Warchief Gaming is a new company with an old pedigree, last year a video appeared on youtube explaining that a couple of friends who run a gaming club were planning on entering the tabletop world with a game of their own. Nothing special about that I hear you say, it must happen dozens of times a year at least. Well in this case the friends were ex-Blizzard employees Chris Metzen and Mike Gilmartin so I knew it would be worth keeping tabs on them and I was right.

Warchief Gaming // Lawbrand

Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent

Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent is a setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and is currently blowing up on Kickstarter to produce the first Worldbook: Lawbrand, it is based on the roleplaying campaign that Chris ran with his childhood friends in the eighties and nineties, before heading to Blizzard to work on worlds such as Warcraft, StarCraft, and more.

Ancient magic flows through the grimy streets of Lawbrand’s bustling Trade-Cities. Tensions between the ruling Sularian Church and the new generation of upstart adventurers threaten to ignite a firestorm of societal upheaval. In the wilds beyond Lawbrand’s borders, long-forgotten races and newly formed cults rise to claim their own territories – and exert their will upon civilization. And beneath it all, the ancient World-Serpent, Auroboros, awakens to devour all…

Auroboros // Wildkeeper

Races and Classes

Into this world come the players attempting to forge their own destiny. Warchief have already told us that there are five unique races and four subclasses to tell your tales and that the adventurers of Lawbrand will be nothing like you’ve ever played before. In addition to character creation options, you’ll also discover new magic items, spells, and “Sigils”, a new form of customization. More on Sigils later.

Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent // Warchief Gaming

So far we have seen two of these new races the aquatic Atsaad and the shapeshifting MA'll I'll be fascinated to see what other things Chris has in store for Lawbrand, in his role of lead story developer for Blizzard he crafted some of the most compelling storylines that have been seen and was certainly the founder of the high watermark that hasn't been reached since he left.

Auroboros // Bohen Dur (the oh is silent)

Sigils

Another aspect of the game is the world serpent itself and the power it bestows. The ancient World-Serpent, Auroboros, coils throughout Creation; its vast power capable of birthing startling new life or annihilating all that is. By taking the dread Mark of the Serpent, players can wield the Auroboros’ awesome power directly, gaining the ability to heal the sick and shatter mountaintops alike – but at great peril to themselves.

These Sigils will let the players perform not just heroic feats but legendary ones and as we all know from Uncle Ben "with great power comes great responsibility" and just because you can level mountains it doesn't mean that you should, especially in a place like Lawbrand where they may take exception.

From what we've seen so far a host of talented artists are on board realising Chris' vision of bringing his game world to life and with his past track record, I imagine this will be not only a beautiful world to explore but also one with a compelling narrative that will be ripe for further expansion in future. In fact one of the Kickstarter bonuses is a novelisation of the campaign Chris originally ran for his friends that should help pull people into the world.

Will you be descending the Serpents Coils?