Inferno
 This page is needs images. Help plz. |
Inferno is an upcoming setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition by the Italian gaming company Acheron Books. Advertised as "the world's first ever Dantesque Campaign Setting", Inferno is a setting that attempts to take Hell as described in La Divine Commedia, the epic poem trilogy by Dante Alighieri, and convert it into an adventuring setting whilst still remaining as close to the original lore as possible, as opposed to just diving into the pop-culture version of Hell you might see in the likes of Baator.
In a campaign of Inferno, players take on the role of Lost Ones; living souls somehow displaced from their mortal bodies and fallen into Hell, where their prominent sins are catalyzed by the dark energies of that dreary netherrealm, forcing them to assume an Archetype that indicates their ruling sin and which part of the Inferno they will be damned to upon their death. The goal of the Lost Ones is to cling to their precious Hope whilst traveling into the deepest depths of Hell, where they will find the only gateway to escape back to the world of the living; should they lose all Hope, then their soul is lost and they will be trapped in Hell like any other sinner for all eternity.
Splatbooks
Inferno will consist of two splatbooks; Dante's Guide to Hell, which is the basic Player's Handbook of the setting and covers the Lost One race and the basic Archetypes, and Virgilio's Lost Tales, a combination Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide which also has optional player content hidden inside of it.
Races
The default race in a game of Inferno is the Lost One, the displaced, sin-warped soul of a living being. Neither alive nor dead, Lost Ones have a chance to redeem their sins and escape Hell, but not the certainty of doing so.
Archetypes
Taking the place of classes, Archetypes represent the specific governing sin that defines a Lost One's soul. Those Archetypes available in Dante's Guide to Hell consist of the the Beast, Jester, Vicar, Pagan, Tyrant, Serpent, Illuminatus, Slave, Saint, Exiled, Heresiarch and False Prophet. Obviously, multiclassing is forbidden in a traditional game of Inferno.
Each Archetype embodies a specific sin, and is thus destined to end up in a particular region of Hell should the Lost Soul die or lose all Hope.
Crossovers?
There is some discussion to the idea of integrating Inferno into different settings, such as having it be tied to a more "conventional" Dungeons & Dragons world. However, not a lot of time is spent talking about this in Dante's Guide to Hell, and there are some obvious issues, namely the existence of the Pagan Archetype, which doesn't make sense in an inherently polytheistic cosmology as opposed to the monotheistic, Christian-inspired setting of the Inferno.