🧭 Introduction to the Red Tree of Grudges GM Guide
The Red Tree of Grudges GM Guide is your companion for running one of the most emotionally powerful and thematically rich campaigns AAW Games has ever published. This first entry in our blog series gives you everything you need to understand what this adventure is, how to use it, and how it fits into the broader Adventure Arcs system.
“No one said you had to tell the story the way it was written, this is your game.”
— Jonathan G. Nelson, Red Tree of Grudges GM Guide
🌲 What Is the Red Tree of Grudges?
The Red Tree of Grudges is a DnD 5e and DnD 2024-compatible campaign set in the arctic frontier village of Rybalka, where long-held secrets and spiritual unrest boil just beneath the snow-covered surface.
Created by Thilo Graf, Jonathan G. Nelson, and Stephen Yeardley, this adventure arc takes characters from level 1 to 4 and explores themes of loss, grief, emotional corruption, and spiritual decay. What begins with a grieving family and a forbidden distillery escalates into a desperate attempt to stop the forest itself from becoming twisted by hatred.
The GM Guide equips you with everything you need to run this campaign effectively and dramatically.
🧩 What Are Adventure Arcs?
The Red Tree of Grudges is part of AAW Games’ Adventure Arcs system—a modular, flexible campaign format that lets you run a full story or drop in parts as needed.
Each arc contains 32 entries, divided across four chapters. Every chapter includes 8 color-coded article types:
- Saga (Blue) — Core story (required)
- Trek (Purple) — Side quests and travel
- Mini-Dungeon (Red) — Plug-and-play short adventures
- Setting (Yellow) — Worldbuilding and locations
- Faction (Orange) — Cults, politics, and groups
- Wilderness (Green) — Survival rules and hazards
- Tactical (Brown) — Items, subclasses, backgrounds
- Subscriber/Surprise (Pink) — Monsters, music, and extras
The result is a campaign that’s easy to navigate, easy to customize, and easy to expand.
Want more examples of Adventure Arcs? Check out Mini-Dungeon Tome II for 5e-compatible modular content built with similar structure.
New to D&D 2024 or need a refresh on the rules? Check out the Free Rules.
🧰 How to Use Red Tree Piecemeal
You don’t need to run the full story to use this material. The Red Tree of Grudges GM Guide supports plug-and-play use in your own setting or homebrew world.
For example, let’s say you’re already running a frozen wilderness game and just need some arctic flavor:
- Pull in arctic survival mechanics from the Wilderness articles
- Use Subscriber articles for new monsters and encounter tables
- Drop in a Mini-Dungeon as a one-shot for a cursed tomb or haunted site
- Incorporate a Faction article to introduce local power struggles
- Let your players build characters using the Tactical options and Player’s Guide backgrounds
Whether you want a spiritual mystery, a wilderness crawl, or emotional roleplay, there’s a piece of Red Tree you can bring into your world.
⬆️ Milestone Leveling Guide
Here’s how to pace level-ups using milestones in this campaign:
| Chapter | Level | When to Level Up |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter 1 | 1 | Begin the adventure |
| Chapter 2 | 2 | Before Trek 2 |
| Chapter 3 | 3 | Before Saga 3 |
| Chapter 4 | 4 | Before Saga 4 |
Prefer XP? No problem—this chart is entirely optional.
🎭 Themes & Core Characters (Teaser)
The Red Tree of Grudges is full of powerful emotional stakes tied to grounded, memorable NPCs:
- Igor Leonid — The mayor of Rybalka, a man haunted by past mistakes
- Kristiane Leonid — His estranged wife, now dead, but not gone
- Anastasia Leonid — Their daughter, a young sorceress torn by grief
- Sholaya — A Vikmordere ghost speaker and Kristiane’s lover
- The Red Tree — A psychic wound in the land, fed by sorrow and pain
The characters are caught in the middle of an emotional war that spans generations—and their choices will shape the outcome.
📘 What’s Next in the Red Tree of Grudges GM Guide?
This blog series will walk you through each session of the campaign, giving you prep notes, narrative guidance, mechanical advice, and key GM insights. Up next:
👉 Session 0 – Character Creation & Regional Origins – Red Tree GM Guide
Learn how to tie your players’ characters deeply into the region of Rybalka with new species, backgrounds, and cultural tension baked into every decision.
Are you ready to start the The Red Tree of Grudges? Subscribe today!
