GalacticAxekick
2022-06-14, 01:20 AM
After a 2 year break from DMing for my friend group, I'm preparing a campaign for my next stint as DM. I'd like to hear your opinions on the following issues:
Should I add or remove any rules and character creation guidelines to make this setting work?
Do the encounters I have planned sound balanced for a level 1 party?
Do the encounters I have planned sound fun the play?
Do the encounters I have planned make sense within the setting? In other words, does it make sense for the players to go on this quest, and does it make sense for the enemies to face off with the players (setting aside the mysterious Wildman)
The setting is 1450s Earth. The human race is the only race, and monsters other than beasts are shrouded in myth (if they exist at all). Magic exists, however it is not a part of everyday life. Spellcasters are seen as miracle-workers (like the stage magicians, fortune tellers and faith healers of our world).
One day, people around the world notice that the moon has become fixed in one spot in the sky. It quickly becomes clear that this terrible miracle is disrupting weather, raising tides, confusing wildlife, and only getting worse. Pessimistic and superstitious people believe this is a sign of the end times. But even the most optimistic and skeptical recognize that something must be done about it.
Using relatively simple math, people from all over the world determine that the moon is stuck above Wallachia: a small Eastern European country near the edge of the Black Sea. Governments, universities, churches and private interests from all around the world send investigators to determine why the moon has parked over Wallachia, and what should be done about it.
The four players are these investigators.
To represent the rarity of magic, the seriousness of injuries, and the overall mundanity of life on Earth, a short rest will take 8 hours, and a long rest will take 1 week. Besides this, the players can be as extraordinary as they please. They will begin as 1st level variant humans with any class, background, and feat that they wish.
The following are some character creation notes:
Magical classes. If a player is playing a spellcaster, they should be grounded in real-world supernatural concepts. For example, Clerics & Druids belong to faiths such as Christianity and Hinduism;; Wizards and Warlocks are occultists. This places no limits on what subclasses and spells a player can choose: it's a purely thematic guideline.
Martial classes. If a player is playing a martial character, I am offering them my homebrew Barbarian (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/wHP8aX22f), Fighter (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/gLzQ17TY7JoL) or Rogue (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B4j0mnm1r) classes, which I believe will give them a greater variety of options in and out of combat. A player can also use the official Barbarian, Fighter and Rogue if they prefer.
Bonus Skills. Everyone gains a number of bonus skills from their class's skill list equal to their Intelligence modifier. Whenever a player gains an Intelligence score increase, they can gain yet another bonus skill. Bonus skills can be given up to gain expertise in other skills.
Animal Handling. Everyone proficient in Animal Handling begins the game with either a mount or a pet from my Bestiary (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/5BRvpPJa92gR). Pets share your initiative and obey your orders. They can move, Dash, Disengage, Dodge and Hide for free, but you must use your action to order them to take any other action.
A starting mount or pet must have no more than 2 hit dice. For example, camels, donkeys, horses, and ostritches are acceptable mounts, but bulls and elephants are not. Dogs, cats, birds, monkeys and venomous snakes are acceptable pets, but wolves and cheetahs are not.
Medicine. Everyone proficient in Medicine gains the Healer feat.
Leveling Up: Instead of counting experience points, the players will level up when milestones are reached.
Typically, milestones are reached by the party as a whole at the end of a session (e.g. a quest is complete). Sometimes, however, a milestone is reached by a single player in the middle of a session. In this situation, the player immediately gains all the benefits of leveling up (features, spell slots, increased current and maximum hit points, etc). This allows me, as a DM, to create moments where one player shines or returns from the brink of death, as the story sees fit. All it requires is that players have a character sheet ready for their next level, even before they level up.
The players begin in Constantinople—the gate to the Black Sea. Here, they discover that its rainy streets are overrun with the poor and displaced, and that its docks are overcrowded with ferries, rafts and barges.
All the people of the Black Sea are pouring out through Constantinople, fleeing the high tides brought upon them by moon's presence. Those who cannot flee into Europe, Asia, or the Mediterranean have weighed anchor here, like drowning men clinging whatever rocks are within arm's reach.
An officer of the port—Yazar—assembles the players and explains that they are the only ones crazy enough to travel into Wallachia. Because no help can be offered to each of them, they must band together to complete their respective missions.
