I am in the process of building a setting for my next campaign based around the political maneuvers and proxy wars of a collection of successor states run by noble houses that were all part of a single empire and are now all trying to claim the imperial throne.
The setting is largely contained within a massive city which, following the beginning of the Succession Wars, became isolated by an impenetrable barrier of miasmic mist from the rest of the world. (A similar ideas as the domains of dread from Ravenloft).
The aesthetic of the setting takes inspiration from many sources including Sunless Sea/Fallen London, Bloodborne, Vampyr, and Styx. It maintains a psuedo-Edwardian style in dress and architecture, with a low level of steam era technology powered by magic.
Two major elements of the setting are Golemtech, which is a magic based form of cybernetics, and Cinder Dust, which is a highly addictive and dangerously corruptive substance that allows people to use magic.
So, given all of this. What are some things you, as a player, might expect or want to see/encounter in this setting? What races and/or classes would you feel are appropriate?
I'm a forever DM so I'm looking for outside player perspective.
The setting is called Cinderfall. The city is currently unnamed but I am toying with Grimborough. Too cliche?
Eberron content is likely fitting, but regarding class or race options nothing is necessarily inappropriate. If the adventure is largely contained to an urban environment something like Wood Elves or Grung might need some kind of explanation, but it really comes down to what and/or how much you'd like the players to have access to. As a player, I'd expect to have at least 15 races and most any (sub)class to choose from. Particularly when it comes to race I'd hope more for you to define a place for them in the setting than possibly getting the full smorgasbord though - I'd rather a handful of interesting and engaging choices than a ton of them that are bland or same old same old (but a lot of the former would be even better).
What I'd expect or want to encounter? Mad scientists. "Firsts" for the setting - in other words, completely new inventions or insights the characters couldn't expect and the movers and shakers will vie for. At least one faction trying to claim the throne by other means than backstabbing and violence. Maybe something around the place of religion in a technologically advancing setting.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Firstly: I love this setting concept; sounds very cool, but then again: I love Fallen London and Bloodborne to bits, so that makes sense.
Something that did spring to mind while reading your description of the political situation though was the city of San Gimignano in Italy. The story there was that the town/city existed at a crossroads of trade during the medieval and renaissance periods; and its rival merchant families had something of a contest between them that whenever one would become ascendant; they would erect a taller/more extravagant tower. Something to tap for inspiration maybe.
Tapping the Fallen London influence along with the birth of steam-era technology: could give the city an "under-city" as it were; which would fit in with the "magic substance as a narcotic" element pretty well. Both fo those lend tehmselves naturally to dungeons and places to explore.
As far as races to; assuming the city is an important hub for all these battling factions; a lot of races as Pangurjan said could easilly be present, it's teh more "wild" ones that would require explaining.
The big question that springs to mind as far as classes to me goes would be: pre or post the advent of firearms? Because that would greatly effect the balance of "types" of classes one might see around. Knights in heavy armor stop being effective the instant that a fairly standard weapon can perforate their breast plate and drop them in one hit.
Give the players the full range of races and classes to choose from, there's no reason to restrict any of them. They'll need to have a reason to be in the city, but that shouldn't be too hard.
How are you going to let players get out of the city? If they are permanently in an urban location, settings are going to get boring pretty fast, since you'll be limited to streets, inside buildings, sewers and maybe parks? I find D&D works best when characters move between deserts, icy passes, deep forests, ancient ruins and more. I hope you have ways (portals maybe?) to be able to send them out of the city to go on adventures.
What I'd expect is fairly linear storytelling. When characters are in cities, there are far more options for them to go to, so the story needs to follow a pretty linear route. City adventures are much harder to run than wilderness ones, since they have massively more locations of interest and as the DM you really need to plan the entire city before the game begins or else constantly be inventing on the fly. E.g. "I want to go buy a barrel, where can I find a cooper? What does he look like?"
