Woah... this is crazy to see here. The books are absolutely amazing. Everything is carefully crafted and filled with love. The modern OSR and modern TTRPGS are absolutely wonderful. This is the craft at its finest.
I appreciate all that Gavin Norman and Necrotic Gnome have done for the OSR TTRPG scene over the past few years, but I have to say each time I see a D&D-derivative system it makes me wish that other systems of the time—like Runequest, Tunnels & Trolls, or West End Games' d6 system beneath Ghostbusters (1985) and Star Wars (1987)—got even half the attention. Tom Moldvay and Dave Cook's Basic/Expert (1981) has been done to death at this point. For a nice historical lesson, look to Moldvay's later work on the Challenges Game System[0], which pares down the AD&D 1E Players Handbook (1978) into 8 pages suitable for running the game at the table.
I could rant for hours about the sacred cows of D&D deserving slaughter, but I'll refrain.
All this is to say, the Dolmenwood campaign book is great and I own it. It was originally a setting for Old-School Essentials published through a zine[1], and I think they could have stopped at just a campaign book, the one that the OP links to. I just don't think we need any more flavors of B/X!
There are two things that really scratch the dopamine itch at the table that I think plays well to DnD - 1) the d20. 5% of something amazing or terrible happening is just the right amount of chance for things being regular but not expected. And it being a single lotto ticket somehow makes it better.
2) fistful of dice - eventually you get to toss a fistful of dice and its very satisfying to climb that ladder.
DnD has both and that combined with ability progression I think really locks people in to the system, even outside of the network effect of it. GURPS for instance is great but 3d6 and getting an 18 just isn’t the same, for instance.
I just picked up the books, after finishing playing in a short campaign. It's a great setting. The rules system is a bit bare bones, but you could easily run Dungeon World or pretty much any trad fantasy RPG there. Yes, 5e, sure. It would work great for Pendragon.
I have run several campaigns in Dolmenwood - from early Wormskin and OSE Patreon days through the current open game license free format.
I’m consistently amazed at the depth this setting offers a sandbox-curious referee and a creative table. It is well worth exploring. It is also a masterpiece of information design
and the easiest tool I’ve used at the table.
My session notes for my current campaign are here if you are interested in what is achievable.
I'm just working up the courage (and the people) to run it.
I might have the face of a grognard, but I've only run a handful of sessions as a gamemaster / dungeonmaster. Between relative inexperience and the demands of my career in autism research career, I have not yet taken the plunge.
On the plus side for prep, the Dolmenwood books and pdfs are wonderfully organized...bringing the same expertise that Gavin Norman brought to Old School Essentials that had won him (and his team) wide acclaim.
There's also a very new, innovative revival of the RPG format where players take on multiple characters, some of them faction leaders, called a Braunstein, played in Dolmenwood (search "Dolmenstein"): https://mythicmountainsrpg.substack.com/p/so-you-want-to-try...
Fair warning that there's a lot of contentious personalities in this scene, so be advised. However, the freshness of the new gameplay speaks for itself.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 7.6 ms ] thread[0] https://necroticgnome.com/products/dolmenwood-campaign-book
[1] https://ennie-awards.com/2026-nominees/
Also this is my favorite t-shirt: https://necroticgnome.com/products/dolmenwood-goatlord-t-shi...
Also check out 3d6 Down the Line, an actual play worth listening to. https://youtu.be/xNWg_IcbHl8?is=54oqh6TbY5g6DP-B
https://youtu.be/hL_YAarvB5U?is=SQGjmmBP0ignvSy4
I could rant for hours about the sacred cows of D&D deserving slaughter, but I'll refrain.
All this is to say, the Dolmenwood campaign book is great and I own it. It was originally a setting for Old-School Essentials published through a zine[1], and I think they could have stopped at just a campaign book, the one that the OP links to. I just don't think we need any more flavors of B/X!
[0] https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=14165
[1] https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/the-end-of-wormskin
2) fistful of dice - eventually you get to toss a fistful of dice and its very satisfying to climb that ladder.
DnD has both and that combined with ability progression I think really locks people in to the system, even outside of the network effect of it. GURPS for instance is great but 3d6 and getting an 18 just isn’t the same, for instance.
[1] - I found it in their "Free Title of the Week" from their newsletter. Not sure if it will go away 07-30 or so when the next newsletter comes out.
I’m consistently amazed at the depth this setting offers a sandbox-curious referee and a creative table. It is well worth exploring. It is also a masterpiece of information design and the easiest tool I’ve used at the table.
My session notes for my current campaign are here if you are interested in what is achievable.
https://publish.obsidian.md/generallyobservable/Dolmenwood+S...
On the plus side for prep, the Dolmenwood books and pdfs are wonderfully organized...bringing the same expertise that Gavin Norman brought to Old School Essentials that had won him (and his team) wide acclaim.
Fair warning that there's a lot of contentious personalities in this scene, so be advised. However, the freshness of the new gameplay speaks for itself.