Sarlona is a land unlike any other in Eberron. In Riedra, the Inspired plot to control the dreams of all in Eberron. Upon the cold Tashana Tundra, savage shifter tribes ally with one another against the cruel Kalaak barbarians. On the Syrkarn steppes, proud eneko and humans disdain all shackles, remaining fiercely independent. But of all these lands, none is so strange or mystical as Adar, the Land of Refuge. In the country where the land itself looks like a great hand wrinkled it like tissue paper, dragons defend their ruins, kalashtar meditate in mountain monasteries, and the mystical Shroud blocks all scrying and extradimensional spells-including teleportation. Adar has been under siege by Riedra for over a thousand years, ever since the first kalashtar took refuge there. Riedra has been unable to penetrate the combination of the Shroud and the high mountains surrounding Adar, but Adar is not content merely defending. And that’s where the Summit Road comes in. A combination spy organization, smuggler ring, and special strike force, the Road is a dangerous, risky occupation. Summit Road guides take on missions doing anything from smuggling Riedran dissidents into Adar to providing a distraction so another guide can complete a mission. Guides know they are expected to die before being captured, but can also take comfort in the fact that if they get into a sticky situation, other guides will be sent to help get them out of it if possible. Each of you is a green guide, brand new members of the Road. You’ve survived Adar all your life, and underwent intense training for this role. Your thoughts have been searched for treachery, and you’ve done something in the past to prove your capability and loyalty. Now you’ve been called to a small meeting room in the fortress-monastery of Malshashar by a trailblazer, one of your leaders. What might be your first mission?
Hi! I'm a big fan of the Eberron setting, and discovered Sarlona about six months ago. I run another Eberron campaign, the Dragonmarked Peace Initiative, and introduced them to Sarlona there, but their storyline doesn't allow me to keep them there long enough to explore all my ideas. Thus, after a fair bit of prep, I'd like to introduce a campaign centered around the Summit Road organization in Adar! For those unfamiliar, as stated above, the Summit Road serves as a combination spy force, smuggler ring, and specialized strike force for Adar. This campaign will be heavily roleplay and intrigue based, with characters and players needing to think creatively and go outside the box to fulfill their missions. Before PMing me your application, please please please read this entire post. I know it's long, but it's all important!
Things to keep in mind about Eberron, Sarlona and this campaign: Good and Bad are Rarely Clear-Cut: Eberron presents a wide array of potential threats and allies. Some of them are clear-cut, absolute evil, like that rakshasa massacring people in the countryside. But that’s not the kind of campaign I’m planning to run. Characters are going to have perceptions challenged, difficult choices presented, and possibly even their fundamental beliefs shaken. If you’re looking for a point and kill campaign, this isn’t the one for you. PCs are Extraordinary...but not Invincible: One of the tenets of most Eberron campaigns is that the PCs are extraordinary from level 1. However, for me this mostly applies to the common people, not necessarily the majority of organizations like yours. Keep in mind that some NPCs (like your superiors, for example), are likely just as skilled as you are. Eberron, especially Sarlona, is among my favorite settings. Plus, this particular campaign will be highly focused on the goals of the Summit Road. In addition, I’ve had some bad experiences with both unnecessarily aggressive players and problematic characters. So I want to lay out what I’m looking for: One, no edge lords, power gamers, murder hobos, etc. This is going to be very team-based, and that means I need characters who can work together. That doesn’t mean you have to like each other, it just means characters who respond to differences with unreasonable hostility or (in the other direction) by shutting everyone out, will not work. Two, I need the players to be able to work together and handle any issues like adults. Please remember that tone is very difficult to convey through a post, so sarcasm in particular can come off very wrong. I will need all players to keep an open mind and be able to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Quite frankly, I don’t have the energy most days to adjudicate OOC bickering, and that sort of thing does nothing but make the game more stressful anyway.
