Epic Encounters: Ruins of Symbaroum review

Epic Encounters: Ruins of Symbaroum is a new campaign adventure created by Steamforged Games for use with the 5e DnD ruleset in the Symbaroum campaign setting. Symbaroum is a fairly recent addition to the TTRPG space, created as a DnD-style, party-based campaign RPG set in the generally darker world of Ambria. It primarily focuses on adventurers heading into the legendary Forest of Davokar, in a world where the very use of magic is a dangerous gambit that could lead to the user’s ruin – or worse. Although it began life with its own set of rules (which you can still play with the Core Book from League Publishing), Symbaroum transitioned into Ruins of Symbaroum a few years ago, adopting 5e DnD rules into the bargain.

How this affected the core game I’m not equipped to examine too closely. While I’m familiar with 5e and have used the system with various board and video games over the years, I never delved into Symbaroum prior to the change. What I do know is that the marriage between the source and 5e has always been a slightly rocky one, the setting of Davokar and the world’s rules regarding magic making for a much more restrictive and prescriptive experience than most DnD players would typically expect.

Arguably, this makes it feel darker, maybe more hardcore, and certainly less forgiving in its systems. Entering Davokar as a mage is like playing Russian Roulette with two revolvers, and, while it’s an easy trap to avoid if you just roll non-magic classes, that’s half the fun. That being said, this isn’t a review of the Ruins of Symbaroum itself, but rather the Epic Encounters campaign pack created by Steamforged Games.

SFG have been creating incredible campaign supplements for games based around the 5e rules for a few years now. I checked out a few last year, including the spectacularly good Local Legends Tavern Kit, and now I’m working my way through a mini campaign set in the world of Symbaroum. The Gem in the Barrow and its expansion The Corrupted Coloss present not only everything a DM needs to run this adventure on the tabletop, but also a campaign map and a collection of gorgeous miniatures to run it as a physical board game, too.

The Gem in the Barrow comes with a double-sided map, a campaign book and 20 miniatures. That’s five heroes and three factions’ worth of enemies, each with a leader and four grunt models. The Coloss expansion has the Coloss itself, a huge miniature similar in size to other Epic Encounters bosses like the Manticore. All you’ll need to bring to the party is some dice, a pen and paper, and your imagination.

Flicking through the campaign book shows off Steamforged Games’ usual attention to detail and flare for narrative and atmosphere. It presents you with a set of “hooks” to begin your campaign, such as being sent to find the artefact by the Church of Prios, or even just stumbling upon it while exploring. You’ll face elves, goblins, and barbarians during the campaign, although Epic Encounters’ modular nature lets you make up your own hooks, or even slot the Gem in the Barrow campaign into an existing narrative, or as part of a new one. You could use it in conjunction with the Tavern set, or any of the Local Legends boxes. The system really is a fantastic resource for budding DMs or those who just want to run a quick campaign over a weekend.

The book offers a variety of outcomes for the quest, which you can choose to segue into a second part, where enemy factions track you down to take back the Gem. 5E DnD is quite combat-heavy, and that suits the setting here very well. You don’t always have to fight, of course, but if you do the enemies are presented with full character sheets, stats, abilities and equipment – including loot. You don’t have to stick to any of it rigidly, but it’s a great starting point. Some knowledge of 5e is required, but it’s pretty easy to follow if you’ve any experience with DnD at all.

I’m always really impressed with SFG’s minis, and these are no exception. Having recently gotten into Godtear and fallen in love with some of the Champions there, I was really excited to check out the Ruins of Symbaroum miniatures and I wasn’t disappointed.

There are five heroes in total, and while they are pretty definitively designed to represent the main archetype of Ranger, Rogue, Mage, Barbarian, and Fighter, you could use your imagination to expand on those. Each sculpt is well detailed, my favourite being the Ranger type with the bloodhound. You’ll need the Ruins of Symbaroum Player’s Handbook to run a faithful campaign that includes the world-specific rules for magical corruption, or you can use the Symbaroum Core Rules and forego the 5e element if you choose to.

As for the Corrupted Coloss expansion, it presents a boss-style encounter to take place after the events of the Gem of the Barrow, whereby your actions disturb a nearby Coloss. In Ambria (Symbaroum’s setting), magic can corrupt witches to the point that they mutate completely, becoming hulking monstrosities, and that’s what you’ll face here. The “mini” is enormous and utterly dominates the play space, which makes for a truly atmospheric encounter. Again, this set comes with a full mini campaign complete with hooks and story beats you can use or ignore.

Fans of Symbaroum, 5e DnD or even the Epic Encounters range can’t go wrong here. While the set isn’t cheap, it’s the sort of thing you could club together with your regular DnD party to pick up if you want to add a different element to your usual campaigns. It may be slightly more rigid than most casual DnD players will be used to, and it requires the Ruins of Symbaroum Handbook to truly get the most out of it, but overall this is another superb addition to the Epic Encounters range and will add some spice to any DnD narrative.

Epic Encounters: Ruins of Symbaroum and the entire Epic Encounters range is available from Steamforged Games. For more information, follow this link.