New 5e Elemental Dragons Soar Onto Kickstarter

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When it comes to D&D and fantasy TTRPGs, there’s no shortage of dragons to choose from. Elemental Dragons, however, may just offer a fresh new take on everyone’s favorite fire-breathing wyrms. The latest Kickstarter from Nord Games (the TTRPG publisher behind Treacherous Traps and the Ultimate Bestiary series) has already soared past $100,000 USD in pledges and been listed as “Project We Love” on Kickstarter.

The content, however, is more than just another collection of dragon stat blocks. Instead it consists of four D&D 5e compatible bookd that provide more unusual draconic designs, along with tie-in adventures, magic items, treasure and even a complete campaign setting. So is Elemental Dragons worth adding to your hoard? Below, we hatch all the details.

What Is Nord Games’ “Elemental Dragons” about?

Elemental Dragons is a new D&D 5e compatible series of supplements running now on Kickstarter from Nord Games. It consists of four books in total, each of which is focused on a different aspect of dragonkind.

• Bestiary & Crafting Guide: This book features stat blocks and lore for over 300 new elemental dragons, with everything from volcanic wyrms and storm serpents to frostbound leviathans and acid-spewing cave drakes. It also includes new rules for harvesting and crafting magic items from dragon parts.
• Campaign Setting: This book offers a full guide to the dragon-dominated realms, filled with warring factions, divine relics and political intrigue among ancient wyrms (which sounds similar in many ways to AD&D 2nd Edition’s Council of Wyrms box set).
• Quests & Lairs: This book includes a series of drop-in adventures and mapped lairs for a variety of levels that can be run as one shots or dropped into an existing campaign (much like the recent Dragon Delves adventure anthology for D&D 2024).
• Treasure Hoard: This final book in the set includes new magic items, artifacts and cursed relics, most of which are built around the theme of draconic elemental energy.

Notably on the Kickstarter page, Nord Games has indicated that each of the four books is designed to stand alone or work together, meaning DMs can use Elemental Dragons to run a full campaign or simply spice up their existing worlds.

It’s also worth noting that collectively the books lean more into unusual dragon designs, rather than the typical lawful chromatic and evil metallic dragons which exist in the lore of the official D&D multiverse. The dragons presented in Elemental Dragons are meant to break a lot of the familiar tropes and cliches, particularly in terms of the terrain they inhabit, the breath weapons they use and their overall behavior.

What Are the Pledge Levels for “Elemental Dragons”?

There are a few different options to choose from, with most focused on the four core books, along with a few extra bells and whistles. It’s also worth noting that the Kickstarter includes new digital versions for use with Nord Games’ upcoming Oracle RPG app, which is a new campaign management and random table generator platform.

• $30 USD: PDF and Oracle RPG versions of the Bestiary & Crafting Guide.
• $60 USD: Hardcover, PDF and Oracle RPG versions of the Bestiary & Crafting Guide.
• $120 USD: Hardcover, PDF and Oracle RPG versions of both the Bestiary and Campaign Setting.
• $180 USD: Hardcover editions of the Bestiary, Campaign Setting and Quests & Lairs.
• $240 USD: All four hardcover books, plus PDF and Oracle RPG versions of each.
• $300 USD: Includes all four hardcover books, PDFs, Oracle versions, two map packs, five Player’s Guides, a custom dice tray, a DM screen and a “Boop the Dragon” enamel pin.

Shipping will be handled via the Kickstarter pledge manager, with an estimated delivery for September 2026. Early bird tiers also include free dice sets and bonus PDFs (although these are limited in number).

Who Is Nord Games?

Nord Games is a TTRPG publisher founded in 2011 and located in Watsonville, California that produces dice, accessories and supplements; the latter of which are primarily focused on the D&D 5e rules.

Some of their most popular D&D 5e compatible products include the Ultimate Bestiary series of monster compendiums, the Treacherous Traps dungeon traps book, and the Dangerous Destinations exploration guide. Over the years, they’ve also been highly active on Kickstarter and have successfully launched over 30 TTRPG-focused campaigns.

Why Back “Elemental Dragons”?

If you’re on the fence, here are a few reasons why you might want to back the project on Kickstarter:

• A New Take On an Old Monster: While there’s no shortages of dragon books and stat blocks to choose from, Nord’s approach with Elemental Dragons feels like it’s offering something new, rather than rehashing the same old tired, fire-breathing cliches.
• Deep Crafting System: Dragon harvesting and crafting rules are something we haven’t seen much of in other D&D 5e compatible materials, offering some unique potential here for new magic items and equipment.
• Drop-In Adventures: The fully mapped lairs and plug-and-play quests make it easy to introduce dragons as major bosses or recurring campaign villains, while the idea of a complete dragon-focused campaign world is something we haven’t seen since the AD&D 2nd edition days.
• Proven Track Record: With more than 30 fulfilled Kickstarters and a ton of D&D 5e compatible books under their belt, Nord Games knows what they’re doing and the quality of Elemental Dragons is likely going to be high in terms of art, design and content.

Final Thoughts

Elemental Dragons doesn’t seem like another monster manual or an attempt to rehash old draconic concepts. Instead, it feels like a fresh take on a classic D&D trope. It remains to be seen, however, just what the final product is like, but as of this writing, it’s already passed its initial funding goal, with its crowdfunding hoard still growing.

If you’re interested in picking up any of the books, you can back Elemental Dragons now on Kickstarter.