Saintheart
2022-03-17, 07:30 AM
Welcome to the OOC thread for Saintheart's campaign The Cold World!
The IC thread can be found here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?643812-The-Cold-World)
Player Name
Character
Race and Class
DrK
Njal "Stormcaller" (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2191185)
Glacier Dwarf Druid 5
Palanan
Etti Birchlegs (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2721576)
Wilderness Rogue 1/Nature Bard 4
Novabomb
Ramiro Sanda (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2192010)
Unarmed Swordsage 5
Cygnia
Kaelan Frost-Eater (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2721020)
Cloistered Cleric 5
Metastachydium
Gerlin Kaisa (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2721330)
Cloistered Cleric 1/Bardic Sage 1/Warblade 3
This campaign is about a group of heroes coming into their own in a world of adventure. Unlike traditional D&D campaigns, there won’t be a single, overarching plot or campaign goal. Just the characters and the adventures they have on their rise to greatness. As a player, you’ll decide what motivates the character you’ve created. As a party, you’ll decide where to go, what to seek, what to explore, and what goals to pursue. Don’t worry, though. The world’s not just a blank map you have to fill in. It’s filled with interesting dungeons to delve and ruins to explore, sure, but’s also got all sorts of characters to meet, conflicts to resolve, quests to undertake, threats to confront, allies to gain, and mysteries to solve. You never have to strike out into the wilderness in the hopes of finding something interesting to do. But you can if that’s what you want to do.
Having the onus to drive the game dropped in your lap can be difficult. It might feel confusing or overwhelming. You might not know how or where to start. Just keep these five things in mind as you play and you’ll figure out the rest as the game goes on.
1. Know Your Needs, Know Your Wants, Know Your Motivations
2. Be Curious, Be Attentive, Make Note or Take Notes
3. Find a Need – Or Want – And Fill It
4. Seek and Ye Shall Find
5. Choose Carefully, But Not Too Carefully
1. Know Your Needs, Know Your Wants, Know Your Motivations
There’s adventure in every direction, so how do you know which direction’s best? Let your character’s needs, wants, and motivations be your guide.
Your character’s needs are most important. And the most important need is survival. You’ll always need safety, shelter, food, and water at the very least. In town, you can buy those things or rent them, but that means you need money. In the wilderness, you have to bring those things along or find them where you go. So, you’ll need supplies, survival skills, or magic. If you don’t have them, you can buy them. Or hire them. But you’ll need money for that too.
You might have other survival needs, too, depending on what happens to you during the game. You might need treatment for major injuries, diseases, or poisons, for example. You might need to protect yourself from specific hazards or conditions during specific adventures. Or you might need to have a curse lifted or a demon exorcised.
As an adventurer, you also have needs beyond simple survival. For example, you need tools and equipment so you can do whatever it is you do. Weapons, armor, spell components, lockpicks, and so on. And you need to keep your equipment in good order. Equipment can get damaged. It can wear out. It can get lost or stolen.
As you get stronger, you’ll be facing greater challenges. And soon enough, you’ll find your equipment just isn’t good enough for the task at hand. This is why you’ll need to upgrade your equipment periodically. Or replace it with better equipment.
Speaking of getting stronger, you’ll be gaining experience during your adventures. But you’ll need to spend time training to hone your skills. To practice what you’ve learned. At the very least, you’ll need access to some training or study resources between adventures. Space to practice, maybe a sparring partner or a dummy, a library, a shrine and a priest to tend it. If you can train with others — even if they aren’t more powerful than you — you’ll benefit more than you would alone. And if you want to start pursuing a new talent or ability — gain a new skill, learn a completely new spell, gain a feat, adopt a sub-class or class build, or start on the path to multiclassing — you will need a trainer to help you. And some trainers will even be able to teach you things outside your normal class and level progression. (This is particularly so for druids and wizards. Remember, past character level 6, new spells for arcanists can normally only be learned as part of levelling up at the Mountain, which is a specific location in Chalice, far from Hardwalker Hall and the lands of Hylkeiden that surround it. And past character level 6, druids have to seek out other druids specifically in order to learn and access new spells. These folk are not as common as one might fist think.)
You won’t be able to fill every need all the time. Sometimes, you’ll have to prioritize. Or go with a need unmet for a while. In the wilderness, you’ll probably have to provide your own security, for instance. But eventually, you’ll have access to spells to protect your camp. Or you’ll be able to buy guard animals or hire guard people. Your equipment can go without maintenance for a little while. But wait too long and it might fail at a crucial moment. You don’t need to upgrade your equipment constantly, but if you go too long without, you might find you’re no longer equal to the dangers you’re facing.
Apart from needs, your character’s got at least one motivation. Probably several. Your motivations ensure that your adventures aren’t just about survival, that there’s something in it for your character. Maybe your character’s in it for wealth. Or glory. Or power. Maybe your character wants to help people. To do the right thing. Maybe your character wants to explore the world. Whenever you’re not struggling to survive, your motivations will tell you what you should be doing.
(Your character’s motivations are obviously theirs, but if you need some inspirations, here’s a list in no particular order:
• Amass wealth
• Earn glory
• Gain respect
• Accrue power
• Achieve status
• Earn recognition
• Obey duty
• Discover truth
• Do good
• Help others
• Perfect self
• Gain knowledge
• Indulge pleasure
• Fulfill destiny
• Stave off boredom
• Satisfy wanderlust
• Instill chaos
• Slake anger
• Mete out justice
• Spread the faith
• Take revenge
• Climb the ranks
• Build a following
• Prove mettle
• Master skill
Finally, remember that it’s always good to be prepared for the future. And that means building a stock of resources. It’s a lot easier to deal with a problem if you already have access to the tool you need, whether that tool’s an actual tool or a trained professional or a magical item or friend with some political influence. Remember that anything can be a resource.
Always know what you need, what you want, and what might be useful later. That’ll help you make smart choices.
2. Be Curious, Be Attentive, Make Note or Take Notes
Remember as you adventure that you’re not walking a road, you’re wandering through a field. And that field is full of opportunities. Opportunities to meet your needs. Opportunities to fulfill your motivations. Opportunities to acquire resources. And opportunities to discover more opportunities.
Opportunities take many forms. Obviously, you’ll come across plenty of posted notices and people in need of help. Those are obvious calls to adventure. But every character you meet is a potential opportunity as well. The merchant can sell you supplies. The herbalist can heal your wounds. The sage can provide valuable information. The urchin can deliver messages or spy on your adversaries. The guard captain can help you get out of trouble. The minstrel can sing your praises and help your reputation. The noble can provide influence and political clout. A whispered rumor overheard in the market or bought with a tankard of ale from the sot at the inn can lead to an ancient treasure or give you leverage over a rival. Some opportunities are as easy to spot as job posting, as loud as a shout from a town crier, as obvious as a sign hung over the herbalist’s door. Others are as subtle as a strange turn of phrase in an otherwise innocuous conversation or the casual drop of a name in passing.
Pay attention to the world. Take note of anything that seems like it might help you meet your needs or fulfill your motivations. Take note too of anything that piques your curiosity. And if something does catch your eye, don’t hesitate to check it out. Visit odd locations. Poke around the neighbourhoods in the city. Sit in a public space, watch, and listen. And strike up conversations with characters in the world. Especially the ones who might help you meet your needs or wants or provide access to a useful resource. Most characters will talk freely to a stranger, but some might require a bit of effort. You might have to build a rapport with someone before they’ll open up. You might have to gain their trust. That might be an adventure in itself.
Not everything represents an opportunity. The world also contains threats. Some threats can hurt or even kill your character, but most threats are less overt. Less direct. In the civilized parts of the world, most threats won’t attack you directly. But they can deprive you of your needs, rob you of resources or potential resources, and prevent you from fulfilling your motivations. Like opportunities, threats might be obvious, or they might be subtle. Even hidden. Unlike opportunities, though, threats can be costly or dangerous to ignore. In those cases, you’ll either need to confront the threat or accept the cost of letting it be.
And then there are mysteries. Mysteries are things that pique your curiosity. They might represent opportunities, they might represent hidden threats, they might carry risks or dangers, or they might just be fun discoveries. The only way to be sure is to investigate them. There’s not always a payoff to pursuing a mystery, but when there is, it’s usually pretty unique.
Because the world is full of opportunities, threats, and mysteries, it’s worth taking time now and then to wander around just to see what’s around you. Like when you first visit a new place or after you finish a major pursuit. Take some time to take stock of the opportunities around that will let you meet your needs, fulfill your motivations, or build your resource pool. Take note of potential threats too. And any mysteries that draw your eye. Just don’t let wandering and noticing be all you do. Window shopping won’t get you anywhere in the end. It’s just a great way to find something you want to buy.
