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Art by Gordon McAlpin

Lead Designer and Story Creator: Anthony Joyce
Graphic Design and Illustration: Gordon McAlpin

Party Level: Five
Length: Two hours
DM Experience: Proficient
Player Experience: Advanced Beginner

Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Blood Hunter by Anthony Joyce is a fantastic adventure for two people – one DM, and one player. This format is wonderful for couples, folks who can’t find local players, and aspiring DMs who want to practice their skills. This format is a new D&D experience that could be more memorable than a regular party!

The length of this adventure is refreshing as many players struggle to find any amount of time to play, and keeps the story moving. The class and driver of the story is the blood hunter class, which gives a unique opportunity to try out the class without much commitment. 

This beautifully illustrated module is optimized for digital use, including links to creatures on D&D Beyond and musical cues on Spotify. Joyce once again brings in atmosphere through music, which brought Weekend at Strahd’s to (un)life. 

The blood hunter has agency throughout the adventure to take or spare a life, running into characters from the Lost Mine of Phandelver and beyond. The majority of the action is the blood hunter relying on the special skills of their class to navigate through a swamp and determine the fate of several lives. Far from a dungeon slog, the scenes are humorous and present clever challenges to the player. 

The adventure also brings in the sidekick system for a bard to accompany the player and contains an appendix of concoctions for blood hunters to use. There are also handouts and maps for the player. The only addition I would make for this product would be a pre-generated blood hunter character sheet to make it even more on-the-go.

I recommend this adventure for both players and DMs looking to learn how to run the mechanics of a blood hunter. The adventure presents many choices, which is where some experience as a DM will help navigate and react to the story. 

This is absolutely an adventure to learn and to keep in your back pocket as a DM when a friend wants to play D&D – I know I will!

A review copy of this product was provided.