Post by Raven Archon on Sept 18, 2014 17:34:25 GMT -8
Greetings all! Time to get the ball rolling. I have two committed players at this point, another maybe, and a fourth I need to ask, but might as well set stuff up so we know what we're making.
Setting
The campaign we're going to be playing in is set in the Forgotten Realms, the D&D world that most of the D&D video games take place in. Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, all of these cities are in Toril, the land of the Forgotten Realms. In fact we're not going to be too far away from either of these cities as the game takes place on the Sword Coast fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/057/7/7/north_sword_coast_by_mikeschley-d4r3mql.jpg
The forgotten realms is a magic heavy setting, even more so than most D&D worlds. Just about everyone sees or uses magic in their every day lives, and it's pretty much as common place as electricity is in our world. Now this doesn't mean everyone can cast spells, far from it in fact. But city guards almost always have a division of war-wizards, and nearly every city as several temples with clerics, and probably a wizards guild or two. Magic weapons are armor are sold in stores in most major cities, etc etc.
Additionally, a huge element of FR settings are the characters. The FR is a very character driven universe, with lots of named people like Drizzt the Dark Elf, and Kelbin Blackstaff, and Elminster, and a ton of others. Mystery and politics between the various powerful personalities is another hallmark of The Forgotten Realms.
Our Corner of the Setting
So, where our characters come into play, is that we are adventurers. Heroes for hire, mercenaries, or simply someone looking for adventure. In my current campaign with Church friends I play a Dwarven Cleric who's setting out on adventure as part of a religious mission of sorts. He regularly hands out pamphlets about his religion (which advocates smithing as the highest of callings, drinking ale, getting drunk, and then smithing while drunk... He's a bit of a stereotype.) to both friend and foe alike.
Back-story
Our campaign opens with us on the road as part of a frontier wagon train, heading to a small frontier town named Phandalin. If you look on the map of the Sword Coast, Phandalin is in the Sword Mountains in the lower east. Our characters didn't appear on the road via magic, however. We all come from Neverwinter to the north - weather we're native to the city or not is for us to decide but that's where we set out from. We were hired to be part of this wagon train by a very excitable Dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker. He's one of the Rockseeker brothers, a trio of Dwarves who have been trying to locate and reclaim a lost mine in the Sword Moutains called the Wave Echo Cave for many years. This mine, which used to be a joint Human, Gnome, Dwaven mine rich both in ores of all kinds and a unique magical energy, was once a center of economy in the region till it was overrun by orcs many hundreds of years ago. Finally they believe they've found it and they're hoping to establish a community in the area, and return it to it's former glory. To that end they've been paying people to resettle there, and adventurers to relocate there to help tame the now wild lands, and take back the mines.
Where do I fit in
In designing your character there are several questions you should answer. Some of these will be worked on when choosing a background during character creation (a new, third tier of creation added to class and race that helps to give your character depth. Really cool IMO) others, however, are more specific and thought should be given to their answers.
1. What was your life before adventuring? Background selection will impact this a lot.
2. Why were you in Neverwinter? Neverwinter is very, very far North. This is basically like Alaska or Siberia. The city itself is a trade hub as it's built on a natural hot spring which keeps the normally constant chill of the North at bay (hence the name Neverwinter). Were you born and raised here? Move here for some reason?
3. Do you know the other characters? Do you have any ties to them before this trip? Talk to each other and decide if you have a mutual back-story of some kind.
4. Why did you decide to take the job? Why did you leave Neverwinter? Do you have an ulterior motive of some kind, or did you just want out of Neverwinter? If you have an idea for a personal plot for your characters let me know and I'll see how I can work it into the story.
You may also think of other things you'd like to know about your character.
In my next post I'll be running through Character Creation step by step to make my character as something of a tutorial.
Setting
The campaign we're going to be playing in is set in the Forgotten Realms, the D&D world that most of the D&D video games take place in. Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, all of these cities are in Toril, the land of the Forgotten Realms. In fact we're not going to be too far away from either of these cities as the game takes place on the Sword Coast fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/057/7/7/north_sword_coast_by_mikeschley-d4r3mql.jpg
The forgotten realms is a magic heavy setting, even more so than most D&D worlds. Just about everyone sees or uses magic in their every day lives, and it's pretty much as common place as electricity is in our world. Now this doesn't mean everyone can cast spells, far from it in fact. But city guards almost always have a division of war-wizards, and nearly every city as several temples with clerics, and probably a wizards guild or two. Magic weapons are armor are sold in stores in most major cities, etc etc.
Additionally, a huge element of FR settings are the characters. The FR is a very character driven universe, with lots of named people like Drizzt the Dark Elf, and Kelbin Blackstaff, and Elminster, and a ton of others. Mystery and politics between the various powerful personalities is another hallmark of The Forgotten Realms.
Our Corner of the Setting
So, where our characters come into play, is that we are adventurers. Heroes for hire, mercenaries, or simply someone looking for adventure. In my current campaign with Church friends I play a Dwarven Cleric who's setting out on adventure as part of a religious mission of sorts. He regularly hands out pamphlets about his religion (which advocates smithing as the highest of callings, drinking ale, getting drunk, and then smithing while drunk... He's a bit of a stereotype.) to both friend and foe alike.
Back-story
Our campaign opens with us on the road as part of a frontier wagon train, heading to a small frontier town named Phandalin. If you look on the map of the Sword Coast, Phandalin is in the Sword Mountains in the lower east. Our characters didn't appear on the road via magic, however. We all come from Neverwinter to the north - weather we're native to the city or not is for us to decide but that's where we set out from. We were hired to be part of this wagon train by a very excitable Dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker. He's one of the Rockseeker brothers, a trio of Dwarves who have been trying to locate and reclaim a lost mine in the Sword Moutains called the Wave Echo Cave for many years. This mine, which used to be a joint Human, Gnome, Dwaven mine rich both in ores of all kinds and a unique magical energy, was once a center of economy in the region till it was overrun by orcs many hundreds of years ago. Finally they believe they've found it and they're hoping to establish a community in the area, and return it to it's former glory. To that end they've been paying people to resettle there, and adventurers to relocate there to help tame the now wild lands, and take back the mines.
Where do I fit in
In designing your character there are several questions you should answer. Some of these will be worked on when choosing a background during character creation (a new, third tier of creation added to class and race that helps to give your character depth. Really cool IMO) others, however, are more specific and thought should be given to their answers.
1. What was your life before adventuring? Background selection will impact this a lot.
2. Why were you in Neverwinter? Neverwinter is very, very far North. This is basically like Alaska or Siberia. The city itself is a trade hub as it's built on a natural hot spring which keeps the normally constant chill of the North at bay (hence the name Neverwinter). Were you born and raised here? Move here for some reason?
3. Do you know the other characters? Do you have any ties to them before this trip? Talk to each other and decide if you have a mutual back-story of some kind.
4. Why did you decide to take the job? Why did you leave Neverwinter? Do you have an ulterior motive of some kind, or did you just want out of Neverwinter? If you have an idea for a personal plot for your characters let me know and I'll see how I can work it into the story.
You may also think of other things you'd like to know about your character.
In my next post I'll be running through Character Creation step by step to make my character as something of a tutorial.