I'd expect a mystery/intrigue type campaign rather than a dungeoneering one. High levels of social interaction, since there are people everywhere, and maybe some kind of deputisation as otherwise they'll run into trouble with the law pretty quickly whenever fighting breaks out.
Golemtech sounds cool. I'd expect my character to be able to cybernetically adjust his/her body as levels progressed, which could take the form of magic items.
You may want to give the city a unifying element, a sacred cow, that even the factions won't want to mess with. The perhaps it would be the Guard/Police/law.
I was thinking something along the lines of a lightning rail system that connects most parts of the city. It is used by all the factions relatively equally and as such none of them will cross the faction that controls it. The Rail faction has complete and total control over the rail and stations but is not a power elsewhere and so is left alone. The Rail may have another line that exits/enters the city for trade with it being the only safe way through the miasma, at certain times.
Echoing off WilsonJ: the idea of some sort of "neutral ground" element is a pretty good one in this sort of setting; like the Continental Hotels in the John Wick movies for example. Being able to have that sort of a "we're safe if we get there" sort of location is a good tool to have story-wise and something your players can also make use of strategically. And of course; violation of the rule can be a big "the stakes have been raised" moment.
One thing that many such settings/games tend to be known for is disease.
Given that the city is isolated and self-contained, especially enclosed by "miasmic mist", it could be interesting to play up the plague angle at some point. Perhaps the city is infested with a particularly pernicious pox that tends to flare up over and over, and its occurrences can drive or disrupt some of the political scheming. A noble house suspected of being contaminated by the plague could grow violent and vicious in its attempts to reinforce its position, and other entities might even tryo to weaponize disease to remove or discredit their rivals. Players in a D&D game are used to being utterly and completely unconcerned with any form of sickness, but in a setting like this? An overcrowded city with nowhere to expand to and with only limited resources to draw on? Disease would be an ever-present concern, and certain particularly virulent strains might even be partially or wholly resistant to typical PC-accessible means of dealing with them.
Heh, after all, what Dark London-esque game is complete without plague rats, ne? I can imagine a "kill ten rats" encounter being turned up to eleven when anyone bitten has to make a Constitution save or contract a debilitating, disfiguring plague. Low DC, to be sure, for the PCs...but every bite they take's another chance for that dread natural 1...
I sorta pictured Dwarves and Gnomes being key here Two major elements of the setting are Golemtech, which is a magic based form of cybernetics... makes me think dwarven and gnomish artificers
and Cinder Dust, which is a highly addictive and dangerously corruptive substance that allows people to use magic. For some reason, I see a bunch of dwarves and gnomes getting hooked on this as it gives them abilities they may not have had before.
As for the miasmic mist separating the city from the outside, to me that has a distinctly elven flavor to it, but the question would be is the mist meant to keep outsiders out, or to keep the city residents in? So was the mist perpetrated by the city, or by others to keep the city away from the rest of the world?
To me it has a very Mistborn feel to it, ala Brandon Sanderson.
And as others have said, don't make it all to urban. If it is truly a massive city, have a lake in it. Have a park in it.
Thieves guild would be essential to me, and some sort of monitoring of magic and technology as well.
Heh, after all, what Dark London-esque game is complete without plague rats, ne? I can imagine a "kill ten rats" encounter being turned up to eleven when anyone bitten has to make a Constitution save or contract a debilitating, disfiguring plague. Low DC, to be sure, for the PCs...but every bite they take's another chance for that dread natural 1...
Fun factoid about the Fallen London setting the OP mentioned: the rats in that setting are actually a lot more like the Skaven of Warhammer... as in: they're their own intelligent race, with their own breed of clockwork-style technology. "Dealing with rats in Fallen London is not like dealing with rats on the surface; prepare for war." - Fallen London sidebar
I'm getting strong Arcane vibes from this because of the tech and the Cinder Dust, so I'd expect a robust black market and criminal underground in this city. Lots of rogues, lots of back-alley mages. More intrigue than epic journeying.
