The Shardscape — a vast, endless realm of possibility.
Here, the memory of a people turns not to myth but instead to physical form,
and gods that had once been simply the whimsical ponderings of peoples looking
for answers, in a universe that offered few, are born. But it is also a place
of nightmare, where the twisted, nihilistic darkness — that insidious creeping
evil — which underlies all conscious thought becomes manifest.
Thousands of years ago, in their excess, the dwarves
beneath the mountains brought a grim reaper upon themselves. As a wildfire
scorches the earth following a summer drought, a plague brought down their
empire. In a last-ditch attempt, the dwarves closer to the surface sealed the
dwarvenholds below, leaving their brethren to die of either disease or
starvation.
The dwarvenholds have remained sealed since then. At
least, until, in a bid to diminish the influence of the church, the secular government
of the city of Kassar threw the gates open to adventurers, leaving to them the
task of finding and reclaiming for the dwarves the riches once held by within.
But millennia of contorted perceptions, of speculation as
to what dwells behind the sealed gates, has drawn the Shardscape dangerously
close to the mortal realm in the dwarvenholds. And in attempting to warn the
people of the potential of danger in the holds, the church has created a swell
of negative thought, giving birth to monstrosities that flood from the
Shardscape into the sealed cities.
As the people’s fear, paranoia, and distrust grows, the
Shardscape will feed on the negative energy of their thoughts. It will birth
darker and more dangerous aberrations. Where once only creatures of myth and
legend spilled from the Shardscape into the dwarvenholds, soon, creatures of
pure nightmare, chaos and agony incarnate, will follow.
Kassar has created a danger which it refuses to
acknowledge, much less fix. The Shardscape rifts within the dwarvenholds are
wounds that will fester and grow until they consume Kassar and infects all that
they touch.
Having seen the danger firsthand, a group of adventurers
has departed the city to seek the aid of the Dominion. Knowing the true peril
that they face, they hope that they will not arrive too late to defend the city
from those who are unknowingly paving the path for its destruction.
===
A Preponderance of Frauds is an established campaign.
We’ve been playing since around December, but unfortunately due to personal and
RL reasons, we’ve lost a few of our original group. We’d like to get more
people involved, so if you’re up for playing a game on Fridays, at 07:00 PM
Central/12:00 AM GMT for around 4 hours every session, we’d like to invite
you to join us. Here’s a little information about the campaign that I’m
running, and what you can expect of the game:
Mind-fuckery : High — With a cognitive realm like the
Shardscape in place, where the limit of what is possible is literally the
imagination, there is no telling what will face the party. Hatred given form?
Fear incarnate? A twisted labyrinth of psychological torment? A contorted image
of yourself, who is the embodiment of all that you fear you are? All of it is
fair game.
Roleplay: High — I like to run games that involve a
lot of roleplay, and whenever possible, I like to encourage interactions among
player characters and between the players and NPC’s. It might occur that in
some sessions, there won’t be any combat encounters at all, but rather quite a
few social encounters.
Magic: Medium — The Dominion, which controls the
majority of the known world, takes a very wary approach to the arcane arts. As
a result, magical items that are available are either used for practical
purposes, or defensive purposes. Magical weapons come at a premium, and require
a license to wield.
Gravity: Medium — Like most groups, me and my current
players like to have some fun every now and again, but the overall tone of the
game is pretty serious. The party isn’t facing a world-ending crisis, but I
tend to darker themes in my game. Levity can sometimes be a welcome break, but
expect your characters to be put through some difficult stuff.
Player Buy-In: Right now, the party is on a mission,
a desperate bid to prevent the destruction of the city of Kassar as a result of
its own obstinance. In so doing, they have found something of a calling, and,
should they survive, they wish to establish for themselves an Adventurer’s
Guild to aid in protecting the land and in giving other adventurers the tools
that they need to do so alongside them.
If you’re up to play as a “defender of the land” type,
moving about from crisis to crisis, fulfilling contracts to destroy creatures
and seal rifts and clear corruption, then this game might just be for you!
===
If you find that you’re still interested in the game after
that spiel, then we should probably go over a few things about character
creation:
Starting Level: 9th
Character Sheet: 5e Shaped
Pre-Built Characters: Because this is an entire
setting of my creation, the only pre-built characters that will be accepted are
ones without pre-existing backstories unless said backstories are generic
enough (i.e. do not contain specific historical events, prominent figures, and/or
prominent locations) to be reworked to fit my world, subject to my discretion.
Races: A word of forewarning: the races in this
setting developed in a very different way than what you might have learned to
expect in High Fantasy. For instance, due to a plague that nearly wiped out the
entirety of their population, Dwarven society has become particularly
fastidious and zealous. You can find more information about the races in this
article:
The Races of Sekhar
There are no extant equivalents of the Triton, Firbolg,
Kenku, Aarakocra, Shifter and Warforged races in my setting, and as such they
will not be playable. Halflings are extinct as a result of the same plague that
wiped out the dwarves.
Genasi, Tieflings, and Aasimar are a special case due to
in-universe lore. These races will be unavailable to choose from for your first
character, but if you’re able to prove that you have the roleplay chops to play
these races (because of aforementioned lore reasons), then I’ll let you use
them for your next character if your first character dies.
Alignment: I choose not to allow characters that
start out evil-aligned.
Classes: Anything published is fair game. UA classes
are not unwelcome (except for the mystic), but you should talk to me before you
decide to use something from UA. If a UA class/subclass has a published
equivalent, the published option takes precedent, of course. I allow Matthew
Mercer’s Gunslinger homebrew class, but not any of his other class options.
Current Party Composition:
A’Drekh
(Dragonborn) Hexblade Warlock IstErián
(Human) Storm Herald Barbarian Arventiri
(Human) Assassin Rogue IstEristur
(Orc) Samurai Fighter
And that’s about it, I think? In-world lore will be
discussed further with individuals when they join. Don’t hesitate to ask me
questions about the world, though, as I’m very much open to answering them!