To begin, the party must map the ruins of Wallachia from the summit of Yumrukchal: the highest peak in the Balkan mountains that trace the border between the Ottoman Empire and Wallachia. This mission involves a week-long trek through the countryside of the Ottoman Empire and the following challenges:
Travelling by map. The players must find their way to Yumrukchal by comparing the scenery I describe to a map that they possess and matching landmarks. This will serve as a short, simple puzzle to make travel interesting.
Eclipses. The moon hangs directly over Wallachia, and almost directly over the Ottoman countryside that borders it. Every noon, this causes a 5 minute solar eclipse. And every midnight, this causes a 1 hour long lunar eclipse. Eclipses are not dangerous in an of themselves, but they are a recurrent element of the campaign that this mission serves to introduce.
Bandit Battle #1. The players will encounter 4 bandits on the path to Yumrukchal, during an eclipse. Mechanically, the bandits are commoners with the Skulker feat, shortbows and scimitars. They flee if the eclipse ends or if they begin to lose the fight.
Bandit Battle #2. The players will encounter 4 more bandits while camping, during yet another eclipse. These bandits have identical statistics, however they are not immediately aggressive. They try to rob the players in their sleep.
Bandit Battle #3. The players will find a bandit camp near the summit of Yumrukchal, which houses 8 bandits which they may deal with as they please. Interacting with the bandits or examining their belongings reveals that they are a mix of Wallachian serfs who fled to the Ottoman countryside and Ottoman serfs displaced by fleeing Wallachians. Desperados.
Mapping Wallachia. The players must spend at least one day and night at the snowy summit of Yumrukchal. By day, they will examine the landscape. By midnight, they will search for lights (signs of unabandoned cities). Finally, they will update their maps based on what has changed.
The Wildman. The midnight that the players spend atop Yumrukchal, they are ambushed by a mysterious man. At first he may seem like a bandit, but he is alone, unarmed, and feral. The only sign that he isn't totally wild is that he wants to destroy the players' newly drawn map.
The wildman is apparently invulnerable to harm. If the players cast light on him, it becomes clear that regenerates rapidly after he is injured, and that he is the first unambiguously supernatural force that the players have met. That said, the wildman's only offensive options are unarmed strikes, grapples and shoves. He fights like a commoner, and he is just as vulnerable to status conditions and obstacles as a commoner. The players may throw him from a cliff, restrain him with traps, knock him unconscious, or simply run away.
The wildman is the last obstacle that the players. Once he is defeated, they may safely journey home to Constantinople.
Should I add or remove any rules and character creation guidelines to make this setting work?
Do the encounters I have planned sound balanced for a level 1 party?
Do the encounters I have planned sound fun the play?
Do the encounters I have planned make sense within the setting? In other words, does it make sense for the players to go on this quest, and does it make sense for the enemies to face off with the players (setting aside the mysterious Wildman)
The setting is 1450s Earth. The human race is the only race, and monsters other than beasts are shrouded in myth (if they exist at all). Magic exists, however it is not a part of everyday life. Spellcasters are seen as miracle-workers (like the stage magicians, fortune tellers and faith healers of our world).
One day, people around the world notice that the moon has become fixed in one spot in the sky. It quickly becomes clear that this terrible miracle is disrupting weather, raising tides, confusing wildlife, and only getting worse. Pessimistic and superstitious people believe this is a sign of the end times. But even the most optimistic and skeptical recognize that something must be done about it.
Using relatively simple math, people from all over the world determine that the moon is stuck above Wallachia: a small Eastern European country near the edge of the Black Sea. Governments, universities, churches and private interests from all around the world send investigators to determine why the moon has parked over Wallachia, and what should be done about it.
The four players are these investigators.
To represent the rarity of magic, the seriousness of injuries, and the overall mundanity of life on Earth, a short rest will take 8 hours, and a long rest will take 1 week. Besides this, the players can be as extraordinary as they please. They will begin as 1st level variant humans with any class, background, and feat that they wish.
The following are some character creation notes:
Magical classes. If a player is playing a spellcaster, they should be grounded in real-world supernatural concepts. For example, Clerics & Druids belong to faiths such as Christianity and Hinduism;; Wizards and Warlocks are occultists. This places no limits on what subclasses and spells a player can choose: it's a purely thematic guideline.
Martial classes. If a player is playing a martial character, I am offering them my homebrew Barbarian (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/wHP8aX22f), Fighter (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/gLzQ17TY7JoL) or Rogue (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B4j0mnm1r) classes, which I believe will give them a greater variety of options in and out of combat. A player can also use the official Barbarian, Fighter and Rogue if they prefer.
