Checking to see if there's interest for a game that focuses on a sandbox-exploration style utilizing Old School (OSR) principles and
Worlds Without Number (WWN) as the base ruleset. The practice of such a game is new for me as a GM, so I'm looking for folks that are also willing to learn and/or be patient with others that are all learning together.
The base
Worlds Without Number rules are available for free online. Some rules will be tweaked to better fit the setting, and I'm flexible to outside suggestions. The setting centers on a homebrewed section of a larger world - inspired by the old Known World maps of the
D&D B/X Gazetteer set. The initial action occurs around the frontier on a newly discovered continent where the foothold town is carved out by a guild for heroes.
Here's the quick pitch:
- A wide-open, sandbox style, living world to explore, create, and share
- Many aspects will be designed quickly and easily (often randomly) on an as-needed basis. Rogue-like randomness in (N)PC generation, dungeon layouts, treasure dropped, and encounters stumbled upon will be commonplace. This also means that NPCs (and factions as a whole) are likely to try to advance their own agendas as time passes.
- A campaign of emergent gameplay led by proactive player-characters
- This means that it is the players’ responsibility to create characters that are adventurous folk who will actively choose to seek out interesting things to do. No need to place themselves in dangerous situations just for giggles, but they must not shrink from the inherent perils that accompany the pursuits of discovery and improvement.
- As GM, I don’t plot stories in advance, preferring instead to experience along with the players the stories that emerge organically from the PCs’ shenanigans. I’m much more of a referee than storyteller.
- A rotating base of players and characters
- Intended to accommodate differences in availability and to encourage teamwork.
- Parties can form and reform ad hoc depending on the scheme the PCs come up with at any given time. PCs can even adventure solo, at their own peril.
- Nobody has plot armor and there will almost certainly be character death. Character deaths should not occur off-screen or during downtime. And folks generally don’t come back from the dead - at least not in any form resembling their living self.
- A (mostly) high-fantasy and (mostly) dark-medieval technological setting
- Combat is dangerous and there is often another way.
- Maybe with rudimentary firearms, maybe some aether-punk aesthetic, probably no airships.
- Downtime crafting, resting, planning, etc. can be important facets of survival.
- Magic is uncommon, though well-known as a valid, valuable and pervasive tool. Mages are respected like flame; venerated for their power but also feared for the possible danger they might unleash. Wielding magic is a costly endeavor and should be a serious one - never to be trifled with or handled flippantly except by fools.
- A newly discovered resource called Ember has great potential for various magitech applications and is thus quite valuable. Since this material has been discovered in ruins and caverns nearby, a rush to explore the wilderness beyond the safely established borders has sparked among the Heroes Guild.
Thanks for having a look; I appreciate all interest and advice.