In this RPG Publisher Spotlight, we venture into the grim and perilous depths of 5e Adventures.
While the indie publishing label was only established in 2024, the creative force behind it, Eric Bleney, has been rolling dice since the 1990s, transitioning from board game design with Dark Mages to creating ‘no-prep’ modules for the world’s most popular roleplaying game.
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Currently funding Filth Below Gallows-Ford on Kickstarter, Eric joins us to discuss the transition from card mechanics to narrative arcs, the economics of indie publishing, and how to inject a little Warhammer-style grit into high fantasy.
The Man Behind the Screen
“On the new site, you welcome readers as ‘Rick,’ but the publishing credits are often ‘Eric Bleney.’ Is ‘Rick’ the friendly Game Master who wants us to have a good time, while ‘Eric’ handles the serious business of Kickstarter fulfilment? How do you balance those two hats?”
Lol, indeed, seen from the outside, it can seem confusing. Ever since I was young, all my friends have called me Rick. So, on the English-speaking side, I think it works well lol. Your description sums it up nicely: is “Rick” the friendly game master who wants us to have a good time, while “Eric” handles the serious aspects of the project’s implementation?
“You mentioned that 5e Adventures was established in 2024, but you’ve been in the hobby since the 90s and designed Dark Mages back in 2015. What sparked the decision to jump into full-blown 5e publishing right now? Was there a specific ‘lightbulb moment’ at your table?”
Dark Mages, what memories! Dark Mages was the first (and last) board game I made with my friend Rick (another Eric). It all started with the idea of creating a 5E edition game, but as a card game, and to do that, there was nothing better than magicians to begin with. Anyway, the game, Kickstarter, everything worked out fine, BUT I did it too quickly. There were balancing errors and French errors that created an infinite loop… in short, it was too fast. Plus, everything was printed, so one mistake was fatal. Time passed, and I sold the franchise to my friend Maxime Gauthier, who went on to develop a great game called Hellbringer. He needed illustrations (which I had in abundance). Go check out Hellbringer!
For the 5E adventures, I actually started in 2023. The first year was a period of trial and error and adjustment (one of the advantages of only making digital products (PDFs) is that if there’s a mistake, you correct it, send an update to people, and that’s it!).
Kickstarter: Filth Below Gallows-Ford
“With just a week left on the Filth Below Gallows-Ford campaign, how are you feeling? Is it the nervous excitement of a dungeon crawl, or are you confident the party is going to make it out alive?”
I feel great! I hope that the Game Masters players who are backing the adventure will make it out alive lol
“The title alone – Filth Below Gallows-Ford – is incredibly evocative. You mention ‘walking corpse-filth’ and ‘necrotic idols.’ What drew you to this grittier, visceral horror tone for a level 2-3 adventure, rather than saving the scary stuff for higher levels?”
I’ve always loved Grim and Perilous. Something I haven’t mentioned yet (except to you) is that, in addition to having played D&D for a long time, I was also a game master for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition. I love the dark side of this game, which is missing from D&D, which is more high fantasy. That’s why I create certain adventures in this vein (Plague of Kettlebrook, Maw of the Cube, and Filth Below Gallows-Ford). However, I know not everyone likes this genre, so I restrain myself.
“You’ve pitched this as a ‘No Prep’ module. For the GMs out there who are drowning in sticky notes and world-building anxiety, what is the secret sauce that makes Gallows-Ford ready to run right out of the box?”
I want my adventures to be as easy as possible for GMs to run, by creating all-in-one packages (notes for GMs, detailed appendices, maps, etc.). However, I like both sides of the coin: bullet-point style writing, like the work of Kelsey Dionne (The Arcane Library®), whom I admire greatly, and the highly detailed style of Christopher Perkins (an inspiration). In short, I try to balance everything in a style that is simple for DMs.
