Game designer Matthew Corley outlined this adventure with his daughter, Harper, after her first round of chemotherapy treatment for leukemia. Now Harper is in remission, and Corley has joined with a small army of top-tier D&D designers to create Harper’s Tale, an adventure in which a group of adventurers travel through a magical forest in search of a cure to a plague that is spreading across the land. Moreover, all net proceeds from the crowdfunding campaign (which is 102% funded on IndieGoGo at the time of writing) will be donated to benefit Friends of Kids with Cancer—the organization that helped give Matthew Corley and Harper their “First Good Day” after her diagnosis.

What is Harper’s Tale?

Harper’s Tale is an adventure compatible with fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons that brings a group of heroes from 1st to 10th level over the course of ten adventures as they battle a mysterious plague. The adventure is estimated to be at least 130 pages long, and distributed as both a PDF and as a physical book, to be completed in June 2020. The adventure promises to be an experience the whole family can enjoy, with a tale as dark and dangerous as they come, with a tone of heroic hopefulness—just like the tale of Harper’s real-life battle.  

The first chapter of the adventure, “Welcome to Grove,” is available for free on the adventure’s IndieGoGo page. This first chapter introduces the adventurers to the woodland village of Grove, as well as the virulent illness spreading through it. They have the chance to earn a quick victory—curing the sickness in Grove—but this easy win is just a prelude for the adventurous dangers to come.

Corley wrote on the IndieGoGo campaign page:

Harper is a gamer; she’s in Tales of the Margreve (Kobold Press) with her sister, Ghoul Island (Petersen Games), and she plays D&D and loves to write stories. It only makes sense that we write a D&D adventure book together and to use it as a platform to raise funds Friends of Kids. This project began as a conversation in the hospital, turned into an outline after she was discharged, and is now an amazing book that we’re all so proud of.

Joining Harper and I are an elite team of creators including: Jeff Stevens, Ben McFarland, Brian Suskind, Hannah Rose, Ashley Warren, Kienna Shaw, Bill Barnett, MT Black, Donathin Frye, Anna Landin, Gwendy B, Anna Meyer, Dyson Logos, Jessica Ross, and others! Kobold Press and Petersen Games also pitched in to us bring this to life.

Have you contributed to Harper’s Tale on IndieGoGo? Supporting this campaign will get you a D&D adventure by some of the best designers out there, and also supports Friends of Kids with Cancer!

James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of  Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.