Given how isolated it is, I imagine there has to be arable land within the city limits. That impacts the economy, the monsters, and the kinds of jobs your average adventurer would be contracted for. As a player, I'd also wonder what that means in terms of social status and political capital - is having green space a sign of wealth? Is it something that needs to be protected? Is there a food scarcity problem and how would an adventurer get caught up in that?
To me it sounds like you may have some of the same issues that are found in post apocalyptic games which tend to focus on limited resources. So hoe do you feed people, acquire the resources to do upkeep on old thigs and construct new things and how do people deal with their new reality. In other words try and make it as "living" as possible to help the players experience the story you are trying to tell.
Substance based magic, to me can be interesting but getting the balance right between penalties and power can be tricky and most times either make or break the game world. But this can also be a primary focus of drama for the setting as well.
Also in general some question you should as yourself to determine how much work you need to put into setting construction; how long is the game going to run?, how do your players react to the idea?, on average how long do you game for?, do you play on trying to sell it? (if you have this idea then often you have to put a lot more work into the idea then just running it as a home game setting), what does you group like vs what other groups may like, and not like?. How much work do you plan on doing for each faction/race/group in terms of pages and questions that define them. etc.
In general your group makes a huge difference in how you would prep your idea, if they believe anything you tell them without problem or do not ask detailed questions you can get away with a lot less prep work but if you have a group that requires things to make sense with in the boundaries of the "natural laws" you have set then you can have problems.
To me it sounds like you may have some of the same issues that are found in post apocalyptic games which tend to focus on limited resources. So hoe do you feed people, acquire the resources to do upkeep on old thigs and construct new things and how do people deal with their new reality. In other words try and make it as "living" as possible to help the players experience the story you are trying to tell.
I like this idea, because I think it leans in well to a sort of Bloodborne-type system where something about what people need to do just to survive in this blighted land might corrupt them. I feel like that's a good motivation to lean into creating monstrosities and mutants... maybe the people who can't always afford real, healthy food need to consume something else just to survive. Maybe whatever this other substance is can also be addicting, or have any number of other negatives. Something that the players themselves will avoid consuming, but may be forced to at certain times. Depending on the class a player chooses, maybe they're already corrupted... I could see a Spores Druid being the result of a partially corrupted individual learning to control their corruption for their own purpose.
Eberron content is likely fitting, but regarding class or race options nothing is necessarily inappropriate. If the adventure is largely contained to an urban environment something like Wood Elves or Grung might need some kind of explanation, but it really comes down to what and/or how much you'd like the players to have access to. As a player, I'd expect to have at least 15 races and most any (sub)class to choose from. Particularly when it comes to race I'd hope more for you to define a place for them in the setting than possibly getting the full smorgasbord though - I'd rather a handful of interesting and engaging choices than a ton of them that are bland or same old same old (but a lot of the former would be even better).
What I'd expect or want to encounter? Mad scientists. "Firsts" for the setting - in other words, completely new inventions or insights the characters couldn't expect and the movers and shakers will vie for. At least one faction trying to claim the throne by other means than backstabbing and violence. Maybe something around the place of religion in a technologically advancing setting.
I think this is the reply that resonates with me the most here.
Some of the things I see coming through in 5th is just that at a certain point, magic just solves every problem. So as a player who eventually comes into their own, at 3rd level(assuming full caster classes), poisons and diseases aren't an issue and at 5th, most curses are longer issues. Bigger cities and noble houses are going to have access to those resources so as a player I'd be wondering why/how the noble houses aren't using those resources OR is it just so rampant and widespread that they can't keep up? With Cinderdust, I would definitely expect higher stations to force those of lesser means to use it for their own personal benefit.
As a player, it'd be up to the group how we wanted to play. Are we acting as agents of a specific faction trying to solve their problems? Are we agents of change trying to figure out why that one city state is isolated? Are we trying to develop golemtech further to change things? Specifically on artificers, because this is their shit, how do they interact in this world?