Background Information:
Sarlona is not much more than touched on in WGtE. I understand that, and I don’t want to punish people who don’t have access to the 3.5 or 4e books. That being said, this campaign will be very difficult if you don’t know what’s going on. So, I would like to request that players have a working knowledge of Sarlona, Adar, and Riedra before beginning the campaign. The 3.5 sourcebooks Secrets of Sarlona has not only a fantastic coverage of the entirety of Sarlona, but even has a section devoted specifically to the Summit Road. Please note I will be using the lore in the book, but not necessarily the rules. If you don’t have access to sourcebooks, PM me and I will help you gain that working knowledge as best I can. However, I would absolutely encourage individual research. There are tons of wikis you can use for this, and Keith Baker has a great blog that, while not canon, can provide some good insight on how stuff works. Just don’t assume anything he prefaces with “In my Eberron…” is definitely true in my Eberron. Again, I will absolutely welcome questions on whether or not something is accurate in my Eberron through PMs. Languages specifically are significantly different in Eberron, and even more so in Sarlona. Common is another word for Riedran, the language of Riedra and common language of Sarlona. If you want to learn the “common” language of Khorvaire, Vedalken will be the stand-in for that. Psionics: Anyone who’s done significant research on Sarlona knows psionics are incredibly present. However, there aren’t any official rules for psionics in 5e. So, for character creation, here’s my compromise: I’m not homebrewing a psionic class or subclasses-I’ve had something in the works for a while, but I’m just not comfortable enough with it to release it into the wild yet. It’s possible I’ll start adding psionic options in later in the campaign, but for now there won’t be any psionic classes. However, I am absolutely open to flavoring. If you really want to be a psion, go to town on flavor! Maybe you’re a sorcerer, and your fire bolts don’t actually shoot flame-they make the target believe they’re aflame. I’m even open to switching damage types for spells to psychic damage. Finally, if you have a homebrew psion class and want to play it, bring it up with me in your PM. I talk more about my homebrew policy below.
Format: I will be doing this in a DDB forum form. I love Discord campaigns, but I just don’t have the time to DM another, and I feel like they make it hard for players with radically different schedules or time zones. I miiiight put together a Discord server just for chatter, but I haven't decided yet. If you feel strongly on that one way or another, put it in your application! I’ll be putting up a story-moving post once every other day, so people will need to be able to participate enough in roleplay to keep stuff active. That means I’m expecting you to be able to post a few times a day at least during the weekdays, and a minimum of once during the weekend.
Content: I have content sharing (WGtE, the PHB, DMG, XGtE, and MToF) and you can use any content, including UA and CR. When it comes to homebrew, I’m super open to you using homebrew, just please bring it up with me first, and early enough that I can actually look at it. I’d prefer it at least a week in advance in case we have to have a long conversation, but three or four days is my minimum.
Character Creation Lore: This is a quick summary of what you’ll need for creation, NOT a full explanation of lore you’ll need for the campaign. Please do your research or PM me.
Races: Sarlona is weird. First of all, there are little to no elves, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, half-elves, tieflings or warforged. Not to say you can’t play one of those, but come up with a good reason why they’re there. Here’s some specific lore for specific races: Shifters can come from one of two places: The Tashana Tundra, to the north, is home to three huge shifter tribes. Alternately, Riedra has a corps of shifters called the Taskaan Legion. Each Inspired keeps a unit of the Legion, treating them as effectively their personal attack dogs. Your character may have made the journey from the Tundra, or maybe escaped from an Inspired, or any other ideas you might have. Kalashtar have made their home in Adar, and make up a large percentage of the population. They don’t quite outnumber humans, but they come close. Humans: Humans are the most common race in Adar, making up nearly half of the population. Some of them are Riedran refugees, some are relatives of the kalashtar, and some have simply been living in Adar since before the kalashtar fled there. Humans in Adar are not dragonmarked. Changelings: Changelings are exceedingly rare in Adar. Most changelings are in Riedra, where they’re used as the Inspired elite assassins and spies. However, some changelings escape their masters’ grasp and take refuge in Adar, where they are welcomed, if watched for some time to ensure their loyalty. If you want to play a changeling character, they are likely a refugee who worked incredibly hard to earn the trust of Adar. If you want to play a Riedran spy, you’re going to have to have a very good backstory and a way you fooled the exhaustive loyalty testing and mind probes a prospective guide must undergo. Plus, I don't want that kind of thing to shatter the campaign, so that's just something we'll have to have a conversation on. Not to say you can't do it, just that it's an idea that I'd love