Exploring New Rhesyia
[ic=Welcome to Greyag]
After several weeks at sea you once again set foot on solid ground. The world seems to bob slightly around you and you imagine it'll be a little bit before you get your land legs again. Stopping to survey your surroundings you find yourself in the dusty port town of Greyag. This small blip of civilization rests on a spur of land jutting out from the largely unexplored landmass of New Rhesyia. The Rhesians took no time in laying claim to the area but colonization has largely failed due to the less than welcoming locals and the equally hostile environment. Greyag is the one exception. Resting within the bay of Fenrod and separated from the rest of New Rhesyia by a long stone wall it has managed to sustain itself, largely thanks to its location. New Rhesyia is along the recently mapped western route to the gilded nations of the Far East and being the only port between there and Old Rhesyia, Greyag sees a vast amount of merchant vessel traffic. It was one of these very vessels that brought you here.
Yet for all its popularity Greyag is still a frontier town. New Rhesyia is especially hostile and several attempts to start up other colonies have ended in disaster. As such you don't expect much in the way of creature comforts, but that isn't why you came here anyway. You left those behind because of what this land represents. The colonies failed, but while they lasted there was great wealth coming out of New Rhesyia. There has been talk of sending out new expeditions to map the land and uncover prospective resources. Rhesyia hasn't yet given up on trying to conquer this new frontier. Out of all of this you have found yourself here in Greyag with nothing but the clothes on your back and the small bit of money and supplies you've managed to carry with you. It seems almost foolish traveling thousands of miles to chase after rumor of work. Yet work you desperately need, and more than that you need a change. Something has awoken inside you, a desire to see what this new land has to offer. For now hope still burns brightly within your chest. Slinging your pack over your shoulder you make for the inn.[/ic]
Well after years of not running anything more serious than a no notes one shot I've finally decided to run an actual game. I figure it's long past due. I've mooched off of all of you as a player for plenty long enough and I figure it's time for me to be the master of the imaginary dungeon for a change. So welcome to New Rhesyia, my take on Ars Ludi's West Marches (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/) game. The focus of the game will be on open exploration of an uncharted land in the midst of colonization attempts. There will be quests and storylines but other than the first one given to kick you out the door it will be up to you to uncover them (or even to make your own). Who are you? Your characters will be from any number of backgrounds but all of them have come here with one purpose, to trail blaze. You are the intrepid explorers, the first people to truly seek out the hidden treasures of a land shrouded in thousands of years of lost history. When the maps are drawn you will be the ones drawing them and when places are named they will be named by you. There's more out there than fame though, rumors abound of the vast wealth of this land. It's up to you though whether you will make it big or end up dead in the trackless wilderness.
Rules and Info:I'm not starting up the game right away as I want to do a quick session with a certain horse before things actually begin, to give me time to get my footing. However when I do open this up there will be slots for as many people as want to play to play whenever they want to play (with some limitations of course). The idea behind west marches is that it doesn't follow a set schedule. Whenever the DM or a player (actually it's encouraged that players do this) wants to play a session or two they get together with anyone else they can find and put together a group to run it. This mirrors the concept of fellow adventurers in the local tavern planning out a job or getting hired on together by a local contractor. It's much like the classic meet in the tavern of AD&D except it has a more reasonable excuse and it happens over and over with each group getting together and exploring out an area or finishing an assignment or quest.
In short:- Player A wants to play a game.
- Player A gets ahold of the DM and any other players they can.
- The players and the DM hammer out a time and discuss what they want to do... "we should go explore farther into the old ruin we found last time" or "we should see if we can learn where those natives got those powerful healing herbs from".
- Once everyone has agreed upon a time and plan of action the DM plans out the adventure and runs it for them.
- The group plays out the first session.
- The group keeps playing sessions until their current quest finishes or they otherwise end up back in town.
- Once finished everything begins over again with the same or completely different players as people are or are not available.
The group can be as small or large as they want and I will do what I can to balance the difficulty based on the size of the group. Solo sessions are perfectly fine if you can't find anyone else who wants to go with you. Very large groups are also ok (I reserve the right to set size limits though so that people don't end up feeling ignored during the game and I don't get overwhelmed). The idea is that groups will dynamically change over time. There can (and probably will) be more than one group running a quest at a time even so don't let another group stop you from starting up your own group.
Rules wise we will be using Fate (Spirit of the Century) (http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html) as a basis as it is simple to learn and minimizes the crunch in favor of interesting roleplay. I encourage players to act out scenes to their hearts content and to embellish as they wish within the reasonable bounds of the rules and the setting theme. Regarding the theme we will obviously be focusing on wilderness survival and exploration. There will be some degree of managing your supplies and avoiding the perils of the wastes (hunger, thirst, disease, and wild animals) more than you would find in a DnD style game. There will be a little bit of grit to it but the setting will also have some degree of the fantastical (magic items, unnatural monsters, strange terrain, etc) so feel free to make of that what you will when designing and running your character.
I will be posting more exact information later on once I'm closer to actually starting the game but provided that nothing goes wrong that shouldn't be too far from now. However, in the meantime I am open to any and all questions or suggestions you have for this.