As a player, it'd be up to the group how we wanted to play. Are we acting as agents of a specific faction trying to solve their problems? Are we agents of change trying to figure out why that one city state is isolated? Are we trying to develop golemtech further to change things? Specifically on artificers, because this is their shit, how do they interact in this world?
This, and particularly how the first two questions frame it, is an extremely important issue. The setting has two clear sources of dramatic tension: the Succession Wars and this mystical isolation that seemingly coincided with it. You have that tension, but what is the point of it? In what way does it matter to the party? If you present a setting to me in this way, I'd be disappointed if all of that was just a backdrop and the story arc of the campaign didn't meaningfully intersect with it. Plus, for the sake of party cohesion alone it'd probably be potentially awkward if everyone came at it from different directions. If there are two players on different sides of the conflict and a third who doesn't want to take sides but is dealing with the substance abuse angle and a fourth whose focus is really only on the golemcraft and the Succession War is at most an opportunity to advance that cause, you get a pretty fractured alliance. As DM I'd like to have the players figure out what sort of thing would be their main theme rather than imposing one myself, but I'd definitely require them to make such a decision.
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I'm getting strong Arcane vibes from this because of the tech and the Cinder Dust, so I'd expect a robust black market and criminal underground in this city. Lots of rogues, lots of back-alley mages. More intrigue than epic journeying
And to me, mages would die quickly if they use too much of the cinder dust, sometimes spectacularly. But it is addictive and the rush is so good, plus magic, so it would be easy to see why people keep using it...
I'm getting strong Arcane vibes from this because of the tech and the Cinder Dust, so I'd expect a robust black market and criminal underground in this city. Lots of rogues, lots of back-alley mages. More intrigue than epic journeying
And to me, mages would die quickly if they use too much of the cinder dust, sometimes spectacularly. But it is addictive and the rush is so good, plus magic, so it would be easy to see why people keep using it...
"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."
One thing I thought of was that spell casters gain spell slots by taking the "drug". You could vary this a bit by allowing some slots to be gained form experience/training but a full allotment needs the drug. An example might be a 20th level caster gets 1/2 spell slots from spells of level 1-4 and 1 slot of 5 and 6 but the rest need the "drug" to acquire.
If you use this system then you may want to alter how some spell casters work, in that they gain the slots from the drug and can use them for X days after words unlike you have to learn spells every x hours.
Games with limited resources are often hard to do and keep up in the long run as I have found it is tough to balance just how much is needed to keep people alive, breeding and recover from attrition loss. But if it is a short game or campaign then simply defining the decline or dealing with the end is much easier. Also as I have said, if you group is a believer and not questioners things are easy, ie if you hold up a piece of white paper and say its "cold" and make a blowing sound through your lips...and your players put on coats, ask you to turn up the heat as they are cold...your job is much easier as a GM.
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I am in the process of building a setting for my next campaign based around the political maneuvers and proxy wars of a collection of successor states run by noble houses that were all part of a single empire and are now all trying to claim the imperial throne.
The setting is largely contained within a massive city which, following the beginning of the Succession Wars, became isolated by an impenetrable barrier of miasmic mist from the rest of the world. (A similar ideas as the domains of dread from Ravenloft).
The aesthetic of the setting takes inspiration from many sources including Sunless Sea/Fallen London, Bloodborne, Vampyr, and Styx. It maintains a psuedo-Edwardian style in dress and architecture, with a low level of steam era technology powered by magic.
Two major elements of the setting are Golemtech, which is a magic based form of cybernetics, and Cinder Dust, which is a highly addictive and dangerously corruptive substance that allows people to use magic.
So, given all of this. What are some things you, as a player, might expect or want to see/encounter in this setting? What races and/or classes would you feel are appropriate?
I'm a forever DM so I'm looking for outside player perspective.