to talk about at length to make sure it fits in smoothly. Dwarves: There aren’t dwarves in Adar, but there is a small tribe of dwarves in the Tashana Tundra known as the Akiak. The Akiak fight the Inspired with a passion, but rarely leave the Tundra. However, it is viable that your character or one of their ancestors left the Tundra and made their home in Adar, where their experience battling the Inspired allowed them to fit in practically perfectly. Because of the many Kythri manifest zones across Adar, a few githzerai have created their own monasteries in Adar. These monasteries occasionally send volunteers into wider Adar to learn more about their surroundings. It's perfectly conceivable one fell in love with Adar and became a part of the Road. I’ve mentally created places for the EEPC races, but won’t go into detail here. PM me if you want to play one, and I’ll give all players a rundown of that lore before we begin play. If I haven’t mentioned a race here, it’s because I don’t currently see a place for it in Adar. However, if you really want to play something I haven’t talked about, PM me and we can discuss a place. Classes: The Summit Road focuses on speed, stealth and information gathering, and this is reflected in guide recruitment. Not to say there isn’t room for someone with a -1 Dex or Cha, but you’ll need a good backstory as to how you wound up a part of the Road, and be aware that a lot of the missions will be stealth or deception based. In addition, having a magical element to your character would be good. This does not mean I’ll only be choosing primary casters-I very much will not. A “magical element” can range from be anything from having the Magic Initiate feat, to being a ranger, to planning to take the arcane trickster subclass in a few levels. I count monks and their ki as a magical element, and there are a lot of monks in Adar.
I’m aware of the fact that everything above is a lot. I have high expectations of my players, and I’m testing out how those expectations transfer to a forum game. If this goes well, I may start another campaign in a few months, this one focused around the Riedran Edgewalkers and with a very different flavor. However, that’s currently a long-term goal. Applications will close on May 5, and I'll send confirmations to accepted players within a day or two. I can’t wait to see the applications!
Application Information: Please PM me, rather than posting your app on this thread
Name
Race
Class: Level 1
Physical Description: You may put a picture here if you have one. Not having a picture will not affect your application
Personality: Give me a basic idea of their personality. Are they gruff? Do they play well with others? How do they feel about the war with the Inspired?
Backstory: Make these as interesting and layered as you want, just don’t make it needlessly complex. I would also appreciate realism, since you are level one-you probably haven’t decimated a legion of Riedran soldiers that came for your village (yet). In addition, I want plenty of knives. Knives are aspects of a character, including their backstory, that can be used to raise the stakes of a given situation for that character. They can be anything from friends to archenemies. It doesn’t have to be a tragic death or estranged child-an old friend showing up in the same town as Riedran assassins can cause just as much worry.
How you became a member of the Road: Membership in the Summit Road is awarded based on honor, capability, loyalty, and merited service that benefits Adar. At some point in the past, you did something that helped Adar. It may have been one brave act, or just a lifetime of little ones, but something caught the attention of an experienced guide and they nominated you for membership. What was that thing? Who was the guide who sponsored you, and what’s your relationship with them now? Please note that the rule of realism still applies, so you will likely have to think outside of the box-you probably didn’t defeat an Inspired singlehandedly, but you might have warned an important Road guide of an assassination attempt.
Your Time Zone: Your time zone won’t affect whether or not you get chosen, I just want an idea of the spread so that I know when to expect posts from people.
Any additional notes or questions. This would be where you'd tell me if you feel strongly about having a Discord server for chatting OOC.
If you're making a full character sheet, use point buy or standard array for scores, and either equipment or gold for starting equipment.
If I missed it I apologize reading this from my phone while waiting for a flight, but how did you want us to handle ability scores and starting equipment?
I'm going to do something I don't usually do and enforce encumbrance, because traveling light is vital for Road guides. Ammo tracking I won't bother with, just have some arrows/sling bullets/whatever in your inventory
Hp can be either average or rolling for it, but if you're rolling for it please do so in a PM with me
Multiclassing will be fine once people level up, feats are fine, flanking probably not because I don't want to make a battle map for every single encounter.
A question I've gotten a few times is whether the Road uses a particular language for secret communications. There isn't a specific secret language the Road uses for secret communications, they prefer ciphers. However, if a message needs to be extraordinarily tightly secured, they also write it in Primordial, which is a pain to decipher even to those adept at such things.