You can easily find out what’s around you by Getting the Lay of the Land (see below). Once you’re pursuing something, though, don’t get tunnel vision. During your adventures, you’ll probably spot other opportunities, mysteries, and threats worth pursuing. Sometimes, it’ll be worth putting your current pursuit on hold to check them out. Otherwise, they’re worth filing away for future investigation.
As a time-consuming action, you can wander the local area and get a sense of what’s around you. The GM will describe the area and note interesting features that might represent opportunities, threats, and mysteries. You might be asked to make skill or ability checks to discover non-obvious features.
In a village, stronghold, or enclave, you can explore the entire locale and its outskirts in one go. You can explore either a town proper or its outskirts. Or you can explore a single neighborhood, district, ward, or complex in a city. In civilized locales, you might also hear about local rumors or happenings in passing (but see Gathering Information below).
In the wilderness, the size of the area you can explore depends on the terrain, visibility, and other factors. You can improve your odds of turning things up by taking advantage of high vantage points, spyglasses, familiars, spells, magical items, and other tools and resources. Because exploring involves crisscrossing a small area, you cannot cover any traveling distance while exploring.
3. Find a Need – Or Want – And Fill It
Once you’ve got a good list of potential opportunities, threats, and mysteries, you – as a party – must decide what to pursue. Do any of you have any unmet needs? Are there motivations you can fulfill? Useful resources to access? Threats to confront? Mysteries to investigate? Such things as these are adventures made of. Or at least, such things are adventures filled with.
Start by prioritizing your immediate needs. Food, water, shelter, security, and health. In settlements, meeting those is usually a matter of renting a room, securing a pallet in a temple or a lord’s keep, or finding a farmer who’s willing to let you sleep in their barn. If you need treatment, you might need to seek out a healer, herbalist, hedgewitch, priest, or chiurgeon. In the wilderness, if you’re going to be in one place for a few days — say while you plunder a dungeon — it’s worth setting up a base camp so you have a place to which you can retreat each day and where you can store your supplies and your plunder. Things can’t get spoiled, broken, stolen, or ruined in a dungeon if you don’t bring them with you. And they don’t weigh you down. At first, you might have to resort to hiding them at your camp — say in a buried chest — but you can use spells and traps to secure your camp and later buy guard animals or hire guards. In general, a good camp is more likely to be disturbed by a lone wild animal looking for food than by an intelligent, powerful monster that just happens upon it. Of course, this varies by the terrain and the precautions you take.
Next, consider your near-term future needs. Can you acquire, upgrade, and repair equipment? Buy supplies? Class tools? Who might buy any exotic treasure you turn up? Do you have access to the facilities you need to use your skills? To train for your next level? In the wilderness, you’ll have to wait until you get back to town. In town, take note of such resources soon after you arrive and investigate them. You don’t want to discover the local priest won’t give you access to the shrine until you gain their trust when you’ve already got enough XP to gain a level.
Once your basic needs are sorted, you can tackle your wants and start stockpiling resources. This is where it’s useful to have a list of the opportunities, threats, and mysteries you’ve identified. As a party, consider your options and pick whatever seems like the best opportunity, the most dangerous threat, or the most intriguing mystery. At this point, the game will probably start to feel more like a normal D&D campaign. You’re just pursuing a goal you chose. But don’t get too wrapped up in the quest mindset. Sometimes, you’ll have to do some investigating before you can define the goal. Sometimes, you’ll have to figure out how best to pursue the goal. Sometimes, you’ll want to change goals based on something you discover. Sometimes, you’ll want to abandon a goal partway through. Sometimes, you’ll discover a goal is just beyond you and you’ll have to give up on it. For now or forever. That’s all fine. You won’t always succeed, but you’ll never run short of opportunities.
Don’t assume you have to do anything a certain way. Don’t assume that you have to fulfill a goal just because someone’s offering it. If a criminal offers you a job you object to, you don’t have to take the job. But you also don’t have to reject the job. You could turn the criminal in to collect a bounty or you could do the right thing by protecting the criminal’s victims. And just because you’re asked to kill all the goblin raiders in the hills, that doesn’t mean the townsfolk won’t be equally happy if you just drive the goblins off or even broker peace with them.
It’s fine for the party to split up and pursue their own needs and wants. Sometimes, that’s the most efficient way to do things. But adventuring is risky. When it comes to major pursuits, especially those that involve traveling beyond the boundaries of civilization, the party will have to work together. And that means you’ll have to pick your goals as a party. Because you’ll each have your own needs, motivations, and perspectives, you won’t always agree on which opportunity’s best. Which means you’ll have to compromise. Sometimes, that means putting your own needs and wants aside to help your allies pursue their own. And sometimes, that means they’ll do the same for you. That’s how it is with groups. Remember, the world’s dungeon floors are littered with the bones of the lone wolves. And your allies have skills you need. That’s why you’re a team. But that has a price. You have to be willing to help your team even when there’s no profit for you once in a while. And hopefully, after a little while, you’ll see your teammates as allies. Comrades-in-arms. Friends even.
4. Seek and Ye Shall Find
Sometimes, you’ll find that you don’t have everything you need to pursue an opportunity. That you’re missing a tool, skill, or another resource. And sometimes, you’ll find that there’s just nothing on your list of opportunities, threats, and mysteries to meet your needs and wants. Sometimes, there just won’t be anything you want to do. And that’s when you need to take a more active role in your explorations.
You can seek anything you can imagine. Information, skills, resources, they’re all available. Somewhere. You just have to find them. The key to finding what you want is specificity. The more specific you are, the more likely you’ll find what you want. Tell your GM, specifically, what you’re looking for. And, if you can, tell your GM, specifically, where and how you’re looking.
First, be specific about what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for healing potions, don’t tell the GM you want to find a magic item shop. If you’re looking for a chance to help someone in need or a way to protect your camp while you’re in a dungeon, say so.
Second, be specific about how and where you want to start your search. Think about what’s around you. What locations have you seen? What characters have you met? Are there any that are more likely to provide a lead? That’s where you should start your search. Want to do a good deed? It’s probably best to visit the local temple. That’s where people go to pray for help. Are you looking to buy something? Start in the market. Are you looking to buy rare spell components? Talk to local magic users first.
Once you’ve figured it out, tell your GM what you’re looking for, where, and how. Just say, “I want to find a work opportunity. I want to help people in need. I’ll start at the Temple of the Father.” And if you don’t know what you need or where to start, you can always ask your GM. Say, “I have this crafting feat, but I don’t know what tools I need to use it.” Or say, “I’d like to find a magic weapon, but I don’t know how to start looking.” The GM will give you an answer. Or at least give you a place to start. Or at least tell you that there’s no way to do that right now.
Sometimes, you won’t have a good starting place. Sometimes, you won’t know exactly what you need. That’s when it’s time to Gather Information.
As a time-consuming action, you can seek information from the locals in a village, stronghold, enclave, town, neighborhood, or complex or a specific location therein such as an inn, market, guildhall, or academy. The more specific you are about the information you are seeking, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for. Or find out that it’s not available. Smaller locations are easier to canvas but the information you’re seeking may not be available at all types of locations. You might be asked to make a skill or ability check to determine whether your efforts are successful, and you might be asked to pay bribes, finders fees, buy drinks, or otherwise sacrifice some money before you can roll or to improve your odds. If you’re successful, the GM will either provide you with the information you’re seeking or provide you with a lead that you can pursue to acquire the information.
Instead of seeking specific information, you can also eavesdrop, gossip, and chatter with the locals. The GM will provide you with several rumors and happenings that might represent opportunities, threats, and mysteries to pursue. This is similar to Getting the Lay of Land, but reveals informational leads rather than locations (see Getting the Lay of the Lay above).
5. Choose Carefully, But Not Too Carefully
While playing this game, you might feel overwhelmed from time to time. At any moment, you’ll probably be aware of several opportunities, threats, and mysteries and you’ll be finding more all the time. You might wonder how you’ll ever know when you’ve found them all. And you might wonder how you’ll ever deal with them all.
You won’t. You can’t. You will never be aware of every opportunity. And you will never be able to pursue every last one of them. It’s impossible. You won’t have the time. You won’t have the resources. And everything you do will change the list of things you can do. So, it’s important to think carefully about what you do. But not too carefully.
You’ll never find all the opportunities, so don’t try. And don’t convince yourself that there’s a perfect opportunity out there to find. Because there isn’t. There’s no perfect choices. Every choice you make has costs, risks, and consequences. By all means, avoid the ones where the risks and costs seem too high and the rewards seem too low, but you can’t avoid any risks or consequences. You can’t avoid taking sides. And whatever you do, you’ll always be losing out on something.
Every choice has consequences because the game’s about consequences. It’s about the choices you make and what happens as a result. It’s about what happens to the heroes on their rise to power. It’s about the heroes becoming whoever they become and what happens along the way.
This isn’t a game you can complete and it’s not a puzzle in optimization. So don’t treat it as such. Treat it as a playground. Treat it as a world full of adventure. And remember that adventure isn’t about endings, it’s about what happens on the way.
