Welcome

A place for random posts about painting and modelling miniatures for historical, fantasy, and science fiction tabletop games.

Friday, February 28, 2020

The Vanilla Campaign : Session Zero

Post Session Report


I managed to get through the first session without completely fucking it up, barely.

Hindsight be 20/20 it is clear to me that I should have done somethings differently.

Since this was technically session #0 it was a good opportunity to get all of the bugs out.

The biggest issue was the character creation portion of the night. Some of my players jumped right into it and created their characters. Some of the my players struggled. I found myself answering the same question over and over again, very frustrating.

Once we passed that hurdle, it was the intro to the campaign. If I am being honest, I tried hard to set the mood with ambient sounds but I just don't feel I did enough to bring the city to life.

What is the Vanilla Campaign?

The theme of this campaign is back to basics fantasy. A vanilla fantasy campaign world using the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game as the base rule-set with some optional and house rules bolted on.

All characters were to be randomly generated with no backgrounds (backgrounds for each character are going to be revealed in-game via random rolls).

All the characters have come to the city to join the Guild of Adventurers. They have to pass a try-out in the very first game to join the guild,

What is the Setting of the Campaign?

The Valley of Valor

The valley is 2,827 sq. mi. of rolling hills, dark forests, grassy plains and deep lakes. Many call the valley home, but civilization is sparse. The valley is organized under the leadership of the Lord of the Valley, but the settlements are so scattered that his Bannerman often have high levels of autonomy.

The peoples of the valley are divided into three distinct groups: Humans, Demi-Humans & Sub-Humans. Humans are the most numerous of the races, but they are in decline. The common folk tend to be illiterate, ignorant and superstitious; the high-born are often literate, arrogant and self-serving. Elves are rarest of the demi-humans; they are viewed with fear and awe by the common folk. The few elves left in the valley can be found in Rock Maple Wood. Dwarves are not as rare as elves; common folk have many tall tales about dwarves, many are untrue. Most dwarves live in Giants Reach. Halflings are uncommon and are considered oddities by people who have never seen them before.

Sub-Humans are composed of many different sub races, such as orcs and goblins. Giants, ogres and trolls are their own separate race known as the Joten.

Clerics are held in high regard as servants of the gods, while magic-users are held with fear and suspicion as demon worshippers. Many magic-users pose as sages, alchemists or soothsayers.

Giants (including Ogres) are real and greatly feared, Dragons are a myth, and no one has seen one in over 1,000 years.

Most people have never encountered a true monster or something supernatural, they are regulated to tall tales and fables. Most people have encounters with wildlife and various humanoids.  

Campaign Deities:

·         Solaris: God of the Sun (LG)
·         Luna: Goddess of the Moon (CG)
·         Terra: Goddess of Earth (N)
o    Old Man River (N)
o    The Ploughman (N)
o    The Water Maiden (CG)
·         God of Chaos (CE) – Vacant
o    Orcus, Demon Prince
o    Demogorgon, Demon Price
·         Aegis: Goddess of Darkness (LE)

Campaign PC Races:

·         Human
·         Stonefolk (Dwarf)
·         Moon Elf
·         Hillfolk (Halfling)

Campaign PC Classes:

·         Fighter
·         Cleric
·         Magician (M-U)
·         Thief
·         Fighter/M-U
·         M-U/Thief

Campaign Organizations:

·         High Council – Court of the Lord of the Valley
·         Fraternal Order of Adventurers
·         Temples of the Sun, Moon & Earth

Campaign Languages

·         Low Speech (Common)
·         High Speech
·         Stone Tongue (Dwarven)
·         Tree Speech (Elven)
·         Old Tongue (Dead Lang)
Min INT of 12 or Better = Literate

Campaign Social Ranks

·         King (Vacant)
·         High Lord (Vacant)
·         Lord of the Vale
·         Marshal (West Hold, East Hold, Lakeland)
·         High Captain
·         Captain
·         Bannerman (Lowest Level of Nobility)
·         Yeoman (Non-Nobility)
·         Peasant

·         Thrall







No comments:

Post a Comment