At the heart of exploration is the journey, or the story that happens while the adventurers travel from origin to destination—surviving the elements, discovering new places, and overcoming the obstacles presented by the environment. This section provides the rules and resources for running a journey from start to finish.

In a world of flaming swords and cursed axes, some magical items are on a level above and beyond what can be found in a wizard's tower or a demon’s lair. These potent relics are the stuff of bard tales and cultural epics, unique and powerful items that leave marks upon history and spawn legends in their wake—when one of them is found, it can easily signal major changes felt far and wide. 

When starting at a higher level, adventurers may spend their starting gold on the following equipment packages, organized by tier (tier 2: 5th–10th level, tier 3: 11th–16th level, tier 4: 17th–20th level). These packages represent popular and common choices for characters of a given class and level, intended to present an easy-to-use index. Characters with unique builds might prefer to swap out items or buy entirely different items. 

Use these guidelines to create an original monster to challenge your characters in combat. You can build a monster ahead of time or on the fly during a game session.

Step 1: The Monster's Story

What does it look like? Is it intelligent? How does it react to strangers? In a movie, what would its attacks look like?

This bestiary can be used with 5E or Level Up. If you’re using 5E, you’ll want to be aware of a few rules changes which we’ve introduced. These changes will be discussed in greater detail further on in this introduction.

Alignment: Few monsters have an alignment. Those that do (mostly celestials, fiends, and some undead) have their alignment listed among their traits.

Treasure comes in two main forms: wealth (coins, gems, and salable valuables like jewelry, equipment, and art) and magic items (such as magic weapons, rings of invisibility, and so on). Treasures are physical objects. Information, allies, fame, and fulfillment of the party’s goals and ambitions are desirable, and can often be earned along with treasure, but are not treasure.

The primary way that adventurers are rewarded is with experience points (gaining new class levels the more they accrue) and treasure like gold or magic items. These aren’t the only ways that they can advance in level however, nor the only way the Narrator can reward the party. 

The world can be a dangerous place and the environment might pose a deadly threat all by itself. In addition to their inherent danger, encounter elements offer ways to enhance the perils of exploration challenges or combat to make both more satisfying. A duel atop a bridge or traversing a narrow crossing is all the more exciting when deadly lava runs below rather than rushing water, and a hallway fight or dungeon trap with a plethora of green slime is a different kind of challenge altogether!

Creating a world for a campaign might mean putting a castle in the Crawley Hills between Northminster and Holdenshire, including a new settlement or region in another existing setting, or building an entire world for the adventurers to discover and explore. Whether the scope of the undertaking is small or grand, clarifying the goals of worldbuilding and the approach being taken makes the task much more manageable.