The setting is called Cinderfall. The city is currently unnamed but I am toying with Grimborough. Too cliche?
Eberron content is likely fitting, but regarding class or race options nothing is necessarily inappropriate. If the adventure is largely contained to an urban environment something like Wood Elves or Grung might need some kind of explanation, but it really comes down to what and/or how much you'd like the players to have access to. As a player, I'd expect to have at least 15 races and most any (sub)class to choose from. Particularly when it comes to race I'd hope more for you to define a place for them in the setting than possibly getting the full smorgasbord though - I'd rather a handful of interesting and engaging choices than a ton of them that are bland or same old same old (but a lot of the former would be even better).
What I'd expect or want to encounter? Mad scientists. "Firsts" for the setting - in other words, completely new inventions or insights the characters couldn't expect and the movers and shakers will vie for. At least one faction trying to claim the throne by other means than backstabbing and violence. Maybe something around the place of religion in a technologically advancing setting.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Firstly: I love this setting concept; sounds very cool, but then again: I love Fallen London and Bloodborne to bits, so that makes sense.
Something that did spring to mind while reading your description of the political situation though was the city of San Gimignano in Italy. The story there was that the town/city existed at a crossroads of trade during the medieval and renaissance periods; and its rival merchant families had something of a contest between them that whenever one would become ascendant; they would erect a taller/more extravagant tower. Something to tap for inspiration maybe.
Tapping the Fallen London influence along with the birth of steam-era technology: could give the city an "under-city" as it were; which would fit in with the "magic substance as a narcotic" element pretty well. Both fo those lend tehmselves naturally to dungeons and places to explore.
As far as races to; assuming the city is an important hub for all these battling factions; a lot of races as Pangurjan said could easilly be present, it's teh more "wild" ones that would require explaining.
The big question that springs to mind as far as classes to me goes would be: pre or post the advent of firearms? Because that would greatly effect the balance of "types" of classes one might see around. Knights in heavy armor stop being effective the instant that a fairly standard weapon can perforate their breast plate and drop them in one hit.
Give the players the full range of races and classes to choose from, there's no reason to restrict any of them. They'll need to have a reason to be in the city, but that shouldn't be too hard.
How are you going to let players get out of the city? If they are permanently in an urban location, settings are going to get boring pretty fast, since you'll be limited to streets, inside buildings, sewers and maybe parks? I find D&D works best when characters move between deserts, icy passes, deep forests, ancient ruins and more. I hope you have ways (portals maybe?) to be able to send them out of the city to go on adventures.
What I'd expect is fairly linear storytelling. When characters are in cities, there are far more options for them to go to, so the story needs to follow a pretty linear route. City adventures are much harder to run than wilderness ones, since they have massively more locations of interest and as the DM you really need to plan the entire city before the game begins or else constantly be inventing on the fly. E.g. "I want to go buy a barrel, where can I find a cooper? What does he look like?"
I'd expect a mystery/intrigue type campaign rather than a dungeoneering one. High levels of social interaction, since there are people everywhere, and maybe some kind of deputisation as otherwise they'll run into trouble with the law pretty quickly whenever fighting breaks out.
Golemtech sounds cool. I'd expect my character to be able to cybernetically adjust his/her body as levels progressed, which could take the form of magic items.
Lamordia in Ravenloft may give you some ideas
You may want to give the city a unifying element, a sacred cow, that even the factions won't want to mess with. The perhaps it would be the Guard/Police/law.
I was thinking something along the lines of a lightning rail system that connects most parts of the city. It is used by all the factions relatively equally and as such none of them will cross the faction that controls it. The Rail faction has complete and total control over the rail and stations but is not a power elsewhere and so is left alone. The Rail may have another line that exits/enters the city for trade with it being the only safe way through the miasma, at certain times.
