Now then, the new Post, The first one will be the Primer for the D&D Campaign I'm in currently. The Primer, and the Game in it's entirety is the property of the GM, Andrew Hill. He is one of the best GM's I've ever had the honor to play with. here's the primer
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Welcome to Robinson, a place which is clearly not a heavily
adapted version of my hometown in any way at all. Let’s cover some common knowledge, shall we?
KNOWLEDGE ARCANA
Magic exists. This was never a question. Some people work with it every day. That said, the in-born potential for magic is rare, arcane magic is difficult to comprehend, let alone master, and divine magic comes through a devotion most will never know. The vast majority of people live their day to day lives without even giving thought to magic. It’s an important part of the world, but nothing too crucial to day to day life.
Magic exists. This was never a question. Some people work with it every day. That said, the in-born potential for magic is rare, arcane magic is difficult to comprehend, let alone master, and divine magic comes through a devotion most will never know. The vast majority of people live their day to day lives without even giving thought to magic. It’s an important part of the world, but nothing too crucial to day to day life.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING
Brick and lumber are the primary building materials. Buildings older than ten years are made
mostly of yellow brick, produced locally, but the family that ran that business
made some poor decisions and were forced to shut down their operation. Lumber is now more dominant, for better or
for worse.
Firearms to not exist.
Crossbows are in common usage in local law enforcement, though most area
hunters prefer bows of the uncrossed variety.
KNOWLEDGE DUNGEONEERING
At the center of town, there is a monument built by the Clan
the Five, famous adventuring heroes who all grew up together in Robinson. The entrance to this monument is sealed by
five magical locks. It is said that the
Clan of Five hid all of their most powerful and valuable items within the
monument, leaving them to whoever has enough of an adventuring spirit to find
all five keys and unlock the vault. It
is popular opinion that the keys are lost and that the monument will never be
opened.
KNOWLEDGE GEOGRAPHY
1. The Square – The Monument is located in the center with
local shops surrounding it. The post
office is also here.
2. Common Cane Plantation
3. Temple
4. The Templeton Academy– The Templeton Academy was built by
Nancy Templeton of the Clan of Five. It is
where local children are taught. It is
maintained by the worshipers of the Keeper, though it is their policy not to
push their religious convictions on students of other faith traditions.
5. The Kail Club – This is a social club for the aristocrats
of Robinson. It was built by Herman
Kail, one of the Clan of Five. His
mansion is located just south of the club’s land. Many locals are suspicious of the Kail Club
and its goings on, but since its members control most of the town, these
suspicious are mostly expressed in whispered tones behind closed doors.
6. AllMarket – AllMarket is owned and operated by the Chuch
of the Devil. This is a well known fact,
but their vast stores are extremely well stocked with a great selection and
astonishingly reasonable prices. Its
appearance has done significant damage to the local economy, but it’s just such
a deal!
7. The Coal Mines – The other major employer in Robinson,
the coal mines are just that: coal mines.
Devotees of the Destroyer like to hang around here after nightfall,
carrying on and wrecking things.
8. Public
Park
9. The bricking industry once owned this land. There is nothing of note out here.
11. Cooper Bank – Cooper Bank was established by Leslie
Cooper, one of the Clan of Five. It’s a
bank.
KNOWLEDGE HISTORY
Nobody really cares much about the kingdom outside of
Robinson, just like the kingdom doesn’t really care about Robinson. You learned a bunch of stuff about it in
school, but…meh.
KNOWLEDGE LOCAL
Robinson was established about 200 years ago. About 6000 people live there today. The only people of note to come out of Robinson
were the Clan of Five, who moved back after years of adventuring and gave back
to the community. The last of them died
75 years prior to the events of this campaign.
Here’s a rundown of the Clan:
Jesse Common – Charismatic and bold, Jesse was the leader of
the group. He grew up as on a farm and
returned to farming in his retirement.
He considered the most humble and down-to-earth of the group. He was the last to die.
Nancy Templeton – Nancy
Herman Kail – Kail financed the Clan and was a good ten
years older than the other members. Kail
was said to be harsh, even cruel, by some, but others would argue that he
simply held people to a high standard and expected them to meet it. Either way, his loyalty to the group and the
community of Robinson was unquestionable.
Much less so than that of his descendants.
Johnson Public – Johnson Public was a dunce. He was hired by Kail as muscle and he
functioned beautifully in that capacity.
He was a kind and honest man, but he was a warrior through and
through. He became senile at a very
young age and died trying to kill a pack of coyotes with a sword late into his
sixties.
Leslie Cooper – Leslie made barrels and buckets. She was a simple girl who did simple
work. The adventures are said to have
changed her the most. She returned with
a taste for treasure and an itch to protect it.
Some laughed that she loved gold more than a dragon. Others didn’t laugh when they said that.
KNOWLEDGE NATURE
Temperate plains and forests
KNOWLEDGE NOBILITY
The Clan of Five’s families are still around.
Common’s family still runs the plantation. They are good to their workers. The other families look down on certain
members of the Common family because fewer Commons belong to the Kail Club than
any of the other groups. Gerry Common,
Jesse’s grandson, is a very old man now but still the family’s respected
patriarch.