About the Setting
Here are some things you need to know about the world and its people:
The world is old, and its one great empire has fallen. The elves, cruel and inhuman rulers over the world, fled through their portals to places unknown fifteen hundred years ago … but their ruins and secrets remained, hidden away by the great storms and snows that covered the land afterward. Though humanity has learned some of what was forgotten of their once-slavemasters, much more is unknown.
Humanity rebelled against their elven slavemasters fifteen hundred years ago, and with the elves’ disappearance through the portals, the climate changed, quickly, irrevocably, warmth draining out of the world in a matter of days. Mankind only survived by clumsily manipulating the elven portals long enough to escape to the world’s equatorial archipelagos, where the elves had their summer residences and retreats. Those who remained perished or hunkered down in empty elven ruins or hastily-built refuges. And there they strived mightily for survival as the menagerie of beasts and horrors the elves kept ranged freely across the frozen continent, tearing at civilisation from all directions. Today, civilisation is slowly recovering. But even within the borders of kingdoms like the Highmark, travel is precarious, and few people travel more than a few days from where they were born. Those who do travel don’t do so lightly. For leaving aside the screaming wind and the bitter cold of the mainland, many dark dangers lurk between the fortified lights of civilisation in the icefields.
The elves abducted a myriad of species from hundreds of worlds via their portals. The storms that raged across Horizon after their retreat consumed all but the strongest; most were not equipped to deal with a sudden and major change in climate. Humanity adapted best and therefore survived: the majority, by going south to the archipelagos; the minority, who remained behind, by seeking shelter in old elven ruins. This minority were helped by the dwarves – the mining slaves of the elves, freed and whose bodies were adapted to live in their tunnels. There is a strong bond of respect and friendship that remains between dwarves and Horizon folk as a result. That said, dwarves breed very slowly and rarely, so they too are rare; sheer attrition and the fight for survival has whittled down their numbers to small clans. The other nonhuman faction are Illumians, bred by the elves, who were used mainly as servants in the elven houses of the archipelagos. There are tiny minorities of halflings and gnomes that survived; they live in humanity’s shadow, also declining. The dwarves and illumians who travel into human lands are unusual among their own races; those raised in or alongside human communities might be considered outsiders by their own people.
Five deities there are, placed in keeping over the world by the Creator who moved on: the Father, the Mother, the Hearthkeeper, the Wild Man, and the Exile. It is whispered that the freezing of the world was caused by the elves wounding the Firekeeper in their arrogance, rather than human insurrection. It is known the Gods maintain the world, ensuring the sun rises and sets and that the tides come and go. But while they have great power over the world, they rarely exercise it unasked. People may pray to the gods to watch over them and with the proper reverence and the right offerings, they will, but the gods have their own matters to attend to. Even so, the Gods have special places in their hearts for mortal beings, even if their personalities vary, their concerns differ, and their relations with mortal beings are distinct.
Then there are the Spirits, who are not gods, but rather spirits of the world itself, of its plants, animals, and locations. It is said they are as old as the world and are the Creator’s true cornerstones of the world, with the five gods only caretakers and builders. Their ways are the ancient ways of the world. And they remain powerful wherever the light of civilization has yet to shine. Those who respect them do not worship them as gods. Instead, they are treated as companions or threats. For not all care for humankind. Some were made as breakers and thus malevolent from their inception; some were corrupted by the elves in their mastery of the world.
The dwarves revere only two gods: the Father and the Hearthkeeper. But they believe their ancestors serve in the hall of the Father, or at the forge of the Hearthkeeper, so most dwarven clans revere their ancestors as spirits and raise shrines to them.
No one doubts the existence of the gods or the spirits. Their power is everywhere. It’s evident, especially where one falls afoul of an evil spirit. Most people don’t argue about whether the gods or the spirits are more important or about the dwarves’ ancestors, as there isn’t much point. That said, most people in the civilised world revere the Gods. They celebrate holidays, maintain shrines, make offerings, ask for guidance, pray for aid. But they know the gods have their own things to think about. Even so, people often keep a superstition or little ritual in their back pocket for the spirits too … just in case the god they are speaking to isn’t available.
Revering of the Spirits is much rarer on the archipelagos than on the mainland. In the Horizon wild you need all the help you can get … or at least need to avoid making enemies. Thus the need for supplication or appeasement of any spirits who you might think are hanging around.
Magic is woven into the heart of the world. There is the great magic of the gods that, if it did not actually create the world, does keep it going. There is the magic of life and death, light and dark, good and evil, and order of chaos that buffet the mind and soul of all mortals. There is magic in the very elements of the world, and there are even various creatures – great and small – born of magic. Magic is an undeniable part of life. But it is tightly controlled in its knowledge, in the case of the gods’ magic and that of the arcane. The five Gods have established temples of worshippers with their headquarters on the archipelagos, and do not permit knowledge of the higher mysteries of their faiths without considerable commitment and sacrifice by anyone who would walk high in his deity’s path.
The masters of the arcane are few, based in one place in the world, and jealously guard their knowledge, only granting it at great price and bearing with it an ongoing physical cost. And even then, neither clerics nor wizards can really say how magic works … only that it is, and it does. Truly powerful magical beings are rare. Magic is not exactly feared, but it is another of those things that people prefer to keep at a distance, for no one knows what it is really capable of and there are lots of stories of what happens when magic goes wrong. Thus, most practitioners of magic are careful not to be too obvious about it.
In the case of the Spirits, it is not easy to acquire knowledge of greater powers. It is not that the knowledge is centralised – only that it is both costly and difficult to find someone who knows more and whose mind has not been broken by the primal powers of the world. There is something about a man who lives his life mainly by the Spirits, known as a druid: it is believed the Spirits follow him. After a certain point, and eventually, if he grows strong enough, he truly does grow to be feared and shunned by the world ... which is what drives him further into the wilds.
You are an unusual individual. Life in Horizon is centred around the family, the settlement, and the clan, around close allegiance to those refuges and fortresses that hold back the cold. You were likely born or at least raised somewhere in Horizon, but you are not, for whatever reason, tied to a family or clan, and thus an outsider, exile, or even outcast. You eschewed the normal life of a hunter, smith, merchant, or carpenter and early marriage and family in favour of a life of travelling the world, confronting challenges, plumbing the depths of ancient ruins, and doing battle with villains or monsters. Why? That is for you to decide. But you and your accidental allies – which you will come to call friends – will face a variety of challenges in Horizon. And you cannot choose not to face those challenges.
You were not born a hero. No one is; heroes are made, not born. Heroes are made by their choices, not their skills. You are not exceptional. There are many out there who can fight better than you, many horrors in the wilds stronger than you … at least at the start of your career. If you wish to be a hero, you must make yourself a hero. Survive. Grow. Earn respect and glory and friendship. But always pick your battles with care, because there is always someone stronger than you.
About your Character
At the start of the game, you’ll have a character who comes from some corner of Horizon. You’ll decide some basic details about where you were born, how you were raised, and what you want out of life. You are taken to be a member of a small adventuring company (i.e. the party), but your background isn’t as important as what you do in the game.
Choosing a race, class, and background details are about more than choosing game mechanics and abilities. It's about deciding the person you want your character to be. Dwarves are very different from humans. Clerics face challenges that are very different from wizards. And the world will treat you differently depending on who you are. Here are some basic details you can think about to get you started.
Races
Most people in Horizon are human. Halflings and Illumians are also common. Dwarves and gnomes are rare and unusual. If you choose not to play a human, you will have to figure out why your character is traveling in the human lands and dealing with human problems with human allies. And you will be treated as unusual by both the humans of the world and the other members of your own race. Perhaps you were an exile, suffered from a disaster, a member of a family of traders who lived near humans or was orphaned and adopted by humans. Or perhaps you left home for another reason. One that makes it very difficult to go back.
Humans are the most numerous, populous, and diverse people of the world. If you’re a human, you’ll have to decide whether you come from one of the two central kingdoms of the Highmark or Chalice, from the more windswept, coastal kingdom of Gullcry, from the nomadic armed caravans of Lithui, the dwarf-influenced city of Thandar, or possibly from the softer islands of the Archipelagos. I’ll help you pick an appropriate origin for the type of character you want to play.
Dwarves are stout, hardy mountain people who dwell in clanholds deep in the heart of the world’s most formidable mountains. They are a proud, honorable people who live in large, monarchal clans steeped in ancient tradition. Dwarves are generally serious, stern, honorable, and proud, but they are hardy drinkers, and they have a reputation for greed. While most dwarves do have a weakness for material goods, it is usually more the craftsmanship they appreciate than the wealth itself. And the status it represents. There are several ancient dwarven clanholds in the Dragontooth Mountains, close by the mountainside human city of Thandar.