Okay I'll be totally frank here: I'm not specifically familiar with the Eberron campaign setting, but as I can see you've really thought this one through, I'll be spending the time and effort to do the proper homework (online D&D pdfs are awesome that way...!) and should be applying for a character idea through PM within the next 48 hours.
As far as I can tell, this type of campaign evokes either rogue, ranger, monks or bard/swashbuckler types, which I can see myself doing fine with.
Will be in touch soon.
p.s: I take it new characters start at level 1 with max HP + CON mod, yes ?
' Rogues Will Be Rogues ' (Circle of Fives Admission Rules, § 6 par. IV) " Put It Down. Now. Or Be Sorry. " (D. Khar-Errendis' Reported Tips For Curing Soul Ailments And Assorted Bad Behaviours, v. LIV p.XIII) " Tween thisThy and yonThou, shall I prove to Thee that these art what thou dost see ? " (Grimoire of The Great Pananthyr) " This One has said enough. Now, we fight. This way please ?" (8th Grade Bronze Disciple Raulnar Drohjo, Way of the Open Palm)
Okay I'll be totally frank here: I'm not specifically familiar with the Eberron campaign setting, but as I can see you've really thought this one through, I'll be spending the time and effort to do the proper homework (online D&D pdfs are awesome that way...!) and should be applying for a character idea through PM within the next 48 hours.
As far as I can tell, this type of campaign evokes either rogue, ranger, monks or bard/swashbuckler types, which I can see myself doing fine with.
Will be in touch soon.
p.s: I take it new characters start at level 1 with max HP + CON mod, yes ?
If it isn't oversharing, I also had no experience with Eberron and BooksBooks3 has really helped me lock down a concept and get an idea what is going on. I'm also pulling a Rogue, hopefully with a fun bag of tricks
If it isn't oversharing, I also had no experience with Eberron and BooksBooks3 has really helped me lock down a concept and get an idea what is going on. I'm also pulling a Rogue, hopefully with a fun bag of tricks
I'm preparing something a little more off-beat: a burly, strong-headed wild human druid, with martial arts affinities (think druid/monk starting level 2). But yeah, I could do with a little more background on the whole Kalashtar vs. Inspired crusade. Tried to find a pdf for Secrets of Sarlona but nothing is available online sofar, so I'm making-do with whatever I can find in the Eberron wikis (which, as BooksBooks3 said, is already quite enough to start with, at least to get a taste of the setting...).
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' Rogues Will Be Rogues ' (Circle of Fives Admission Rules, § 6 par. IV) " Put It Down. Now. Or Be Sorry. " (D. Khar-Errendis' Reported Tips For Curing Soul Ailments And Assorted Bad Behaviours, v. LIV p.XIII) " Tween thisThy and yonThou, shall I prove to Thee that these art what thou dost see ? " (Grimoire of The Great Pananthyr) " This One has said enough. Now, we fight. This way please ?" (8th Grade Bronze Disciple Raulnar Drohjo, Way of the Open Palm)
Okay I'll be totally frank here: I'm not specifically familiar with the Eberron campaign setting, but as I can see you've really thought this one through, I'll be spending the time and effort to do the proper homework (online D&D pdfs are awesome that way...!) and should be applying for a character idea through PM within the next 48 hours.
As far as I can tell, this type of campaign evokes either rogue, ranger, monks or bard/swashbuckler types, which I can see myself doing fine with.
Will be in touch soon.
p.s: I take it new characters start at level 1 with max HP + CON mod, yes ?
Okay! So one, as long as you can do the homework and get the info, you should be fine.
Two, yes rogues, rangers, monks, bard/swashbucklers all are likely the best fit, but that in no way means you can only play one of those-get creative with the less likely classes if you want!
This looks interesting, probably going to try and get a psionic class approved(since I've got no character slots left). I found a balanced looking psion class, and I'll PM you about it later.
I might also try and whip up a homebrew elan race.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Okay, I wanted to clarify something there's been some confusion on. In the recruitment post, I said that good guys and bad guys aren't necessarily clear-cut. By that, I meant that some of your enemies will actually be "innocents", because that's how the Inspired, your main enemy, work-they subvert good people to their cause like they did in Riedra. Within Riedra, most commoners are good people who have been fed misinformation and indoctrinated from birth. But that doesn't mean you won't have to hurt and possibly kill soldiers. You are unquestionably the good guys, and the Inspired are unquestionably bad. It's the in-between I was referring to when I said they weren't as clear-cut.
