Aerda”

  1. Applying TTRPG Customer Profiles to the Setting the Stage Podcast – GoCorral Avatar

    […] the guest has finished or is close to publishing a TTRPG product. 14 – Nathan and Aenea, 21 – OnslaughtSix and Aerda, and pretty much every episode from episode 37 and onwards are all good fits for […]

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I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Michael tells us about a D&D horseback riding experience at SaddleSnaps! The Chicago-based stable hosted a weekend camping, horseback riding, and D&D event. About 50 players came from across the country for this new experience. During the event, the players were split up into three groups. Each of the groups engaged in the "Exploration" and "Social Interaction" pillars of RPGs as a LARP. They used horses to go out on rides around the area to find clues to a developing mystery. After returning to their base camp they'd set up around tables for the D&D "Combat" pillar. Michael was the main DM of the adventure along with lots of support DMs and NPC actors helping him out.SaddleSnaps is planning to do more rides like this in the future, both single day rides as well as full weekend campouts like this first one. There are evening rides every Thursday for the rest of July 2026 with more to come in future months. You can check out everything about SaddleSnaps on their website.Michael has his own website for his RPG resources called Paragon Provisions that you can check out as well.Michael also runs his own Discord server that you connect with him on if you'd like to keep up with all the cool D&D stuff he's doing.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
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