Halflings are a small, nimble, optimistic, and cheerful people who are quite at home living alongside humans. Halflings are known to enjoy the comforts of home, family, and kin. But they are also curious to a fault and strangely fearless. They are not, surprisingly, natural wanderers and tend to esconce themselves very firmly in the cities where they live. They have a reputation for thievery that isn’t entirely unearned, and they are also known to be incredibly lucky. Halflings dwell among the humans of Chalice, Gullcry, and are more concentrated than anywhere else in the capital city of the Highmark.
Gnomes are the descendants of an ancient race of faerie folk who were enslaved by the elves in the long distant past. Gnomes retain their fey origins, being mercurial, moody, flighty, impulsive, and sometimes even amoral. As such, the other races tend to have a hard time getting along with gnomes. All gnomes have a natural talent for magic. They are known to dwell in the hills of the Gullcry hinterland.
Illumians are the descendants of the victims of experiments that the elves conducted on some of the first humans they abducted from their homeworlds. After several grotesque failures, the elves succeeded in breeding the Illumian: a human with a manner more pleasing to graceful, cruel elves and far more suited to the regimented, high-skilled but nonetheless drudgery of work in elven mansions and resorts. Paleskinned, taller than average, more than half are bald, and all have luminous sigils floating around their heads. Illumians are orderly, cleave to a code of honour, and seek to increase culture and prioritise learning wherever they are. They are nowhere near as common in Horizon as they are in the archipelagos, but Illumians are often involved in efforts to uncover and reveal old elven secrets in particular. They tend to congregate in small cabals away from human settlements where possible. In Horizon, Illumians are most found in Chalice and the Highmark.
In this age, intermarriage between the races is rare – and is often seen as taboo. As such, half-orcs are extremely rare, and there are no half-elves by dint of the fact there are no elves. Half-orcs are looked at askance even more than nonhuman races are, and very frequently the subject of discrimination or outright hate. Beyond that, many other mortal races do exist, but they are either dangerously uncivilised – such as orcs or goblinoids – or else rare, insular, and private.
Classes
Your class defines your adventuring profession. It is the sum total of what you can do as a result of your various skills and talents. Some classes are professions in their own right. Others are merely a handy designation for game purposes. For example, a wizard is a wizard, but a fighter might be a soldier, mercenary, gladiator, scout, or even a blacksmith with a talent for combat.
The classes available are Bard, Cleric, Crusader, Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Swordsage, Warblade, and Wizard. Other classes may be made available later, but don’t fit the general theme of the game at this time.
Bards are lorekeepers and storytellers, but what really defines them is the art of bardic magic. Bards have mastered a form of magic that is woven into song and story, almost always through an apprenticeship with another bard. Bards might be storytellers or sages, wandering performers, sages and advisors to nobles and leaders, oracles, or would-be heroes obsessed with being the stars of their own stories. By their nature, bards are dabblers and learn a little bit of everything.
A Cleric is an individual whose devotion to one of the gods of the world is so great that have chosen to work that god’s will in the world. And who has been rewarded with the magic of the gods themselves. Not all clerics are priests, and very few priests are clerics, but often, the two go hand-in-hand. A cleric is defined by their devotion to a single god and a willingness to give their life over to serving that god. And that devotion has earned the blessing of the gods. But it is not freely given. A cleric who goes against their god may be stripped of their powers or suffer fierce retribution. Clerics combine combat training and divine magic to serve as the soldiers of the gods in the world. But to learn greater power takes time and expense in the archipelagos, where the great churches are based.
- Only the following domains from the PHB are available. There are five gods between whom the domains are divided as follows:
The Father. Domains: Knowledge, Law, Death
The Mother. Domains: Earth, Protection, Healing
The Hearthkeeper. Domains: War, Sun, Fire, Strength
The Wild Man. Domains: Animal, Plant, Travel, Water, Air
The Exile. Domains: Trickery, Magic, Destruction, Chaos
- All gods have the Good domain.
A Crusader is the shadow of the Cleric: an individual whose devotion to the gods of the world is so great their god fuels them to undertake acts beyond the power of ordinary men. A Crusader is not magical, but his body is fuelled by his faith such that he achieves acts that normal men cannot. He is not blessed by the gods as such – he cannot be stripped of his powers if he loses faith – for the gods trust the Crusader’s simplicity and singlemindedness to eventually bring him to do their will, even in a roundabout way. The crusader is a soldier in his martial training as much as the cleric is in his divine magic. Crusaders can be found in many parts of the world, but most commonly in the mainland of Horizon.
Druids are similar to Clerics, but concerning the Spirits, rather than the Gods. Druids may be found wherever the old ways are strongest, such as close to the Dragontooth Mountains, or among the Lithui. Druids are individuals who have learned to commune with the spirits of the world to such a degree that they can call upon their magic. And even eventually, take on their forms. Unlike clerics, druids aren’t devoted to a particular figure, and they don’t see themselves as the swords of their gods. Instead, they live alongside the spirits of the world and seek their own way with the spirits as their companions. While some see themselves as protectors of the wild world and will fight against poachers and the incursions of evil creatures, they do not count themselves as the enemies of civilization nor do they see the gods as enemies. Druids are skilled survivalists, able to ally themselves with natural animals and to call upon nature magic.
Fighters are combat experts, pure and simple. They come from every walk of life, from guardsmen and generals to street thugs, raiders, mercenaries, and gladiators. And no two fighters are precisely alike. Each has their own combat style. The only thing that unites fighters as a group is their skill at arms. All fighters are masters of weapon and armor. And, except for enchanted relics and magical items, fighters do not use magic.
Rangers are survivalists and wanderers who dwell on the fringes of civilization. They are a broad group, encompassing guides, trackers, hunters, and thief-takers. Some are connected to a clan or family or house; some are not. Some simply live alone, off the land, protecting travellers who wander into their land. Others see themselves as protectors of the civilized people of the world. Regardless, they are experts in traveling the wilds of the world. And eventually, every ranger who lives long enough in the wilds learns the ways of the spirits and gains a small talent for natural magic. Rangers are also skilled skirmishers or archers. Rangers can be found along the fringes of both civilised and uncivilised lands, from the shores of Gullcry to the edge of the Highmark to the caravans of the Lithui.
Like fighters and rangers, rogues are a broad group. Anyone who lives by guile, cunning, and expertise might be a rogue. Some are criminals – thieves and assassins – while others are spies, scouts, skirmishers, or diplomats. Every corner of the civilized world has its rogues, and no two rogues are precisely alike. Every rogue has a carefully honed skill set.
The swordsage is the master of the blade, the inheritor of a line of knowledge that originates beyond the world itself. For some humans kidnapped from other worlds had certain powers, powers unrelated to magic, powers to control their bodies and harness their very lifeforce to use. These powers remained in the transit across to their slavery under the elves. They were hidden, secret, passed down from master to apprentice over millennia until at last the elves fled the world, and humanity was free. The Swordsages concentrated on perfection of form, building monasteries and small temples on the archipelago. Thus their art was passed down and flowered, the Art they called White Hand. Swordsages can be found out in the world seeking perfection in their form, challenging the world to surpass it. Typically they come from monasteries on the Archipelagos, but there are small schools to be found in Chalice and the Highmark. Sometimes there are small, specialised forms of the art that are passed down and closely guarded along family lines.
The warblade practices a similar art to that of the swordsage, but with a different emphasis. When Horizon went cold, some masters of White Hand did not flee south with most of humanity. Some remained on the mainland, and sought to strive with this new world. Over centuries, until the first ships came back from the archipelagos, they sought to strengthen the warriors who remained in Horizon, making them better able to meet the fierce challenges of the cold world. The art of the fighter mingled with the art of the swordsage to create a different form of martial discipline: Red Hand, sister art to the swordsage’s White Hand. Warblades can be found in many places – as soldiers, warriors, guardsmen, wanderers, exiles, and all they have in common is knowledge of the Art. Few if any Warblades come from the soft lands of the archipelagos; they are most found in the wilder regions of the world, some of the strongest being among the Lithui. However, there are well-respected schools in Chalice in particular, and it is not difficult to find a teacher in the Art. Many kings’ guards count warblades among their numbers.
A wizard is an individual who has learned the ancient art of arcane magic, the rudiments of the power the elves wielded to enslave species and wound a god. Magic infuses the world and everything in it. And an individual who knows how to channel and shape the magical energy of mana can bend the world to their will. And, though wizards are rare, there are a few in every corner of the world. Some offer their services to kings and lords, such as those in Chalice and the Highmark. Others live in quiet, out-of-the-way corners on the coast in Gullcry or in Thandar. Wizards must learn their art from other wizards. Many never progress to the heights of great power. For those who would, there is only one place they can do so: the Mountain, a school of magic on the side of an active volcano in Chalice, where magic alone holds back the caldera’s fiery wrath. Here, and only here, can magic of a greater kind be learned, and then at great cost. And most people are happy about that. For magic makes people nervous. The Necromancy School is not available as a specialization. As Necromancy disrupts the natural cycles of life and death, it is inherently evil.