I'm glad that has been clarified. I'm a goody two-shoes, so it's a relief not to worry about justifying my party's calvalier murder of a town, again...
I am still taking applications. Due to the overwhelming number of amazing apps though, I'll be moving the deadline from May 5 to May 1st. Because of this, I'll also look at homebrew up to a day before the deadline.
Just a reminder for anyone still working on apps, recruitment will close at 12pm EDT on May 1st (Wednesday). I'll be PMing those who got in that day as well, so that we can get started on bringing you together.
Sarlona is a land unlike any other in Eberron. In Riedra, the Inspired plot to control the dreams of all in Eberron. Upon the cold Tashana Tundra, savage shifter tribes ally with one another against the cruel Kalaak barbarians. On the Syrkarn steppes, proud eneko and humans disdain all shackles, remaining fiercely independent. But of all these lands, none is so strange or mystical as Adar, the Land of Refuge. In the country where the land itself looks like a great hand wrinkled it like tissue paper, dragons defend their ruins, kalashtar meditate in mountain monasteries, and the mystical Shroud blocks all scrying and extradimensional spells-including teleportation. Adar has been under siege by Riedra for over a thousand years, ever since the first kalashtar took refuge there. Riedra has been unable to penetrate the combination of the Shroud and the high mountains surrounding Adar, but Adar is not content merely defending. And that’s where the Summit Road comes in. A combination spy organization, smuggler ring, and special strike force, the Road is a dangerous, risky occupation. Summit Road guides take on missions doing anything from smuggling Riedran dissidents into Adar to providing a distraction so another guide can complete a mission. Guides know they are expected to die before being captured, but can also take comfort in the fact that if they get into a sticky situation, other guides will be sent to help get them out of it if possible. Each of you is a green guide, brand new members of the Road. You’ve survived Adar all your life, and underwent intense training for this role. Your thoughts have been searched for treachery, and you’ve done something in the past to prove your capability and loyalty. Now you’ve been called to a small meeting room in the fortress-monastery of Malshashar by a trailblazer, one of your leaders. What might be your first mission?
Hi! I'm a big fan of the Eberron setting, and discovered Sarlona about six months ago. I run another Eberron campaign, the Dragonmarked Peace Initiative, and introduced them to Sarlona there, but their storyline doesn't allow me to keep them there long enough to explore all my ideas. Thus, after a fair bit of prep, I'd like to introduce a campaign centered around the Summit Road organization in Adar! For those unfamiliar, as stated above, the Summit Road serves as a combination spy force, smuggler ring, and specialized strike force for Adar. This campaign will be heavily roleplay and intrigue based, with characters and players needing to think creatively and go outside the box to fulfill their missions. Before PMing me your application, please please please read this entire post. I know it's long, but it's all important!
Things to keep in mind about Eberron, Sarlona and this campaign:
Good and Bad are Rarely Clear-Cut: Eberron presents a wide array of potential threats and allies. Some of them are clear-cut, absolute evil, like that rakshasa massacring people in the countryside. But that’s not the kind of campaign I’m planning to run. Characters are going to have perceptions challenged, difficult choices presented, and possibly even their fundamental beliefs shaken. If you’re looking for a point and kill campaign, this isn’t the one for you.
PCs are Extraordinary...but not Invincible: One of the tenets of most Eberron campaigns is that the PCs are extraordinary from level 1. However, for me this mostly applies to the common people, not necessarily the majority of organizations like yours. Keep in mind that some NPCs (like your superiors, for example), are likely just as skilled as you are.
Eberron, especially Sarlona, is among my favorite settings. Plus, this particular campaign will be highly focused on the goals of the Summit Road. In addition, I’ve had some bad experiences with both unnecessarily aggressive players and problematic characters. So I want to lay out what I’m looking for: One, no edge lords, power gamers, murder hobos, etc. This is going to be very team-based, and that means I need characters who can work together. That doesn’t mean you have to like each other, it just means characters who respond to differences with unreasonable hostility or (in the other direction) by shutting everyone out, will not work. Two, I need the players to be able to work together and handle any issues like adults. Please remember that tone is very difficult to convey through a post, so sarcasm in particular can come off very wrong. I will need all players to keep an open mind and be able to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Quite frankly, I don’t have the energy most days to adjudicate OOC bickering, and that sort of thing does nothing but make the game more stressful anyway.
