The Dragon Above

Fan-made content for D&D's Eberron campaign setting, including monsters, encounters, stories, player options and magic items for all editions.

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JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying is LIVE!

After years in development, playtesting and refinement, and months of pre-launch campaigning, I'm proud and excited to say that my brand new tabletop roleplaying game JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying is now LIVE on Kickstarter!

JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying

A narrative, collaborative world-building tabletop roleplaying game about friendship and monster battles.

Zero Prep, Collaborative, World-Building... with Monsters!

JourneyMon is a monster tamer game built on an episodic structure, emulating the Saturday morning cartoons we all grew up with. Players travel together in the spirit of friendship, discovering new part of the world and engaging in exciting monster battles. The system is designed to be quick and easy to run, with zero prep for the GM.

You can also play the game RIGHT NOW with the free Quick Start Guide!

And since the look and feel of the game is so much in its art, I want to shout out @crowvaarts, who has done almost all the art here! Thanks to Crowva for giving all of our iconic Trainers and Villains such a pop!

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5 Days to Go! Previews Galore!

The crowdfunding campaign for the full JourneyMon handbook is well on its way! We have smashed through the stretch goal to introduce a brand new Trainer Class to the game (the Monster) and are well on the way to hitting our next goal to unlock the Empowered villain playbook!

Make sure to back the project soon, as there's now only 5 days left!

Previews

To celebrate the successes of the campaign, a few new previews have been uploaded over on Kickstarter.

Preview: Episode Generation. In this update, I reveal some of the mechanics and sample tables behind the Prologue, the game's collaborative world-building phase.

Preview: Making Mayhem. Here I reveal five major powers for the Mayhem type. You can even use these in your Quick Start game today!

Know Your Enemy: Villain Playbook Previews. Look no further than this article for a look at the complete Criminal villain playbook.

200% Funded and First Stretch Goal: the Monster trainer class! As we cruised past our 200% funding stretch goal, I revealed a little about the new Monster player trainer class!

Kiddykat the Chimera is the iconic character representing the Monster trainer class. A bit of meowth, a bit of mewtwo all rolled up into an adorable mascot. With claws.

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JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying is LIVE!

After years in development, playtesting and refinement, and months of pre-launch campaigning, I'm proud and excited to say that my brand new tabletop roleplaying game JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying is now LIVE on Kickstarter!

JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying

A narrative, collaborative world-building tabletop roleplaying game about friendship and monster battles.

Zero Prep, Collaborative, World-Building... with Monsters!

JourneyMon is a monster tamer game built on an episodic structure, emulating the Saturday morning cartoons we all grew up with. Players travel together in the spirit of friendship, discovering new part of the world and engaging in exciting monster battles. The system is designed to be quick and easy to run, with zero prep for the GM.

You can also play the game RIGHT NOW with the free Quick Start Guide!

And since the look and feel of the game is so much in its art, I want to shout out @crowvaarts, who has done almost all the art here! Thanks to Crowva for giving all of our iconic Trainers and Villains such a pop!

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I'm pleased to say the pre-launch campaign for my upcoming tabletop roleplaying game JourneyMon has been going great, and I've been working hard in the background to lay the logistical groundwork. I'm now excited to share with you the launch date of our crowdfunding campaign here on Kickstarter: 28th October 2025!

So in just three weeks from the posting of this announcement, the Journey begins!

Previews

In the meantime, why not take a look at the development logs and previews on the Itch.io page for the Quick Start Guide?

Starting Our Journey(Mon), with a preview of the Heir playbook

JourneyMon Devlog #2: Designing a Type Chart

JourneyMon Devlog #3: Seasons of Adventure - Journey Moves

JourneyMon Devlog #4: Is JourneyMon PbtA?

JourneyMon Devlog #5 - Kill Your Darlings (with Playtests!)

JourneyMon Launch Date & Villain Preview

[dragon-above]

Nearly time for my new game to launch!

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On a day like today how could I resist...

What if Silksong was in JourneyMon?

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JourneyMon Devlog #3: Seasons of Adventure - Journey Moves

JourneyMon Devlog #3: Seasons of Adventure - Journey Moves - JourneyMon Quick Start Guide by Imogen Gingell

JourneyMon is coming soon to Follow the campaign here ! Seasons of Adventure I thought I'd take the opportunity in this dev log to preview o

Time for another devlog for my monster trainer TTRPG JourneyMon! This week I preview some mechanics that aren't in the Quick Start Guide: Journey Moves! Journey Moves like "Evolve" and "Reach a Milestone" are all about campaign play (i.e., anything that carries over from one session to the next). Check out the article for the full Evolve move, and to discover the only way your trainer can die. ☠️

And as always, a reminder that JourneyMon is coming soon to Kickstarter! Be sure to sign up to be the first notified when the crowdfunding campaign kicks off!

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JourneyMon Devlog #2: Designing a Type Chart for a TTRPG

JourneyMon Devlog #2: Designing a Type Chart - JourneyMon Quick Start Guide by Imogen Gingell

JourneyMon is coming soon to Follow the campaign here ! Designing a Type Chart Almost all monster taming/monster collecting video games have

I've just released a new post on itch about one of the big design challenges of JourneyMon: building a monster "type chart" for a TTRPG. I discuss my design goals, early drafts, and a mistep that I had to delete from the game entirely!