The IC thread can be found here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?643812-The-Cold-World)
Player Name
Character
Race and Class
DrK
Njal "Stormcaller" (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2191185)
Glacier Dwarf Druid 5
Palanan
Etti Birchlegs (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2721576)
Wilderness Rogue 1/Nature Bard 4
Novabomb
Ramiro Sanda (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2192010)
Unarmed Swordsage 5
Cygnia
Kaelan Frost-Eater (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2721020)
Cloistered Cleric 5
Metastachydium
Gerlin Kaisa (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2721330)
Cloistered Cleric 1/Bardic Sage 1/Warblade 3
This campaign is about a group of heroes coming into their own in a world of adventure. Unlike traditional D&D campaigns, there won’t be a single, overarching plot or campaign goal. Just the characters and the adventures they have on their rise to greatness. As a player, you’ll decide what motivates the character you’ve created. As a party, you’ll decide where to go, what to seek, what to explore, and what goals to pursue. Don’t worry, though. The world’s not just a blank map you have to fill in. It’s filled with interesting dungeons to delve and ruins to explore, sure, but’s also got all sorts of characters to meet, conflicts to resolve, quests to undertake, threats to confront, allies to gain, and mysteries to solve. You never have to strike out into the wilderness in the hopes of finding something interesting to do. But you can if that’s what you want to do.
Having the onus to drive the game dropped in your lap can be difficult. It might feel confusing or overwhelming. You might not know how or where to start. Just keep these five things in mind as you play and you’ll figure out the rest as the game goes on.
1. Know Your Needs, Know Your Wants, Know Your Motivations
2. Be Curious, Be Attentive, Make Note or Take Notes
3. Find a Need – Or Want – And Fill It
4. Seek and Ye Shall Find
5. Choose Carefully, But Not Too Carefully
1. Know Your Needs, Know Your Wants, Know Your Motivations
There’s adventure in every direction, so how do you know which direction’s best? Let your character’s needs, wants, and motivations be your guide.
Your character’s needs are most important. And the most important need is survival. You’ll always need safety, shelter, food, and water at the very least. In town, you can buy those things or rent them, but that means you need money. In the wilderness, you have to bring those things along or find them where you go. So, you’ll need supplies, survival skills, or magic. If you don’t have them, you can buy them. Or hire them. But you’ll need money for that too.
You might have other survival needs, too, depending on what happens to you during the game. You might need treatment for major injuries, diseases, or poisons, for example. You might need to protect yourself from specific hazards or conditions during specific adventures. Or you might need to have a curse lifted or a demon exorcised.
As an adventurer, you also have needs beyond simple survival. For example, you need tools and equipment so you can do whatever it is you do. Weapons, armor, spell components, lockpicks, and so on. And you need to keep your equipment in good order. Equipment can get damaged. It can wear out. It can get lost or stolen.
As you get stronger, you’ll be facing greater challenges. And soon enough, you’ll find your equipment just isn’t good enough for the task at hand. This is why you’ll need to upgrade your equipment periodically. Or replace it with better equipment.
Speaking of getting stronger, you’ll be gaining experience during your adventures. But you’ll need to spend time training to hone your skills. To practice what you’ve learned. At the very least, you’ll need access to some training or study resources between adventures. Space to practice, maybe a sparring partner or a dummy, a library, a shrine and a priest to tend it. If you can train with others — even if they aren’t more powerful than you — you’ll benefit more than you would alone. And if you want to start pursuing a new talent or ability — gain a new skill, learn a completely new spell, gain a feat, adopt a sub-class or class build, or start on the path to multiclassing — you will need a trainer to help you. And some trainers will even be able to teach you things outside your normal class and level progression. (This is particularly so for druids and wizards. Remember, past character level 6, new spells for arcanists can normally only be learned as part of levelling up at the Mountain, which is a specific location in Chalice, far from Hardwalker Hall and the lands of Hylkeiden that surround it. And past character level 6, druids have to seek out other druids specifically in order to learn and access new spells. These folk are not as common as one might fist think.)
You won’t be able to fill every need all the time. Sometimes, you’ll have to prioritize. Or go with a need unmet for a while. In the wilderness, you’ll probably have to provide your own security, for instance. But eventually, you’ll have access to spells to protect your camp. Or you’ll be able to buy guard animals or hire guard people. Your equipment can go without maintenance for a little while. But wait too long and it might fail at a crucial moment. You don’t need to upgrade your equipment constantly, but if you go too long without, you might find you’re no longer equal to the dangers you’re facing.
Apart from needs, your character’s got at least one motivation. Probably several. Your motivations ensure that your adventures aren’t just about survival, that there’s something in it for your character. Maybe your character’s in it for wealth. Or glory. Or power. Maybe your character wants to help people. To do the right thing. Maybe your character wants to explore the world. Whenever you’re not struggling to survive, your motivations will tell you what you should be doing.
(Your character’s motivations are obviously theirs, but if you need some inspirations, here’s a list in no particular order:
• Amass wealth
• Earn glory
• Gain respect
• Accrue power
• Achieve status
• Earn recognition
• Obey duty
• Discover truth
• Do good
• Help others
• Perfect self
• Gain knowledge
• Indulge pleasure
• Fulfill destiny
• Stave off boredom
• Satisfy wanderlust
• Instill chaos
• Slake anger
• Mete out justice
• Spread the faith
• Take revenge
• Climb the ranks
• Build a following
• Prove mettle
• Master skill
Finally, remember that it’s always good to be prepared for the future. And that means building a stock of resources. It’s a lot easier to deal with a problem if you already have access to the tool you need, whether that tool’s an actual tool or a trained professional or a magical item or friend with some political influence. Remember that anything can be a resource.
Always know what you need, what you want, and what might be useful later. That’ll help you make smart choices.
2. Be Curious, Be Attentive, Make Note or Take Notes
Remember as you adventure that you’re not walking a road, you’re wandering through a field. And that field is full of opportunities. Opportunities to meet your needs. Opportunities to fulfill your motivations. Opportunities to acquire resources. And opportunities to discover more opportunities.
Opportunities take many forms. Obviously, you’ll come across plenty of posted notices and people in need of help. Those are obvious calls to adventure. But every character you meet is a potential opportunity as well. The merchant can sell you supplies. The herbalist can heal your wounds. The sage can provide valuable information. The urchin can deliver messages or spy on your adversaries. The guard captain can help you get out of trouble. The minstrel can sing your praises and help your reputation. The noble can provide influence and political clout. A whispered rumor overheard in the market or bought with a tankard of ale from the sot at the inn can lead to an ancient treasure or give you leverage over a rival. Some opportunities are as easy to spot as job posting, as loud as a shout from a town crier, as obvious as a sign hung over the herbalist’s door. Others are as subtle as a strange turn of phrase in an otherwise innocuous conversation or the casual drop of a name in passing.
Pay attention to the world. Take note of anything that seems like it might help you meet your needs or fulfill your motivations. Take note too of anything that piques your curiosity. And if something does catch your eye, don’t hesitate to check it out. Visit odd locations. Poke around the neighbourhoods in the city. Sit in a public space, watch, and listen. And strike up conversations with characters in the world. Especially the ones who might help you meet your needs or wants or provide access to a useful resource. Most characters will talk freely to a stranger, but some might require a bit of effort. You might have to build a rapport with someone before they’ll open up. You might have to gain their trust. That might be an adventure in itself.
Not everything represents an opportunity. The world also contains threats. Some threats can hurt or even kill your character, but most threats are less overt. Less direct. In the civilized parts of the world, most threats won’t attack you directly. But they can deprive you of your needs, rob you of resources or potential resources, and prevent you from fulfilling your motivations. Like opportunities, threats might be obvious, or they might be subtle. Even hidden. Unlike opportunities, though, threats can be costly or dangerous to ignore. In those cases, you’ll either need to confront the threat or accept the cost of letting it be.
And then there are mysteries. Mysteries are things that pique your curiosity. They might represent opportunities, they might represent hidden threats, they might carry risks or dangers, or they might just be fun discoveries. The only way to be sure is to investigate them. There’s not always a payoff to pursuing a mystery, but when there is, it’s usually pretty unique.
Because the world is full of opportunities, threats, and mysteries, it’s worth taking time now and then to wander around just to see what’s around you. Like when you first visit a new place or after you finish a major pursuit. Take some time to take stock of the opportunities around that will let you meet your needs, fulfill your motivations, or build your resource pool. Take note of potential threats too. And any mysteries that draw your eye. Just don’t let wandering and noticing be all you do. Window shopping won’t get you anywhere in the end. It’s just a great way to find something you want to buy.
You can easily find out what’s around you by Getting the Lay of the Land (see below). Once you’re pursuing something, though, don’t get tunnel vision. During your adventures, you’ll probably spot other opportunities, mysteries, and threats worth pursuing. Sometimes, it’ll be worth putting your current pursuit on hold to check them out. Otherwise, they’re worth filing away for future investigation.
