Monday night I had my usual game session with everyone, including a new player who takes my table to six (yikes) players. Everyone in the group is between the ages of nineteen and twenty four, for some context. They aren't grognards or veteran players. They cut their teeth on 5e and only played Pathfinder when I stripped away some of the "harder" concepts like skill ranks and combat maneuver bonus/ defense.
I function best with three players. I've decided that's my and my table's sweet spot. I can divide focus, attend conversations more actively, and take notes more easily. My attention is less frayed. With six players, I essentially increase the amount I'm tracking at the table by an order of magnitude. It isn't impossible, but it means my players need to pick up some of the table responsibilities so I can focus on story, reacting to player actions, and details of the world.
That said, our newest player has taken a shine to some of the darker aspects of my campaign world. She immediately started tweaking the backgrounds in the PHB to fit her idea of her character, asked if she could play a human (how refreshing), and settled on an assassin rogue who spent her formative years as a feral child. She was "protected by the forest," that's what I -- the DM -- came up with. Boring. She said, "Yeah, cool, but what if a forgotten god of the forest made sure I didn't die?" That's a great idea, I said. "Can it be tied to my trinket, the snake tattoo I have?" Absolutely, weave the trinket into your character! That's strong narrative thinking. "Okay, and that copy of of the Complete Psionic Handbook you picked up at the bookstore is going to come in handy for my character."
What. I had to stop and pick up the pieces before I realized that my newest player had inadvertently crafted a rich, whole character with plenty of mystique to her backstory, ties to the campaign world, and a cohesive theme. She's an assassin marked by the serpent god that was forgotten in the forest. It protected her as she grew up, even teaching her through subtle nudges the ways of poison, stealth, and guile. Maybe later she'll demonstrate psionic talent.
I'm boasting about one player, but they all have excellent characters this go round. It's only impressive due to the newest player being completely novice to tabletop roleplaying games overall.
The roster for the upcoming game is as follows:
Errhart, a female air genasi druid. Errhart is a keeper circle druid, meaning she has a familiar which she can target with wild shape. We flavored her familiar as a small mech leftover from a high-tech organization predating the war. Errhart wields a quarterstaff of metal shaped like a shepherd's crook, from which she hangs a lantern. She wants to repair her grandmother's plane and go back to the ruins where her father died.
Chimera/ Philos. Stone is a changeling sorcerer who woke up in a tank underground. He believes he was created with alchemy, and goes by the "name" that was written on the side of his tank. Unsure of why or by whom he was created, Chimera is a drifter who found kindred spirits in a travelling troupe of performers. He splits his time between school in Desert Wind, where he appears as a young teen, and the troupe. Chimera seems to crave experience and learning. Chimera wields a terbutje, or war club, set with pieces of strange glass littering the bunker in which he woke up.
Keur-1G is the warforged seeker discovered by our party's gnome alchemist, Quincy Sappledoop. The two of them work in an empty hangar in the airfield, where Quincy tinkers and seeks new treasures from the wilds beyond the village. Keur-1G wants to help all the squishy people in Desert Wind, and he does favors for the townsfolk. He likes to adventure and explore old ruins and dungeons.
Jormungand is the aforementioned human assassin, whose life in the forest remains a mystery which will be revealed through play. However, connections to the dark serpent gods seems to be a large facet of the character. Jorm entered Desert Wind and has been a part of the community since, sometimes lending her expertise with stealth and survival to the overall success of the town.
Aias is the only character which still needs a backstory, but the barbarian will certainly add some much needed front-line to the combat side of the party.
In the worldbuilding time I set aside this week, I accomplished a good deal of work. Most of it is in snippet form, but the amount of content I was able to get on paper satisfied the itch I had.
Some secrets from the campaign world:
The moon kingdoms went to war over a passing comet rumored to hold enormous power, and now one of the moons is a desolate wasted ruin with no one watching over it. I'll probably use this as a way to introduce aberrant creatures to the world, by having an appropriately powerful aberration claim the moon and send its agents into the world below.
The elves offended the archfey, and no one has seen faeries in the graveyards since then (almost a hundred years). This is a more open-to-improv secret, but I foresee players coming into contact with the fey psychopomps of the world, who shuffle souls between heaven and hell.
The frost giants found a fabled artifact of winter and have used it to retreat to their homeland, once inaccessible to them. They are deciding what to do now that they have their home back. Some giants will want to begin the war on their enemies once again, and others will want to live out peaceful lives. This is a political/ war scenario for players of a higher level. However, low-level characters might encounter bands of frost giant pilgrims making their way back to their homeland, which might be fun if they share a campfire or hunt together.