Templeton had no children.
Her legacy is the Academy.
Kail was married twice.
The children of his first wife are still bitter that they didn’t inherit
the Kail Mansion
Public spent most all of his treasure on the park. His offspring aren’t too happy about this,
but what can they do? They are regular
folks, if somewhat prone to boasting about their heritage.
Cooper had one child.
He had one child. He had one
child. She had one child. He (Fredrick Applewood) is now the bank
president.
KNOWLEDGE PSIONICS
Psychics aren’t real.
KNOWLEDGE RELIGION
There are ten gods.
They are as follows:
God-god – Creator of the Gods. Nobody worships God-god. They leave that for the gods to do. God-god has scarcely been known to interact
with the world. Some doubt God-god even
exists.
The Protector – Lawful Good.
Teachings focus on the importance of community, interdependence,
strength through unity. Domains: Law,
Good, Healing, Protection. Favored Weapon:
Heavy Shield. Worshipped at the Temple
The Angel – Neutral Good.
Teachings focus on unconditional love, forgiveness, and not being jerk
to other people. Domains: Good, Charm,
Sun, Glory. Favored Weapon:
Longsword. Worshipped at the Chapel of
the Angel.
The Liberator – Chaotic Good. Teachings focus on self-expression,
independence, and freedom. Domains:
Chaos, Good, Liberation, Strength.
Favored Weapon: Spiked Chain.
Worshipped . . . somewhere? Does
anybody worship The Liberator in Robinson?
Uh . . .
The Keeper – Lawful Neutral.
Teachings focus on following discipline, mastering one’s self, and
preservation of the order of the world.
Domains: Law, Knowledge, Magic, Mind.
Worshipped at the Templeton
Academy
The Great Meh – True Neutral. No real teachings. The Great Meh is the mostly widely worshipped
deity in the world and the most powerful after God-god itself. The Great Meh keeps the balance between all
of the other gods. It does not expect
anything from humanity and humanity doesn’t expect anything from it. Domains: Law, Chaos, Good, Evil. Favored Weapon: Unarmed Strike. Worshipped anywhere.
The Disrupter – Chaotic Neutral. Teachings focus on living life to its fullest
and doing whatever you want, consequences be damned (frequently
literally). Domains: Chaos, Luck,
Madness, Repose. Favored Weapon: Dire
Flail. Worshipped in Public Park
The Tyrant – Lawful Evil.
Teachings focus on the superiority of the worshippers and the importance
of subjugating all others. Domains: Law,
Evil, Nobility, War. Favored Weapon:
Whip. Worshipped . . . nowhere?
The Devil – Neutral Evil.
Teachings focus on getting others to betray their own belief system and
evil for its own sake. Domains: Evil,
Trickery, Death, Darkness. Favored
Weapon: Trident. Worshiped at AllMarket.
The Destroyer – Chaotic Evil. Teachings focus on tearing the whole world
down. Domains: Chaos, Evil, Dementation,
Destruction. Favored Weapon: Heavy
Pick. Worshipped most often at the Coal
Mines, though not by the miners.
KNOWLEDGE THE PLANES
Robinson is located on the Prime Material Plane. I know, this is a shock.
All characters must be human. No other races exist.
All characters must be one of the five NPC classes:
Commoner, Adept, Expert, Aristocrat, Warrior.
-
Commoners are unskilled laborers and also most people.
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Adepts possess some minor magical ability.
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Experts are experts in their field, whatever that field
may be.
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Aristocrats are rich.
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Warriors are better at fighting than everybody else.
All characters must be from Robinson.
All characters must possess an adventurous spirit. This can mean many things, be it insatiable
curiosity, the inability to back down from a challenge, or just the thought
that adventure is more fun than, say, not adventure. The possibilities are as numerous as are
personalities.
All characters must have a positive social relationship with
the other prior to the events of the campaign.
It must make sense that this group would adventure together.
The absolute beauty of this game is all there, do you see it? I kinda doubt it, what it comes down to is Andrew has essentially simply created a world and said GO, he is not imposing any sort of restriction on what the characters decide to do, that, coupled with the way characters were to be made, basically out task was to build an everyday person, and build them in the mindset that we did not know they would be adventuring in any way, we were to take skills and feats totally based around who our character was in everyday life, and all questionable choices had to be justified (ie. Why did you take Negotiator? well, andrew, I took it because my character owns a specialty store, his high ranks in Craft (leather) Craft (Metal) and Craft (Mechanism) put him is a position to be a sort of jack of all trades, he runs a shop for custom items and tools, his ranks in Open lock are there because one of the aspects of his business is being a locksmith for the town.)
We were then to just start playing, and build them up out of their NPC class based SOLELY on the position they found themselves in, allowing the environment to effect and shape our characters, you know, like what happens in real life
I'm gonna leave this post up for a while before I post my Character, take a look through the primer and, if you're anything like me you may just find yourself A) really liking the idea, and 2) probably thinking about a what kind of character you'd build in this setting, have fun!
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