As a time-consuming action, you can wander the local area and get a sense of what’s around you. The GM will describe the area and note interesting features that might represent opportunities, threats, and mysteries. You might be asked to make skill or ability checks to discover non-obvious features.
In a village, stronghold, or enclave, you can explore the entire locale and its outskirts in one go. You can explore either a town proper or its outskirts. Or you can explore a single neighborhood, district, ward, or complex in a city. In civilized locales, you might also hear about local rumors or happenings in passing (but see Gathering Information below).
In the wilderness, the size of the area you can explore depends on the terrain, visibility, and other factors. You can improve your odds of turning things up by taking advantage of high vantage points, spyglasses, familiars, spells, magical items, and other tools and resources. Because exploring involves crisscrossing a small area, you cannot cover any traveling distance while exploring.
3. Find a Need – Or Want – And Fill It
Once you’ve got a good list of potential opportunities, threats, and mysteries, you – as a party – must decide what to pursue. Do any of you have any unmet needs? Are there motivations you can fulfill? Useful resources to access? Threats to confront? Mysteries to investigate? Such things as these are adventures made of. Or at least, such things are adventures filled with.
Start by prioritizing your immediate needs. Food, water, shelter, security, and health. In settlements, meeting those is usually a matter of renting a room, securing a pallet in a temple or a lord’s keep, or finding a farmer who’s willing to let you sleep in their barn. If you need treatment, you might need to seek out a healer, herbalist, hedgewitch, priest, or chiurgeon. In the wilderness, if you’re going to be in one place for a few days — say while you plunder a dungeon — it’s worth setting up a base camp so you have a place to which you can retreat each day and where you can store your supplies and your plunder. Things can’t get spoiled, broken, stolen, or ruined in a dungeon if you don’t bring them with you. And they don’t weigh you down. At first, you might have to resort to hiding them at your camp — say in a buried chest — but you can use spells and traps to secure your camp and later buy guard animals or hire guards. In general, a good camp is more likely to be disturbed by a lone wild animal looking for food than by an intelligent, powerful monster that just happens upon it. Of course, this varies by the terrain and the precautions you take.
Next, consider your near-term future needs. Can you acquire, upgrade, and repair equipment? Buy supplies? Class tools? Who might buy any exotic treasure you turn up? Do you have access to the facilities you need to use your skills? To train for your next level? In the wilderness, you’ll have to wait until you get back to town. In town, take note of such resources soon after you arrive and investigate them. You don’t want to discover the local priest won’t give you access to the shrine until you gain their trust when you’ve already got enough XP to gain a level.
Once your basic needs are sorted, you can tackle your wants and start stockpiling resources. This is where it’s useful to have a list of the opportunities, threats, and mysteries you’ve identified. As a party, consider your options and pick whatever seems like the best opportunity, the most dangerous threat, or the most intriguing mystery. At this point, the game will probably start to feel more like a normal D&D campaign. You’re just pursuing a goal you chose. But don’t get too wrapped up in the quest mindset. Sometimes, you’ll have to do some investigating before you can define the goal. Sometimes, you’ll have to figure out how best to pursue the goal. Sometimes, you’ll want to change goals based on something you discover. Sometimes, you’ll want to abandon a goal partway through. Sometimes, you’ll discover a goal is just beyond you and you’ll have to give up on it. For now or forever. That’s all fine. You won’t always succeed, but you’ll never run short of opportunities.
Don’t assume you have to do anything a certain way. Don’t assume that you have to fulfill a goal just because someone’s offering it. If a criminal offers you a job you object to, you don’t have to take the job. But you also don’t have to reject the job. You could turn the criminal in to collect a bounty or you could do the right thing by protecting the criminal’s victims. And just because you’re asked to kill all the goblin raiders in the hills, that doesn’t mean the townsfolk won’t be equally happy if you just drive the goblins off or even broker peace with them.
It’s fine for the party to split up and pursue their own needs and wants. Sometimes, that’s the most efficient way to do things. But adventuring is risky. When it comes to major pursuits, especially those that involve traveling beyond the boundaries of civilization, the party will have to work together. And that means you’ll have to pick your goals as a party. Because you’ll each have your own needs, motivations, and perspectives, you won’t always agree on which opportunity’s best. Which means you’ll have to compromise. Sometimes, that means putting your own needs and wants aside to help your allies pursue their own. And sometimes, that means they’ll do the same for you. That’s how it is with groups. Remember, the world’s dungeon floors are littered with the bones of the lone wolves. And your allies have skills you need. That’s why you’re a team. But that has a price. You have to be willing to help your team even when there’s no profit for you once in a while. And hopefully, after a little while, you’ll see your teammates as allies. Comrades-in-arms. Friends even.
4. Seek and Ye Shall Find
Sometimes, you’ll find that you don’t have everything you need to pursue an opportunity. That you’re missing a tool, skill, or another resource. And sometimes, you’ll find that there’s just nothing on your list of opportunities, threats, and mysteries to meet your needs and wants. Sometimes, there just won’t be anything you want to do. And that’s when you need to take a more active role in your explorations.
You can seek anything you can imagine. Information, skills, resources, they’re all available. Somewhere. You just have to find them. The key to finding what you want is specificity. The more specific you are, the more likely you’ll find what you want. Tell your GM, specifically, what you’re looking for. And, if you can, tell your GM, specifically, where and how you’re looking.
First, be specific about what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for healing potions, don’t tell the GM you want to find a magic item shop. If you’re looking for a chance to help someone in need or a way to protect your camp while you’re in a dungeon, say so.
Second, be specific about how and where you want to start your search. Think about what’s around you. What locations have you seen? What characters have you met? Are there any that are more likely to provide a lead? That’s where you should start your search. Want to do a good deed? It’s probably best to visit the local temple. That’s where people go to pray for help. Are you looking to buy something? Start in the market. Are you looking to buy rare spell components? Talk to local magic users first.
Once you’ve figured it out, tell your GM what you’re looking for, where, and how. Just say, “I want to find a work opportunity. I want to help people in need. I’ll start at the Temple of the Father.” And if you don’t know what you need or where to start, you can always ask your GM. Say, “I have this crafting feat, but I don’t know what tools I need to use it.” Or say, “I’d like to find a magic weapon, but I don’t know how to start looking.” The GM will give you an answer. Or at least give you a place to start. Or at least tell you that there’s no way to do that right now.
Sometimes, you won’t have a good starting place. Sometimes, you won’t know exactly what you need. That’s when it’s time to Gather Information.
As a time-consuming action, you can seek information from the locals in a village, stronghold, enclave, town, neighborhood, or complex or a specific location therein such as an inn, market, guildhall, or academy. The more specific you are about the information you are seeking, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for. Or find out that it’s not available. Smaller locations are easier to canvas but the information you’re seeking may not be available at all types of locations. You might be asked to make a skill or ability check to determine whether your efforts are successful, and you might be asked to pay bribes, finders fees, buy drinks, or otherwise sacrifice some money before you can roll or to improve your odds. If you’re successful, the GM will either provide you with the information you’re seeking or provide you with a lead that you can pursue to acquire the information.
Instead of seeking specific information, you can also eavesdrop, gossip, and chatter with the locals. The GM will provide you with several rumors and happenings that might represent opportunities, threats, and mysteries to pursue. This is similar to Getting the Lay of Land, but reveals informational leads rather than locations (see Getting the Lay of the Lay above).
5. Choose Carefully, But Not Too Carefully
While playing this game, you might feel overwhelmed from time to time. At any moment, you’ll probably be aware of several opportunities, threats, and mysteries and you’ll be finding more all the time. You might wonder how you’ll ever know when you’ve found them all. And you might wonder how you’ll ever deal with them all.
You won’t. You can’t. You will never be aware of every opportunity. And you will never be able to pursue every last one of them. It’s impossible. You won’t have the time. You won’t have the resources. And everything you do will change the list of things you can do. So, it’s important to think carefully about what you do. But not too carefully.
You’ll never find all the opportunities, so don’t try. And don’t convince yourself that there’s a perfect opportunity out there to find. Because there isn’t. There’s no perfect choices. Every choice you make has costs, risks, and consequences. By all means, avoid the ones where the risks and costs seem too high and the rewards seem too low, but you can’t avoid any risks or consequences. You can’t avoid taking sides. And whatever you do, you’ll always be losing out on something.
Every choice has consequences because the game’s about consequences. It’s about the choices you make and what happens as a result. It’s about what happens to the heroes on their rise to power. It’s about the heroes becoming whoever they become and what happens along the way.
This isn’t a game you can complete and it’s not a puzzle in optimization. So don’t treat it as such. Treat it as a playground. Treat it as a world full of adventure. And remember that adventure isn’t about endings, it’s about what happens on the way.