Background Information:
Sarlona is not much more than touched on in WGtE. I understand that, and I don’t want to punish people who don’t have access to the 3.5 or 4e books. That being said, this campaign will be very difficult if you don’t know what’s going on. So, I would like to request that players have a working knowledge of Sarlona, Adar, and Riedra before beginning the campaign. The 3.5 sourcebooks Secrets of Sarlona has not only a fantastic coverage of the entirety of Sarlona, but even has a section devoted specifically to the Summit Road. Please note I will be using the lore in the book, but not necessarily the rules. If you don’t have access to sourcebooks, PM me and I will help you gain that working knowledge as best I can. However, I would absolutely encourage individual research. There are tons of wikis you can use for this, and Keith Baker has a great blog that, while not canon, can provide some good insight on how stuff works. Just don’t assume anything he prefaces with “In my Eberron…” is definitely true in my Eberron. Again, I will absolutely welcome questions on whether or not something is accurate in my Eberron through PMs.
Languages specifically are significantly different in Eberron, and even more so in Sarlona. Common is another word for Riedran, the language of Riedra and common language of Sarlona. If you want to learn the “common” language of Khorvaire, Vedalken will be the stand-in for that.
Psionics: Anyone who’s done significant research on Sarlona knows psionics are incredibly present. However, there aren’t any official rules for psionics in 5e. So, for character creation, here’s my compromise: I’m not homebrewing a psionic class or subclasses-I’ve had something in the works for a while, but I’m just not comfortable enough with it to release it into the wild yet. It’s possible I’ll start adding psionic options in later in the campaign, but for now there won’t be any psionic classes. However, I am absolutely open to flavoring. If you really want to be a psion, go to town on flavor! Maybe you’re a sorcerer, and your fire bolts don’t actually shoot flame-they make the target believe they’re aflame. I’m even open to switching damage types for spells to psychic damage. Finally, if you have a homebrew psion class and want to play it, bring it up with me in your PM. I talk more about my homebrew policy below.
Format: I will be doing this in a DDB forum form. I love Discord campaigns, but I just don’t have the time to DM another, and I feel like they make it hard for players with radically different schedules or time zones. I miiiight put together a Discord server just for chatter, but I haven't decided yet. If you feel strongly on that one way or another, put it in your application! I’ll be putting up a story-moving post once every other day, so people will need to be able to participate enough in roleplay to keep stuff active. That means I’m expecting you to be able to post a few times a day at least during the weekdays, and a minimum of once during the weekend.
Content: I have content sharing (WGtE, the PHB, DMG, XGtE, and MToF) and you can use any content, including UA and CR. When it comes to homebrew, I’m super open to you using homebrew, just please bring it up with me first, and early enough that I can actually look at it. I’d prefer it at least a week in advance in case we have to have a long conversation, but three or four days is my minimum.
Character Creation Lore: This is a quick summary of what you’ll need for creation, NOT a full explanation of lore you’ll need for the campaign. Please do your research or PM me.
Races: Sarlona is weird. First of all, there are little to no elves, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, half-elves, tieflings or warforged. Not to say you can’t play one of those, but come up with a good reason why they’re there. Here’s some specific lore for specific races:
Shifters can come from one of two places: The Tashana Tundra, to the north, is home to three huge shifter tribes. Alternately, Riedra has a corps of shifters called the Taskaan Legion. Each Inspired keeps a unit of the Legion, treating them as effectively their personal attack dogs. Your character may have made the journey from the Tundra, or maybe escaped from an Inspired, or any other ideas you might have.
Kalashtar have made their home in Adar, and make up a large percentage of the population. They don’t quite outnumber humans, but they come close.
Humans: Humans are the most common race in Adar, making up nearly half of the population. Some of them are Riedran refugees, some are relatives of the kalashtar, and some have simply been living in Adar since before the kalashtar fled there. Humans in Adar are not dragonmarked.
