Dawnfist Newsletter - Stakeouts, Strange Artifacts, Great Cults, and Drunken Patrons!

Welcome to the monthly Dawnfist Newsletter where we share community gems, helpful advice and always bring you a new creation of our own! If you aren’t already subscribed, click on the button below.

Our 5 Favorite Community Gems

Every month, we sift through all the goodness from the TTRPG community and handpick our five favorites — the ones we believe are the most useful and valuable. Because that’s the purpose of this newsletter, to save you valuable time and help you find a few golden nuggets.

1. Dice Goblin crafted a set of Stakeout mechanics to bring structure to heists and infiltration adventures. These kinds of scenarios are always exciting in theory, but they often fall flat when I run them. Dice Goblin helped me realize why: when the stakes are high, mechanics matter. It might sound nice to play a heist free-form, to roll with the punches, but too often it boils down to players feeling like they’d have handled things differently if they’d had all the details. This framework gives the structure needed to make stakeouts feel engaging, fair, and satisfying for everyone at the table.

2. D4 Caltrops is a perpetual machine of quality content production, impressive as always! This month I especially enjoyed the post with 100 Magic Arrows and Ammunition, because I love one-time-use magic items as rewards; they’re fun, memorable, and avoid the power creep that comes with permanent gear. With a table like this, you’ve got endless variety to keep your players excited and your treasure hoards fresh.

3. Rise Up Comus highlighted an interesting thing in their post: Treasure Thoughts Microblog: humans have created countless strange and fascinating artifacts over the centuries. Visit any archaeological museum, and you’ll discover surreal, mysterious creations. Take the Voynich Manuscript, for example—a cryptic book written in an unknown language, filled with bizarre diagrams and unidentifiable plants. It’s evocative, memorable, and far more intriguing than the typical “bag of coins and a golden figurine” we often drop into our dungeons. The punchline? Use more weird and unique treasure!

4. The Fantasy Forge shows us how to make a cult that’s actually good. Cults are, without a doubt, one of the most common opposing forces in TTRPG campaigns, which makes it all the more important to get them right. This video offers practical advice on building cults that make sense, feel nuanced, and are worth remembering. It’s a must-watch for any GM—because let’s be honest, sooner or later, you’re going to add a cult to your campaign.

5. This Reddit thread is a goldmine for anyone looking for an easy-to-run dungeon adventure. It’s a crowd-sourced list of dungeon modules that your fellow GMs think are intuitive and straightforward. Perfect for when you need a solid dungeon and have minimal time to prep.

Monthly Dawnfist advice

It’s easy to default to combat when creating challenges for your players—but what about variety? This post breaks down the 14 obstacles available to you as a GM. These are the only 14 types of challenges there are, and with a list like this, you can immediately see what your adventure might be missing and add exactly what’s needed to craft a truly unforgettable session.

The new thing - D12 Tavern encounters

This month we bring you a D12 Tavern encounter table. Let’s give into the temptation of starting the adventure in a tavern, but spice it up with a random encounter roll to start the session of in a memorable way!

Thank you for reading and don’t forget to explore our games, modules and supplements on DriveThruRPG via the button below. See you next month!

///Sebastian Grabne - Dawnfist Games