About the Setting
Here are some things you need to know about the world and its people:
The world is old, and its one great empire has fallen. The elves, cruel and inhuman rulers over the world, fled through their portals to places unknown fifteen hundred years ago … but their ruins and secrets remained, hidden away by the great storms and snows that covered the land afterward. Though humanity has learned some of what was forgotten of their once-slavemasters, much more is unknown.
Humanity rebelled against their elven slavemasters fifteen hundred years ago, and with the elves’ disappearance through the portals, the climate changed, quickly, irrevocably, warmth draining out of the world in a matter of days. Mankind only survived by clumsily manipulating the elven portals long enough to escape to the world’s equatorial archipelagos, where the elves had their summer residences and retreats. Those who remained perished or hunkered down in empty elven ruins or hastily-built refuges. And there they strived mightily for survival as the menagerie of beasts and horrors the elves kept ranged freely across the frozen continent, tearing at civilisation from all directions. Today, civilisation is slowly recovering. But even within the borders of kingdoms like the Highmark, travel is precarious, and few people travel more than a few days from where they were born. Those who do travel don’t do so lightly. For leaving aside the screaming wind and the bitter cold of the mainland, many dark dangers lurk between the fortified lights of civilisation in the icefields.
The elves abducted a myriad of species from hundreds of worlds via their portals. The storms that raged across Horizon after their retreat consumed all but the strongest; most were not equipped to deal with a sudden and major change in climate. Humanity adapted best and therefore survived: the majority, by going south to the archipelagos; the minority, who remained behind, by seeking shelter in old elven ruins. This minority were helped by the dwarves – the mining slaves of the elves, freed and whose bodies were adapted to live in their tunnels. There is a strong bond of respect and friendship that remains between dwarves and Horizon folk as a result. That said, dwarves breed very slowly and rarely, so they too are rare; sheer attrition and the fight for survival has whittled down their numbers to small clans. The other nonhuman faction are Illumians, bred by the elves, who were used mainly as servants in the elven houses of the archipelagos. There are tiny minorities of halflings and gnomes that survived; they live in humanity’s shadow, also declining. The dwarves and illumians who travel into human lands are unusual among their own races; those raised in or alongside human communities might be considered outsiders by their own people.
Five deities there are, placed in keeping over the world by the Creator who moved on: the Father, the Mother, the Hearthkeeper, the Wild Man, and the Exile. It is whispered that the freezing of the world was caused by the elves wounding the Firekeeper in their arrogance, rather than human insurrection. It is known the Gods maintain the world, ensuring the sun rises and sets and that the tides come and go. But while they have great power over the world, they rarely exercise it unasked. People may pray to the gods to watch over them and with the proper reverence and the right offerings, they will, but the gods have their own matters to attend to. Even so, the Gods have special places in their hearts for mortal beings, even if their personalities vary, their concerns differ, and their relations with mortal beings are distinct.
Then there are the Spirits, who are not gods, but rather spirits of the world itself, of its plants, animals, and locations. It is said they are as old as the world and are the Creator’s true cornerstones of the world, with the five gods only caretakers and builders. Their ways are the ancient ways of the world. And they remain powerful wherever the light of civilization has yet to shine. Those who respect them do not worship them as gods. Instead, they are treated as companions or threats. For not all care for humankind. Some were made as breakers and thus malevolent from their inception; some were corrupted by the elves in their mastery of the world.
The dwarves revere only two gods: the Father and the Hearthkeeper. But they believe their ancestors serve in the hall of the Father, or at the forge of the Hearthkeeper, so most dwarven clans revere their ancestors as spirits and raise shrines to them.
No one doubts the existence of the gods or the spirits. Their power is everywhere. It’s evident, especially where one falls afoul of an evil spirit. Most people don’t argue about whether the gods or the spirits are more important or about the dwarves’ ancestors, as there isn’t much point. That said, most people in the civilised world revere the Gods. They celebrate holidays, maintain shrines, make offerings, ask for guidance, pray for aid. But they know the gods have their own things to think about. Even so, people often keep a superstition or little ritual in their back pocket for the spirits too … just in case the god they are speaking to isn’t available.
Revering of the Spirits is much rarer on the archipelagos than on the mainland. In the Horizon wild you need all the help you can get … or at least need to avoid making enemies. Thus the need for supplication or appeasement of any spirits who you might think are hanging around.
Magic is woven into the heart of the world. There is the great magic of the gods that, if it did not actually create the world, does keep it going. There is the magic of life and death, light and dark, good and evil, and order of chaos that buffet the mind and soul of all mortals. There is magic in the very elements of the world, and there are even various creatures – great and small – born of magic. Magic is an undeniable part of life. But it is tightly controlled in its knowledge, in the case of the gods’ magic and that of the arcane. The five Gods have established temples of worshippers with their headquarters on the archipelagos, and do not permit knowledge of the higher mysteries of their faiths without considerable commitment and sacrifice by anyone who would walk high in his deity’s path.
The masters of the arcane are few, based in one place in the world, and jealously guard their knowledge, only granting it at great price and bearing with it an ongoing physical cost. And even then, neither clerics nor wizards can really say how magic works … only that it is, and it does. Truly powerful magical beings are rare. Magic is not exactly feared, but it is another of those things that people prefer to keep at a distance, for no one knows what it is really capable of and there are lots of stories of what happens when magic goes wrong. Thus, most practitioners of magic are careful not to be too obvious about it.
In the case of the Spirits, it is not easy to acquire knowledge of greater powers. It is not that the knowledge is centralised – only that it is both costly and difficult to find someone who knows more and whose mind has not been broken by the primal powers of the world. There is something about a man who lives his life mainly by the Spirits, known as a druid: it is believed the Spirits follow him. After a certain point, and eventually, if he grows strong enough, he truly does grow to be feared and shunned by the world ... which is what drives him further into the wilds.
You are an unusual individual. Life in Horizon is centred around the family, the settlement, and the clan, around close allegiance to those refuges and fortresses that hold back the cold. You were likely born or at least raised somewhere in Horizon, but you are not, for whatever reason, tied to a family or clan, and thus an outsider, exile, or even outcast. You eschewed the normal life of a hunter, smith, merchant, or carpenter and early marriage and family in favour of a life of travelling the world, confronting challenges, plumbing the depths of ancient ruins, and doing battle with villains or monsters. Why? That is for you to decide. But you and your accidental allies – which you will come to call friends – will face a variety of challenges in Horizon. And you cannot choose not to face those challenges.
You were not born a hero. No one is; heroes are made, not born. Heroes are made by their choices, not their skills. You are not exceptional. There are many out there who can fight better than you, many horrors in the wilds stronger than you … at least at the start of your career. If you wish to be a hero, you must make yourself a hero. Survive. Grow. Earn respect and glory and friendship. But always pick your battles with care, because there is always someone stronger than you.
About your Character
At the start of the game, you’ll have a character who comes from some corner of Horizon. You’ll decide some basic details about where you were born, how you were raised, and what you want out of life. You are taken to be a member of a small adventuring company (i.e. the party), but your background isn’t as important as what you do in the game.
Choosing a race, class, and background details are about more than choosing game mechanics and abilities. It's about deciding the person you want your character to be. Dwarves are very different from humans. Clerics face challenges that are very different from wizards. And the world will treat you differently depending on who you are. Here are some basic details you can think about to get you started.
Races
Most people in Horizon are human. Halflings and Illumians are also common. Dwarves and gnomes are rare and unusual. If you choose not to play a human, you will have to figure out why your character is traveling in the human lands and dealing with human problems with human allies. And you will be treated as unusual by both the humans of the world and the other members of your own race. Perhaps you were an exile, suffered from a disaster, a member of a family of traders who lived near humans or was orphaned and adopted by humans. Or perhaps you left home for another reason. One that makes it very difficult to go back.
Humans are the most numerous, populous, and diverse people of the world. If you’re a human, you’ll have to decide whether you come from one of the two central kingdoms of the Highmark or Chalice, from the more windswept, coastal kingdom of Gullcry, from the nomadic armed caravans of Lithui, the dwarf-influenced city of Thandar, or possibly from the softer islands of the Archipelagos. I’ll help you pick an appropriate origin for the type of character you want to play.
Dwarves are stout, hardy mountain people who dwell in clanholds deep in the heart of the world’s most formidable mountains. They are a proud, honorable people who live in large, monarchal clans steeped in ancient tradition. Dwarves are generally serious, stern, honorable, and proud, but they are hardy drinkers, and they have a reputation for greed. While most dwarves do have a weakness for material goods, it is usually more the craftsmanship they appreciate than the wealth itself. And the status it represents. There are several ancient dwarven clanholds in the Dragontooth Mountains, close by the mountainside human city of Thandar.