Changelings: Changelings are exceedingly rare in Adar. Most changelings are in Riedra, where they’re used as the Inspired elite assassins and spies. However, some changelings escape their masters’ grasp and take refuge in Adar, where they are welcomed, if watched for some time to ensure their loyalty. If you want to play a changeling character, they are likely a refugee who worked incredibly hard to earn the trust of Adar. If you want to play a Riedran spy, you’re going to have to have a very good backstory and a way you fooled the exhaustive loyalty testing and mind probes a prospective guide must undergo. Plus, I don't want that kind of thing to shatter the campaign, so that's just something we'll have to have a conversation on. Not to say you can't do it, just that it's an idea that I'd love to talk about at length to make sure it fits in smoothly.
Dwarves: There aren’t dwarves in Adar, but there is a small tribe of dwarves in the Tashana Tundra known as the Akiak. The Akiak fight the Inspired with a passion, but rarely leave the Tundra. However, it is viable that your character or one of their ancestors left the Tundra and made their home in Adar, where their experience battling the Inspired allowed them to fit in practically perfectly.
Because of the many Kythri manifest zones across Adar, a few githzerai have created their own monasteries in Adar. These monasteries occasionally send volunteers into wider Adar to learn more about their surroundings. It's perfectly conceivable one fell in love with Adar and became a part of the Road.
I’ve mentally created places for the EEPC races, but won’t go into detail here. PM me if you want to play one, and I’ll give all players a rundown of that lore before we begin play.
If I haven’t mentioned a race here, it’s because I don’t currently see a place for it in Adar. However, if you really want to play something I haven’t talked about, PM me and we can discuss a place.
Classes: The Summit Road focuses on speed, stealth and information gathering, and this is reflected in guide recruitment. Not to say there isn’t room for someone with a -1 Dex or Cha, but you’ll need a good backstory as to how you wound up a part of the Road, and be aware that a lot of the missions will be stealth or deception based. In addition, having a magical element to your character would be good. This does not mean I’ll only be choosing primary casters-I very much will not. A “magical element” can range from be anything from having the Magic Initiate feat, to being a ranger, to planning to take the arcane trickster subclass in a few levels. I count monks and their ki as a magical element, and there are a lot of monks in Adar.
I’m aware of the fact that everything above is a lot. I have high expectations of my players, and I’m testing out how those expectations transfer to a forum game. If this goes well, I may start another campaign in a few months, this one focused around the Riedran Edgewalkers and with a very different flavor. However, that’s currently a long-term goal. Applications will close on May 5, and I'll send confirmations to accepted players within a day or two. I can’t wait to see the applications!
Application Information: Please PM me, rather than posting your app on this thread
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
If I missed it I apologize reading this from my phone while waiting for a flight, but how did you want us to handle ability scores and starting equipment?
Knew I forgot something! Standard array or point buy for scores, and either gold or equipment for starting equipment.
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
Adding to questions about the rules:
Are we going to care about Encumbrance and/or ammo tracking?
Hp going to be handled normally?
Flanking? Feats? Multi-class? Ect Ect
Taran Cragshollow (Summit Road)
I'm going to do something I don't usually do and enforce encumbrance, because traveling light is vital for Road guides. Ammo tracking I won't bother with, just have some arrows/sling bullets/whatever in your inventory
Hp can be either average or rolling for it, but if you're rolling for it please do so in a PM with me
Multiclassing will be fine once people level up, feats are fine, flanking probably not because I don't want to make a battle map for every single encounter.
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
Fair enough
Taran Cragshollow (Summit Road)
A question I've gotten a few times is whether the Road uses a particular language for secret communications. There isn't a specific secret language the Road uses for secret communications, they prefer ciphers. However, if a message needs to be extraordinarily tightly secured, they also write it in Primordial, which is a pain to decipher even to those adept at such things.
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
Okay I'll be totally frank here: I'm not specifically familiar with the Eberron campaign setting, but as I can see you've really thought this one through, I'll be spending the time and effort to do the proper homework (online D&D pdfs are awesome that way...!) and should be applying for a character idea through PM within the next 48 hours.
As far as I can tell, this type of campaign evokes either rogue, ranger, monks or bard/swashbuckler types, which I can see myself doing fine with.