The 5e Adventures Range
“Looking at your catalogue, you’ve been incredibly prolific lately with titles like Under the Black Flag (pirates), Eldfjall’s Fury (fire giants), and Eyes of Basirah (desert magic). Do you start with a mechanic you want to explore, or does the setting always come first?”
My thing is to think DM-First. I like to scribble down short scenarios I’d like to work on, then see how complex they are. But it’s always the story that comes first.
“You promise ‘rich narratives’ and ‘stunning visuals’ on the site. How do you ensure that a module is visually striking without making it so expensive that it prices out the average DM?”
Although I love writing, one thing I learned with Dark Mages is the cost of illustrations. Creating stunning images is expensive (and I’m not questioning the work of the artists here), but it costs around $200-$300 USD each… so, for what I do, I use Midjourney (AI) to produce them. Of course, one day, if this little train goes far, I would love to work with illustrators to bring my adventures to life. But right now, I would have to charge substantially more for the adventures to make that happen. So, to make these adventures accessible, I use image generation.
“Many of your adventures seem to hit that ‘Sweet Spot’ of levels 3 to 8. Is that your favourite tier to design for, or do you think that’s just where the 5e system shines the brightest?”
As a DM, I like to send my players on adventures that I create myself. I imagine that all DMs do the same. But after a few levels, we want to have things that can help us, such as pre-made adventures, for all sorts of reasons (too much work and not enough time to prepare, lack of ideas or writer’s block, etc.). Between levels 3 and 8, it’s good to have ideas to help us prepare our sessions more quickly.
Industry & Future
“Coming from a background in card game design with Dark Mages, do you find that influences how you write RPG adventures? Do you ever catch yourself trying to ‘balance’ a narrative beat like it’s a card mechanic?”
No, I tried the opposite, which was to make Dark Mages more narrative-driven. In my last Kickstarter campaign for Dark Mages (Dark Mages: Advanced Edition), I came up with the idea of dungeon crawling and narrative scenarios. Still, fate played against me and I gave up on the project… maybe one day I’ll come back to it.
“If you could force every GM to read just one page of Filth Below Gallows-Ford to convince them to back it, which encounter or room description would you point them to?”
Ahhh, The Hangin Pit
When the characters descend the corridor from area C and enter the chamber, read or paraphrase the following:
The corridor opens into a vast, circular chamber carved from raw stone. The air here is frigid and still, heavy with the stench of death. Your lights reveal the chamber’s horrifying centerpiece: a 20-foot-deep pit that dominates the floor, its edges slick with black ichor. The pit’s depths are shrouded in darkness even to your light sources, as if the shadows themselves resist illumination.Suspended from the vaulted ceiling by thick iron chains are dozens of corpses at various stages of decay, swaying gently in an unfelt breeze. Some dangle directly over the pit, while others hang above the narrow ledge that rings the chamber’s edge. The corpses’ empty eye sockets seem to watch you.
On the far side of the chamber, opposite your entrance, a stone ledge juts from the wall. Upon it rests a grotesque idol carved from black wood, twisted, organic, and pulsing with sickly purple light. The idol is perhaps three feet tall, its surface crawling with writhing symbols that hurt to perceive directly.
Between you and the idol stands a towering figure. It is nearly seven feet tall, its body an amalgamation of stitched and decaying flesh. Rusted chains wrap around its limbs like trophies, and its jaw hangs loose, revealing broken teeth. It turns its milky white eyes toward you and speaks in a wet, gurgling voice: “No… more… visitors.”
“Once the dust settles on Gallows-Ford, what is next for 5e Adventures? Are we staying in the grit and grime, or heading somewhere sunnier?”
A sunnier way with a Dungeon Crawl. This will be the last one before the holiday break, so I’m going to take a break and work on it in 2026. I have lots of ideas, so a complete campaign (which I’ve been working on for a few months) and printed scenarios are coming soon!
Thanks, Eric!
Quick Links
- Current Kickstarter: Filth Below Gallows-Ford
- Eric Bleney on DriveThruRPG
- 5e Adventures