And as always, a reminder that JourneyMon is coming soon to Kickstarter! Be sure to sign up to be the first notified when the crowdfunding campaign kicks off!

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Starting Our Journey(Mon)

My first devlog for my monster taming TTRPG JourneyMon is out now! Did you know its been exactly 5 years since I started working on it?

In the article I discuss the history and current state of the game, from its inception, through playtesting, editing and now to our Kickstarter campaign. Learn about the game's original code name, and a couple of mechanics that have stood the test of time.

This is the first of many, and I'll dive into various design choices in more depth as the series continues. Next up is likely to be a deep dive on the type chart!

Starting our Journey(Mon) - JourneyMon Quick Start Guide by Imogen Gingell

Welcome, TTRPG and monster-taming enthusiasts, to JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying ! A few weeks ago, we officially launched the Quic

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JourneyMon: Monster Trainer TTRPG

I'm excited to announce my new TTRPG passion project JourneyMon is coming soon to Kickstarter!

JourneyMon is a game all about going on a journey, making friends and battling monsters. Sessions are set up like Episodes of a TV show, including a Prologue where you generate the location your trainers are travelling to, and the "monster of the week".

Check out the pre-launch page here:

Coming soon: JourneyMon: Monster Trainer Roleplaying

A narrative, collaborative world-building TTRPG about friendship and monster battles.

Of course, we also have a free Quick Start Guide ready to play RIGHT NOW on itchio.

As always with these things, it means so much to the project for folks to click that all important 'notify me' button the Kickstarter page.

I hope you're gonna enjoy this game as much I enjoyed writing it!

[dragon-above]

It’s finally time to reveal a project I’ve been working on at varying speeds for two years now...

Escape from Riedra

This module is the first Sarlona adventure EVER published for Eberron! Your players will have the joys of exfiltrating a political asset, outwitting an insidious surveillance state, and battling psionic foes. And as an added bonus, the main story is all about getting a WLW couple the happy ending they deserve! Take a look here - the free previews are extensive! https://www.dmsguild.com/product/330694/Escape-from-Riedra-An-Across-Eberron-Adventure

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Bag of Holding Monsters: Above & Below Versions are live! :D

28 monsters, 28 drawings of weird Eberron pokemon. Now with 5e stats!

Get them on the DMs Guild now!

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Bag of Holding Monsters  - Preview 2!

Exploreach is still one of my favourites to come out of this whole weird and wonderful project.

[dragon-above]

I may have gotten carried away with this Eberron+Pokemon idea. Now I’m writing a whole monster manual for these beasties. 

Eventually they’ll be published together as Bag of Holding Monsters! Two versions will be available: Above Version and Below Version. 

Don’t worry...unlike the games they’re based on, both will include all the monsters!

I hope you enjoy this sample page for the Mournland’s pokemon, Moureign!

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Eberron Pokemon #14 - Zilargo

The goblinoids have a legend that the gnomes of Zilargo are descended from wererats…so a mouse pokemon seemed like the natural choice!

Zilagents love to gather secrets to get the upper hand. They scribble rumours down onto dead leaves.

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Eberron Pokemon #12-13 - Darguun & Dhakaan

In Eberron, the goblinoids are called dar in their own tongue. Thousands of years ago, Khorvaire was dominated by a goblinoid empire called Dhakaan. The Empire had exceptional smiths, called daashor, who have crafted our ancient Dhakaan pokemon a fine set of armour. Nowadays, goblinoids in Eberron are treated as something of an underclass, but recently they have risen up to claim a new nation for themselves: Darguun. One day, the leaders of that nation hope to reclaim something of their lost heritage. And that’s why we have this evolution line!

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Eberron Pokémon #11 - Stormreach

Me: Stormreach is a colony at the edge of a jungle, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and the main hub for extraction of ancient relics from Xen’drik to Khorvaire. Naturally, its Pokémon should be a grass type because its a jungle mon, and dark type as a critique on the evils of colonialism. I should look up a bunch of invasive plant species and…

Also me: he’s just this lil’ guy

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Eberron Pokemon #9 - Seren, Argonnessen

Argonnessen is that big part of Eberron’s world map that just says “here be dragons”. On the northwest coast is an island chain called Seren, home to humanoids who are tasked with protecting the mainline from intruders. One of their holiest sites is Totem Beach, on Argonnessen proper. There, giant stone dragon heads serve as a warning to anyone that would try and go deeper into the continent. 

So….rock/dragon statue head, and diglett’s older, scarier cousin. Imagine 10 different colour variations to represent each of the major chromatic and metallic dragon kinds!

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Eberron Pokemon #8-9 - Aerenal

Continuing a bit of a “Beyond Khorvaire” theme, following Riedra. These were quite an easy pair to concept up. The typing choices are fairly obvious: Elves are fey-ish, and they preserve their ancestors as undead/deathless. The golden mask design is a direct reference to the symbol of the Undying Court.