Will be in touch soon.
p.s: I take it new characters start at level 1 with max HP + CON mod, yes ?
' Rogues Will Be Rogues ' (Circle of Fives Admission Rules, § 6 par. IV)
" Put It Down. Now. Or Be Sorry. " (D. Khar-Errendis' Reported Tips For Curing Soul Ailments And Assorted Bad Behaviours, v. LIV p.XIII)
" Tween thisThy and yonThou, shall I prove to Thee that these art what thou dost see ? " (Grimoire of The Great Pananthyr)
" This One has said enough. Now, we fight. This way please ?" (8th Grade Bronze Disciple Raulnar Drohjo, Way of the Open Palm)
If it isn't oversharing, I also had no experience with Eberron and BooksBooks3 has really helped me lock down a concept and get an idea what is going on. I'm also pulling a Rogue, hopefully with a fun bag of tricks
Taran Cragshollow (Summit Road)
I'm preparing something a little more off-beat: a burly, strong-headed wild human druid, with martial arts affinities (think druid/monk starting level 2). But yeah, I could do with a little more background on the whole Kalashtar vs. Inspired crusade. Tried to find a pdf for Secrets of Sarlona but nothing is available online sofar, so I'm making-do with whatever I can find in the Eberron wikis (which, as BooksBooks3 said, is already quite enough to start with, at least to get a taste of the setting...).
' Rogues Will Be Rogues ' (Circle of Fives Admission Rules, § 6 par. IV)
" Put It Down. Now. Or Be Sorry. " (D. Khar-Errendis' Reported Tips For Curing Soul Ailments And Assorted Bad Behaviours, v. LIV p.XIII)
" Tween thisThy and yonThou, shall I prove to Thee that these art what thou dost see ? " (Grimoire of The Great Pananthyr)
" This One has said enough. Now, we fight. This way please ?" (8th Grade Bronze Disciple Raulnar Drohjo, Way of the Open Palm)
Okay! So one, as long as you can do the homework and get the info, you should be fine.
Two, yes rogues, rangers, monks, bard/swashbucklers all are likely the best fit, but that in no way means you can only play one of those-get creative with the less likely classes if you want!
Finally, yes max hp+Con bonus for 1st level hp
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
This looks interesting, probably going to try and get a psionic class approved(since I've got no character slots left). I found a balanced looking psion class, and I'll PM you about it later.
I might also try and whip up a homebrew elan race.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Sounds interesting. I’ll PM you my app tonight. Need to deal with my rascals and do some adulting.
Okay, I wanted to clarify something there's been some confusion on. In the recruitment post, I said that good guys and bad guys aren't necessarily clear-cut. By that, I meant that some of your enemies will actually be "innocents", because that's how the Inspired, your main enemy, work-they subvert good people to their cause like they did in Riedra. Within Riedra, most commoners are good people who have been fed misinformation and indoctrinated from birth. But that doesn't mean you won't have to hurt and possibly kill soldiers. You are unquestionably the good guys, and the Inspired are unquestionably bad. It's the in-between I was referring to when I said they weren't as clear-cut.
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
I'm glad that has been clarified. I'm a goody two-shoes, so it's a relief not to worry about justifying my party's calvalier murder of a town, again...
Taran Cragshollow (Summit Road)
I would be interested in joining if you're still looking
I am still taking applications. Due to the overwhelming number of amazing apps though, I'll be moving the deadline from May 5 to May 1st. Because of this, I'll also look at homebrew up to a day before the deadline.
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
Sounds interesting, will fill out app later tonight.
Just a reminder for anyone still working on apps, recruitment will close at 12pm EDT on May 1st (Wednesday). I'll be PMing those who got in that day as well, so that we can get started on bringing you together.
Stella Diamant, Human Rogue 17 (Swashbuckler), The Exploits of Misfit Company
Kat, Medtech, Cyberpunk: Red
Shi, Changeling Bard 4 (College of Spirits), Tyrant's Grasp
Dani, Human Artificer 9 (Armorer), Skulls and Starships
DM, Project Point (Teams Scimitar and Longsword)
Everything Else!
I will apply later today. Sounds good
After joining more my signature got out of hand so I am now a proud member of the extended signature club!! :)