Halflings are a small, nimble, optimistic, and cheerful people who are quite at home living alongside humans. Halflings are known to enjoy the comforts of home, family, and kin. But they are also curious to a fault and strangely fearless. They are not, surprisingly, natural wanderers and tend to esconce themselves very firmly in the cities where they live. They have a reputation for thievery that isn’t entirely unearned, and they are also known to be incredibly lucky. Halflings dwell among the humans of Chalice, Gullcry, and are more concentrated than anywhere else in the capital city of the Highmark.
Gnomes are the descendants of an ancient race of faerie folk who were enslaved by the elves in the long distant past. Gnomes retain their fey origins, being mercurial, moody, flighty, impulsive, and sometimes even amoral. As such, the other races tend to have a hard time getting along with gnomes. All gnomes have a natural talent for magic. They are known to dwell in the hills of the Gullcry hinterland.
Illumians are the descendants of the victims of experiments that the elves conducted on some of the first humans they abducted from their homeworlds. After several grotesque failures, the elves succeeded in breeding the Illumian: a human with a manner more pleasing to graceful, cruel elves and far more suited to the regimented, high-skilled but nonetheless drudgery of work in elven mansions and resorts. Paleskinned, taller than average, more than half are bald, and all have luminous sigils floating around their heads. Illumians are orderly, cleave to a code of honour, and seek to increase culture and prioritise learning wherever they are. They are nowhere near as common in Horizon as they are in the archipelagos, but Illumians are often involved in efforts to uncover and reveal old elven secrets in particular. They tend to congregate in small cabals away from human settlements where possible. In Horizon, Illumians are most found in Chalice and the Highmark.
In this age, intermarriage between the races is rare – and is often seen as taboo. As such, half-orcs are extremely rare, and there are no half-elves by dint of the fact there are no elves. Half-orcs are looked at askance even more than nonhuman races are, and very frequently the subject of discrimination or outright hate. Beyond that, many other mortal races do exist, but they are either dangerously uncivilised – such as orcs or goblinoids – or else rare, insular, and private.
Classes
Your class defines your adventuring profession. It is the sum total of what you can do as a result of your various skills and talents. Some classes are professions in their own right. Others are merely a handy designation for game purposes. For example, a wizard is a wizard, but a fighter might be a soldier, mercenary, gladiator, scout, or even a blacksmith with a talent for combat.
The classes available are Bard, Cleric, Crusader, Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Swordsage, Warblade, and Wizard. Other classes may be made available later, but don’t fit the general theme of the game at this time.
Bards are lorekeepers and storytellers, but what really defines them is the art of bardic magic. Bards have mastered a form of magic that is woven into song and story, almost always through an apprenticeship with another bard. Bards might be storytellers or sages, wandering performers, sages and advisors to nobles and leaders, oracles, or would-be heroes obsessed with being the stars of their own stories. By their nature, bards are dabblers and learn a little bit of everything.
A Cleric is an individual whose devotion to one of the gods of the world is so great that have chosen to work that god’s will in the world. And who has been rewarded with the magic of the gods themselves. Not all clerics are priests, and very few priests are clerics, but often, the two go hand-in-hand. A cleric is defined by their devotion to a single god and a willingness to give their life over to serving that god. And that devotion has earned the blessing of the gods. But it is not freely given. A cleric who goes against their god may be stripped of their powers or suffer fierce retribution. Clerics combine combat training and divine magic to serve as the soldiers of the gods in the world. But to learn greater power takes time and expense in the archipelagos, where the great churches are based.
- Only the following domains from the PHB are available. There are five gods between whom the domains are divided as follows:
The Father. Domains: Knowledge, Law, Death
The Mother. Domains: Earth, Protection, Healing
The Hearthkeeper. Domains: War, Sun, Fire, Strength
The Wild Man. Domains: Animal, Plant, Travel, Water, Air
The Exile. Domains: Trickery, Magic, Destruction, Chaos
- All gods have the Good domain.
A Crusader is the shadow of the Cleric: an individual whose devotion to the gods of the world is so great their god fuels them to undertake acts beyond the power of ordinary men. A Crusader is not magical, but his body is fuelled by his faith such that he achieves acts that normal men cannot. He is not blessed by the gods as such – he cannot be stripped of his powers if he loses faith – for the gods trust the Crusader’s simplicity and singlemindedness to eventually bring him to do their will, even in a roundabout way. The crusader is a soldier in his martial training as much as the cleric is in his divine magic. Crusaders can be found in many parts of the world, but most commonly in the mainland of Horizon.
Druids are similar to Clerics, but concerning the Spirits, rather than the Gods. Druids may be found wherever the old ways are strongest, such as close to the Dragontooth Mountains, or among the Lithui. Druids are individuals who have learned to commune with the spirits of the world to such a degree that they can call upon their magic. And even eventually, take on their forms. Unlike clerics, druids aren’t devoted to a particular figure, and they don’t see themselves as the swords of their gods. Instead, they live alongside the spirits of the world and seek their own way with the spirits as their companions. While some see themselves as protectors of the wild world and will fight against poachers and the incursions of evil creatures, they do not count themselves as the enemies of civilization nor do they see the gods as enemies. Druids are skilled survivalists, able to ally themselves with natural animals and to call upon nature magic.
Fighters are combat experts, pure and simple. They come from every walk of life, from guardsmen and generals to street thugs, raiders, mercenaries, and gladiators. And no two fighters are precisely alike. Each has their own combat style. The only thing that unites fighters as a group is their skill at arms. All fighters are masters of weapon and armor. And, except for enchanted relics and magical items, fighters do not use magic.
Rangers are survivalists and wanderers who dwell on the fringes of civilization. They are a broad group, encompassing guides, trackers, hunters, and thief-takers. Some are connected to a clan or family or house; some are not. Some simply live alone, off the land, protecting travellers who wander into their land. Others see themselves as protectors of the civilized people of the world. Regardless, they are experts in traveling the wilds of the world. And eventually, every ranger who lives long enough in the wilds learns the ways of the spirits and gains a small talent for natural magic. Rangers are also skilled skirmishers or archers. Rangers can be found along the fringes of both civilised and uncivilised lands, from the shores of Gullcry to the edge of the Highmark to the caravans of the Lithui.
Like fighters and rangers, rogues are a broad group. Anyone who lives by guile, cunning, and expertise might be a rogue. Some are criminals – thieves and assassins – while others are spies, scouts, skirmishers, or diplomats. Every corner of the civilized world has its rogues, and no two rogues are precisely alike. Every rogue has a carefully honed skill set.
The swordsage is the master of the blade, the inheritor of a line of knowledge that originates beyond the world itself. For some humans kidnapped from other worlds had certain powers, powers unrelated to magic, powers to control their bodies and harness their very lifeforce to use. These powers remained in the transit across to their slavery under the elves. They were hidden, secret, passed down from master to apprentice over millennia until at last the elves fled the world, and humanity was free. The Swordsages concentrated on perfection of form, building monasteries and small temples on the archipelago. Thus their art was passed down and flowered, the Art they called White Hand. Swordsages can be found out in the world seeking perfection in their form, challenging the world to surpass it. Typically they come from monasteries on the Archipelagos, but there are small schools to be found in Chalice and the Highmark. Sometimes there are small, specialised forms of the art that are passed down and closely guarded along family lines.
The warblade practices a similar art to that of the swordsage, but with a different emphasis. When Horizon went cold, some masters of White Hand did not flee south with most of humanity. Some remained on the mainland, and sought to strive with this new world. Over centuries, until the first ships came back from the archipelagos, they sought to strengthen the warriors who remained in Horizon, making them better able to meet the fierce challenges of the cold world. The art of the fighter mingled with the art of the swordsage to create a different form of martial discipline: Red Hand, sister art to the swordsage’s White Hand. Warblades can be found in many places – as soldiers, warriors, guardsmen, wanderers, exiles, and all they have in common is knowledge of the Art. Few if any Warblades come from the soft lands of the archipelagos; they are most found in the wilder regions of the world, some of the strongest being among the Lithui. However, there are well-respected schools in Chalice in particular, and it is not difficult to find a teacher in the Art. Many kings’ guards count warblades among their numbers.
A wizard is an individual who has learned the ancient art of arcane magic, the rudiments of the power the elves wielded to enslave species and wound a god. Magic infuses the world and everything in it. And an individual who knows how to channel and shape the magical energy of mana can bend the world to their will. And, though wizards are rare, there are a few in every corner of the world. Some offer their services to kings and lords, such as those in Chalice and the Highmark. Others live in quiet, out-of-the-way corners on the coast in Gullcry or in Thandar. Wizards must learn their art from other wizards. Many never progress to the heights of great power. For those who would, there is only one place they can do so: the Mountain, a school of magic on the side of an active volcano in Chalice, where magic alone holds back the caldera’s fiery wrath. Here, and only here, can magic of a greater kind be learned, and then at great cost. And most people are happy about that. For magic makes people nervous. The Necromancy School is not available as a specialization. As Necromancy disrupts the natural cycles of life and death, it is inherently evil.