Bonus Skills. Everyone gains a number of bonus skills from their class's skill list equal to their Intelligence modifier. Whenever a player gains an Intelligence score increase, they can gain yet another bonus skill. Bonus skills can be given up to gain expertise in other skills.
Animal Handling. Everyone proficient in Animal Handling begins the game with either a mount or a pet from my Bestiary (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/5BRvpPJa92gR). Pets share your initiative and obey your orders. They can move, Dash, Disengage, Dodge and Hide for free, but you must use your action to order them to take any other action.
A starting mount or pet must have no more than 2 hit dice. For example, camels, donkeys, horses, and ostritches are acceptable mounts, but bulls and elephants are not. Dogs, cats, birds, monkeys and venomous snakes are acceptable pets, but wolves and cheetahs are not.
Medicine. Everyone proficient in Medicine gains the Healer feat.
Leveling Up: Instead of counting experience points, the players will level up when milestones are reached.
Typically, milestones are reached by the party as a whole at the end of a session (e.g. a quest is complete). Sometimes, however, a milestone is reached by a single player in the middle of a session. In this situation, the player immediately gains all the benefits of leveling up (features, spell slots, increased current and maximum hit points, etc). This allows me, as a DM, to create moments where one player shines or returns from the brink of death, as the story sees fit. All it requires is that players have a character sheet ready for their next level, even before they level up.
The players begin in Constantinople—the gate to the Black Sea. Here, they discover that its rainy streets are overrun with the poor and displaced, and that its docks are overcrowded with ferries, rafts and barges.
All the people of the Black Sea are pouring out through Constantinople, fleeing the high tides brought upon them by moon's presence. Those who cannot flee into Europe, Asia, or the Mediterranean have weighed anchor here, like drowning men clinging whatever rocks are within arm's reach.
An officer of the port—Yazar—assembles the players and explains that they are the only ones crazy enough to travel into Wallachia. Because no help can be offered to each of them, they must band together to complete their respective missions.
To begin, the party must map the ruins of Wallachia from the summit of Yumrukchal: the highest peak in the Balkan mountains that trace the border between the Ottoman Empire and Wallachia. This mission involves a week-long trek through the countryside of the Ottoman Empire and the following challenges:
Travelling by map. The players must find their way to Yumrukchal by comparing the scenery I describe to a map that they possess and matching landmarks. This will serve as a short, simple puzzle to make travel interesting.
Eclipses. The moon hangs directly over Wallachia, and almost directly over the Ottoman countryside that borders it. Every noon, this causes a 5 minute solar eclipse. And every midnight, this causes a 1 hour long lunar eclipse. Eclipses are not dangerous in an of themselves, but they are a recurrent element of the campaign that this mission serves to introduce.
Bandit Battle #1. The players will encounter 4 bandits on the path to Yumrukchal, during an eclipse. Mechanically, the bandits are commoners with the Skulker feat, shortbows and scimitars. They flee if the eclipse ends or if they begin to lose the fight.
Bandit Battle #2. The players will encounter 4 more bandits while camping, during yet another eclipse. These bandits have identical statistics, however they are not immediately aggressive. They try to rob the players in their sleep.
Bandit Battle #3. The players will find a bandit camp near the summit of Yumrukchal, which houses 8 bandits which they may deal with as they please. Interacting with the bandits or examining their belongings reveals that they are a mix of Wallachian serfs who fled to the Ottoman countryside and Ottoman serfs displaced by fleeing Wallachians. Desperados.
Mapping Wallachia. The players must spend at least one day and night at the snowy summit of Yumrukchal. By day, they will examine the landscape. By midnight, they will search for lights (signs of unabandoned cities). Finally, they will update their maps based on what has changed.
The Wildman. The midnight that the players spend atop Yumrukchal, they are ambushed by a mysterious man. At first he may seem like a bandit, but he is alone, unarmed, and feral. The only sign that he isn't totally wild is that he wants to destroy the players' newly drawn map.
The wildman is apparently invulnerable to harm. If the players cast light on him, it becomes clear that regenerates rapidly after he is injured, and that he is the first unambiguously supernatural force that the players have met. That said, the wildman's only offensive options are unarmed strikes, grapples and shoves. He fights like a commoner, and he is just as vulnerable to status conditions and obstacles as a commoner. The players may throw him from a cliff, restrain him with traps, knock him unconscious, or simply run away.
The wildman is the last obstacle that the players. Once he is defeated, they may safely journey home to Constantinople.