Echoing off WilsonJ: the idea of some sort of "neutral ground" element is a pretty good one in this sort of setting; like the Continental Hotels in the John Wick movies for example. Being able to have that sort of a "we're safe if we get there" sort of location is a good tool to have story-wise and something your players can also make use of strategically. And of course; violation of the rule can be a big "the stakes have been raised" moment.
One thing that many such settings/games tend to be known for is disease.
Given that the city is isolated and self-contained, especially enclosed by "miasmic mist", it could be interesting to play up the plague angle at some point. Perhaps the city is infested with a particularly pernicious pox that tends to flare up over and over, and its occurrences can drive or disrupt some of the political scheming. A noble house suspected of being contaminated by the plague could grow violent and vicious in its attempts to reinforce its position, and other entities might even tryo to weaponize disease to remove or discredit their rivals. Players in a D&D game are used to being utterly and completely unconcerned with any form of sickness, but in a setting like this? An overcrowded city with nowhere to expand to and with only limited resources to draw on? Disease would be an ever-present concern, and certain particularly virulent strains might even be partially or wholly resistant to typical PC-accessible means of dealing with them.
Heh, after all, what Dark London-esque game is complete without plague rats, ne? I can imagine a "kill ten rats" encounter being turned up to eleven when anyone bitten has to make a Constitution save or contract a debilitating, disfiguring plague. Low DC, to be sure, for the PCs...but every bite they take's another chance for that dread natural 1...
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I sorta pictured Dwarves and Gnomes being key here
Two major elements of the setting are Golemtech, which is a magic based form of cybernetics... makes me think dwarven and gnomish artificers
and Cinder Dust, which is a highly addictive and dangerously corruptive substance that allows people to use magic. For some reason, I see a bunch of dwarves and gnomes getting hooked on this as it gives them abilities they may not have had before.
As for the miasmic mist separating the city from the outside, to me that has a distinctly elven flavor to it, but the question would be is the mist meant to keep outsiders out, or to keep the city residents in? So was the mist perpetrated by the city, or by others to keep the city away from the rest of the world?
To me it has a very Mistborn feel to it, ala Brandon Sanderson.
And as others have said, don't make it all to urban. If it is truly a massive city, have a lake in it. Have a park in it.
Thieves guild would be essential to me, and some sort of monitoring of magic and technology as well.
Fun factoid about the Fallen London setting the OP mentioned: the rats in that setting are actually a lot more like the Skaven of Warhammer... as in: they're their own intelligent race, with their own breed of clockwork-style technology. "Dealing with rats in Fallen London is not like dealing with rats on the surface; prepare for war." - Fallen London sidebar
I'm getting strong Arcane vibes from this because of the tech and the Cinder Dust, so I'd expect a robust black market and criminal underground in this city. Lots of rogues, lots of back-alley mages. More intrigue than epic journeying.
Given how isolated it is, I imagine there has to be arable land within the city limits. That impacts the economy, the monsters, and the kinds of jobs your average adventurer would be contracted for. As a player, I'd also wonder what that means in terms of social status and political capital - is having green space a sign of wealth? Is it something that needs to be protected? Is there a food scarcity problem and how would an adventurer get caught up in that?
Love the concept, by the way.
To me it sounds like you may have some of the same issues that are found in post apocalyptic games which tend to focus on limited resources. So hoe do you feed people, acquire the resources to do upkeep on old thigs and construct new things and how do people deal with their new reality. In other words try and make it as "living" as possible to help the players experience the story you are trying to tell.
Substance based magic, to me can be interesting but getting the balance right between penalties and power can be tricky and most times either make or break the game world. But this can also be a primary focus of drama for the setting as well.
Also in general some question you should as yourself to determine how much work you need to put into setting construction; how long is the game going to run?, how do your players react to the idea?, on average how long do you game for?, do you play on trying to sell it? (if you have this idea then often you have to put a lot more work into the idea then just running it as a home game setting), what does you group like vs what other groups may like, and not like?. How much work do you plan on doing for each faction/race/group in terms of pages and questions that define them. etc.