I also put together some one-sentence snippets about some exploration sites for my players to salivate over. A few of them area here:
The Ruins, an abandoned and ancient city in the forest, reclaimed by nature, where bandits scavenging for tech and wild animals fight for territory. This is where Errhart's father died, and it will feature prominently in the first arc of the campaign. It's a way to show the opulence of the world before the Long War and reinforce the languid, time-stuck world the characters are in now.
The Great Caves, which lead to an old dwarven city constructed prior to the rise of the Ceilian empire. This dwarven city gives context to the Long War, which began in part due to the dwarves throwing off the yoke of the Ceilian elves and reintroducing aethertech to the world. This ruin lets players see what dwarven civilization was like before the elves took over, and will cast the dwarves as a Roman analogue. They were philosophers, warriors, and artists who built a mighty empire by absorbing smaller peoples. When they bumped into the elves, they found an enemy they couldn't best, and the rest is history.
The Radio Tower, an ancient monument to the science of the world before the war. Parts can be salvaged, deep transmissions can be intercepted, and distress calls can be heard. The radio tower is a perfect way to add fetch-quests, expand the explorable world, and drop in Macguffins.
The Old Chapel, a church to a faith system that predates the Long War, where the scars of a great battle are still visible. Players will learn about the schism in faith that led to the elven civil war. This war saw the Ceilian empire weakened, which gave the dwarves the opening they needed to rise up from beneath their oppressors. Unfortunately, it also set the stage for the Long War, and pitted otherwise-allies against each other. It also led to the formation of a weirder part of the world, the islands of Pillonai.
Finally, the new campaign heavily features some expanded rules from the supplement, Darker Dungeons by Giffyglyph. Highly recommended reading for anyone wanting to add some realism, grit, or pacing to their game.
In particular, I'm using the Discovery, Adversity, and Recovery experience rules, which hearkens to old-school DnD by making the majority of XP gained come from recovered treasures. Magic items and gold pieces don't count, but art pieces, gems, and relics of the past do count. They generate income and XP, so they're doubly important to the would-be adventurer. I felt like this encapsulated the drive most people have to recover and observe the treasures of the pre-war world. Players want to pull that stuff from dungeons, and they only have so many item slots to do so. I figure they'll quickly learn to use pack animals.
I'm also using the Long Rest Variant from the DMG, coupled with the Journey rules from Darker Dungeons. This means the exploratory parts of the game are still tense, rife with opportunity for roleplaying and discovery, and meaningful. It doesn't tax players any more than usual, but it does mean that random encounters are hazards to be avoided rather than chump fights to be sloshed through.
Finally, I implemented a change to the rules of my own devising. Spellcasters who wish to learn 4th, 5th, and 6th level spells must find them in the campaign world by questing for them as rewards, learning them from a mentor, etc. Essentially, no one just "learns" these spells upon leveling up, like a wizard, or has them automatically available to prepare, like a cleric or druid. The only exception is sorcerer, which I've decided is the rarest form of spellcaster and a true anomaly. Characters have to earn these spells. Spells of 7th level and higher function this way for sorcerers, as well. For all other characters, 7th level and higher spells are assumed to not exist. The characters which can cast spells of these levels still gain slots, but must discover the individual spells they wish to know through gameplay. They can't learn them from mentors or find them in libraries. They can't get them from a druid as reward for a quest. They have to delve to the deepest pre-war ruins and battle old horrors for them. They have to earn them from the gods. They have to slay a lich in her lair and pry the knowledge from her spellbook, possibly going insane as they do so.
This means the world is inherently less magical than it used to be. The technology is spread out and is usually being used. The only place to find excess magic and tech is to go looking for it in the ruined world beyond the villages and towns. OSR, but new wave 5e OSR. The world isn't likely to improve at the hands of the players, but the world is filled with wonder and old legacies.
So this is my early morning hour long blog spew. I'd like to give a shout out to Sly Flourish for the idea of campaign secrets. This is an old post, but that blog is chock full of good DMing advice.
Giffyglyph gets mention for the excellent campaign tool that is Darker Dungeons. I can't value this high enough for getting 5e to where I want it to be. My players appreciate it, too, and they're excited about Active Initiative and the Ammo Die.
Finally, I have to thank u/DeathMcGunz for the awesome work done on Desert Wind, which heavily inspired me to just say fuck it and go for the idea of tech and magic and weirdness and not care whether it's incongruent. Players will reconcile anything if it sounds cool. Mine are stoked beyond belief about exploring a fantasy apocalypse world that nods to Ghibli.
I listened to Seven Lions while writing this. It's good, epic electronic music.
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