I talked with Aaron Ryan about two of his book series, Dissonance and The End.

Dissonance is a near future world where aliens have attacked, killing most humans and animals on Earth and driving humans into hiding underground. Humans finally develop technology to fight back and the war enters a new stage while the characters also struggle to determine the motivation for the alien invasion and nefarious actions of the government.

The End is a Christian End Time series based loosely on the events described in Revelations. A man calling himself Nero has risen to rule over the world and he has outlawed Christianity. Robots called Guardians hunt Christians throughout the world, murdering them on the spot if they don’t recant their faith. A resistance movement works in the shadows against Nero, but things aren’t looking good for them.

We talked about the basics of those settings along with how they could be adapted for RPG campaign settings. My main recommendations were Ashes Without Number, Spire, and Blades in the Dark.

If you’re interested in reading Aaron’s books you can find them at most any bookstore or library. Both of the series are also being adapted into movies, but aren’t publicly available yet. Look at Aaron Ryan’s website for the latest updates on his work. Next up for Aaron is the Talisman series that covers events within the “Aaronverse” in the decades between Dissonance and The End.

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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

89 – Bunnies vs. the Borg D&D (Avery and Traumwald) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Avery presents her world of Traumwald which means Dream Forest. Traumwald was a peaceful, magical world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals of all kinds. Their peace was shattered by the attack of the Ichal, a biomechanical hive mind species similar to the Borg. The Ichal are led by the dark god Ulvakros who seeks to absorb all life into himself. The Ichal have spread across different dimensions and now they have come to Traumwald as the next stop on their mission of multiversal conquest.Traumwald has a D&D 5.0e supplement that Avery made. It's a setting and a campaign in one book. Species generation rules allow you to create any sort of animal species for your PC. There are lots of new subclasses to play and a new base class, the Ascetic. The campaign is adaptable with a dynamic faction system for tracking the events as they unfold at your table. Each campaign run in Traumwald is guaranteed to be different as the factions fluctuate and change to player actions. You can lift the faction system for your personal campaign as well!You can find Traumwald on Avery's itch.io page.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. 89 – Bunnies vs. the Borg D&D (Avery and Traumwald)
  2. 88 – DM & Roleplaying Tips with Balance of Aksio (Jay + Sandra! and 3RPG)
  3. 87 – Adapted Azeroth D&D (Flare and Akridon)
  4. 86 – Wuxia Adventures in RPGS (Daniel and Metanoia/Ithasen)
  5. 85 – Medical Doctor D&D (Justin and Oops! All Healers!)