You’re no hero.
You’re an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets.
You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished.
There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them...
The blinding blackness of the underworld held back only by the sputtering light of your candles, lanterns, and torches—dim points of light in a vast ocean of darkness.
Dank stone walls close in around you and the weight of earth and stone above grinds down on a maze of corridors, galleries, vaults, tombs, caverns, and ancient fortresses.
You trespass in the domains of long extinct subterranean peoples, the histories of their underworld unclear or unknown, their wealth abandoned and unclaimed.
The darkness is full of death, yet it draws fools and fortune hunters with whispered intimations of gold for the plundering, only to devour them.
The monuments to the dead are strewn about. Melted candle stubs, scattered and tarnished coins, and mummified corpses clad in rusted mail laying forgotten in dusty endless halls...
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We will use Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition with some house rules to focus on exploration, make the game more challenging, and smooth out some balance issues. We will use variations of Healing Surges and Epic Short Rests.
This is a West Marches game set in an unnamed points of light homebrew world that is influenced by Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Call of Cthulhu, Grim Hollow, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Darkest Dungeon, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. You will see Cay-Men, Gator Men, and Fungoids...alongside Chaos Cultists, Mutants, and Skaven...alongside Drowned Thralls, Shamblers, and Swine.
I’m a fan of the weird early days of D&D and the sometimes psychedelic blend of fantasy with science fiction. I will regularly pull from decades of stockpiled game material to populate the world.
The game will focus on short, quick expeditions (3-4 months of real time) so players can come and go without committing to a multi-year long campaign. Though you’re welcome to stay and play however long you like.
If you’re unfamiliar,
West Marches-style games are focused on player-driven exploration. The DM populates the world with places to go and things to do and the players decide where to go and what to do. There’s no pre-planned plot or script. Just a world to explore, monsters to face, and treasure to collect.
If you’re unfamiliar with what a points of light setting is, check the Game Info.
This message was last edited by the user at 02:34, Sat 28 May 2022.