In general your group makes a huge difference in how you would prep your idea, if they believe anything you tell them without problem or do not ask detailed questions you can get away with a lot less prep work but if you have a group that requires things to make sense with in the boundaries of the "natural laws" you have set then you can have problems.
I like this idea, because I think it leans in well to a sort of Bloodborne-type system where something about what people need to do just to survive in this blighted land might corrupt them. I feel like that's a good motivation to lean into creating monstrosities and mutants... maybe the people who can't always afford real, healthy food need to consume something else just to survive. Maybe whatever this other substance is can also be addicting, or have any number of other negatives. Something that the players themselves will avoid consuming, but may be forced to at certain times. Depending on the class a player chooses, maybe they're already corrupted... I could see a Spores Druid being the result of a partially corrupted individual learning to control their corruption for their own purpose.
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I think this is the reply that resonates with me the most here.
Some of the things I see coming through in 5th is just that at a certain point, magic just solves every problem. So as a player who eventually comes into their own, at 3rd level(assuming full caster classes), poisons and diseases aren't an issue and at 5th, most curses are longer issues. Bigger cities and noble houses are going to have access to those resources so as a player I'd be wondering why/how the noble houses aren't using those resources OR is it just so rampant and widespread that they can't keep up? With Cinderdust, I would definitely expect higher stations to force those of lesser means to use it for their own personal benefit.
As a player, it'd be up to the group how we wanted to play. Are we acting as agents of a specific faction trying to solve their problems? Are we agents of change trying to figure out why that one city state is isolated? Are we trying to develop golemtech further to change things? Specifically on artificers, because this is their shit, how do they interact in this world?
This, and particularly how the first two questions frame it, is an extremely important issue. The setting has two clear sources of dramatic tension: the Succession Wars and this mystical isolation that seemingly coincided with it. You have that tension, but what is the point of it? In what way does it matter to the party? If you present a setting to me in this way, I'd be disappointed if all of that was just a backdrop and the story arc of the campaign didn't meaningfully intersect with it. Plus, for the sake of party cohesion alone it'd probably be potentially awkward if everyone came at it from different directions. If there are two players on different sides of the conflict and a third who doesn't want to take sides but is dealing with the substance abuse angle and a fourth whose focus is really only on the golemcraft and the Succession War is at most an opportunity to advance that cause, you get a pretty fractured alliance. As DM I'd like to have the players figure out what sort of thing would be their main theme rather than imposing one myself, but I'd definitely require them to make such a decision.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
And to me, mages would die quickly if they use too much of the cinder dust, sometimes spectacularly. But it is addictive and the rush is so good, plus magic, so it would be easy to see why people keep using it...
"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."
Honestly the setting sounds cool.If I was playing it I would be looking to enhance my own character with the cybernetics like extra arm for example.
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I would consider some of the current UA races, like the Autognomes, Giff, Hodozee etc. some of those feel like they would fit.
One thing I thought of was that spell casters gain spell slots by taking the "drug". You could vary this a bit by allowing some slots to be gained form experience/training but a full allotment needs the drug. An example might be a 20th level caster gets 1/2 spell slots from spells of level 1-4 and 1 slot of 5 and 6 but the rest need the "drug" to acquire.
If you use this system then you may want to alter how some spell casters work, in that they gain the slots from the drug and can use them for X days after words unlike you have to learn spells every x hours.
Games with limited resources are often hard to do and keep up in the long run as I have found it is tough to balance just how much is needed to keep people alive, breeding and recover from attrition loss. But if it is a short game or campaign then simply defining the decline or dealing with the end is much easier. Also as I have said, if you group is a believer and not questioners things are easy, ie if you hold up a piece of white paper and say its "cold" and make a blowing sound through your lips...and your players put on coats, ask you to turn up the heat as they are cold...your job is much easier as a GM.