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Crown of the Moonglaive: A Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Story (Levels 1-16)
Day and night collide as the Great Aurora fractures. Take up the Moonglaive Crown or shatter it before the sky is cut forever.
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Thursday - 4:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 2.5–3.5 hours
Campaign Length / 50–70 Sessions
1 / 5 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
1/5
About the adventure
Welcome to Lorwyn–Shadowmoor, a fairytale-bright world with a knife-edge secret: when the Great Aurora turns, the sunlit idyllic landscape becomes a thorned nightmare and now the turning is breaking. Villages flicker into their midnight selves at noon. Old oaths unravel. Refugees spill across borders that never existed yesterday. At the center of it all is a relic whispered to be both cure and catastrophe: the Moonglaive Crown, a blade-crown said to cut the sky and decide what the world is allowed to be. This is a heroic high fantasy campaign built for players who love wonder with teeth, beauty that hides danger, kindness that can become control, and darkness that sometimes tells the truth. You’ll navigate living courts of faeries, elves, merrow, kithkin, giants, boggarts, and treefolk; forge alliances (and rivalries) that evolve with your choices; and face set-piece encounters where goals matter as much as damage. Expect a strong mix of roleplay, exploration, and tactical combat, with consequences that echo across both Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. You begin as a local hero caught in a “daylight Shadowmoor” incident and grow into plane-shaping champions as the sky itself tears. The campaign is designed for character-driven play: personal vows, temptations, and hard decisions are central, and the Moonglaive Crown will offer each hero exactly what they want most. By the end, you won’t just fight for the world. You’ll decide what it becomes: one world, two worlds, or something new. If you are seeking a campaign with immersive RP, moral choices without grimdark misery, faction politics, mythic artifacts, and a long-form story where your decisions change the map, then join us on this magical journey through the dual-realm.
Game style
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(25)
2 years on StartPlaying
451 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Inclusive
About me
It all began Thanksgiving Day when I was 10 years old. I found my uncle’s Dungeons & Dragons red box with the warrior on the cover battling against a dragon. I was instantly drawn to it and begged my uncle to teach me how to play. Less than a year later, I was running adventures for my friends, igniting their and my imaginations as we told stories of heroics and fantasy. As the child of a Navy sailor who moved around a lot, D&D was always my constant and my way of connecting with like-minded people I met. Fast forward to now. Over the years, I have told hundreds of stories with adventurers and friends. Focusing on heavy roleplay and cinematic combat, I aim to bring years of improv theatre to life by driving stories focused on the player’s characters and the decisions they make. Nothing is too wild as we collaboratively build worlds and create adventures that will fill the halls of the legends of those worlds. Come join me. There are still so many tales to tell.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
On the Discord server, you will be given access to a dedicated game channel that will highlight the process, any rules clarifications to be made aware of, and links to source material I would recommend you check out prior to play. I will provide you with access to the new 2024 ruleset through D&D Beyond as well as the following character options: - Grim Hollow Player's Guide - Dungeons of Drakkenheim - Cthulhu by Torchlight - Crooked Moon - The Gunslinger (by Mage Hand Press) - The Revised Illrigger (by MCDM) - Book of Ebon Tides - Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting Our heroes will start at Level 1 and use either Standard Array or Point Buy for ability score generation. To maintain the flavor of the world, I ask that no PCs (or NPCs) of Human species are allowed. In addition, the following spells are also not allowed at character creation or through leveling: - Shadowsteel Curses from Grim Hollow. - Contamination spells from Drakkenheim. - Named spells from Acquisitions Incorporated. We will use Milestone leveling and any new characters joining an existing party will start at the same level as the party.
Assuming we have enough players, this campaign will begin on Wednesday, January 21 (in US Eastern Standard Time).
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Players should: ✅ have a working headset and microphone available for each play session; ✅ have a PC or Mac that is capable of running the D&D Beyond website and Maps VTT reliably; ✅ sign up for a D&D Beyond account if you don't already have one (it is free to do so); ✅ sign up for a Discord account if you don't already have one (it is free to do so); ✅ remember that this is a game and we are all here to have fun; ✅ be clear with expectations without being discourteous; ✅ see that this is an opportunity to learn from one another as well as teach.
What Anthony McKinstry brings to the table
✨ 33 years of experience running D&D and other TTRPGs. ✨ A DM who is a fan of your characters and want to see them succeed despite hardship and adversity. ✨ Immersive and story rich narrative. ✨ Tactical and cinematic combat encounters, though there is usually a way to roleplay your way out of combat first. ✨ A living world where player's actions have real rewards and consequences. ✨ As many voices as I can, particularly for NPCs of significance. ✨ Access to my entire library on D&D Beyond. ✨ A dedicated Discord server for audio and text discussion, as well as a vibrant and growing community of D&D and Daggerheart players.
Homebrew rules
A full list of my Homebrew rules for the 2024 edition of D&D are available on my Discord server.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Anthony McKinstry creates a safe table
A Session 0 will be run before the Campaign starts and will last the length of a normal session. In the first part, we will have an open discussion on the different levels of player experience and on the themes explored by the published material. Where we can identify areas that might prove difficult for participants and how the other safety tools will be used to mitigate these and help player enjoyment in general. In the second part, we will as a group finalize your player characters and though I will help where required, this is an opportunity for players to collaborate and get to know each other little before we begin play. Outside of Session 0, we will conduct debriefings/above the table discussions in the first 5-10 minutes of the session as required, and Stars & Wishes in the last 5 minutes of every fourth or fifth session. Players will be free to take breaks as life demands and I will initiate a break around the halfway point of each session. Unless your character was already in a combat, then your character will be absent if you as the player are absent from that session. This gives you the player surety that it will remain your character in your absence.
Content warnings
Safety tools used