The Hunger of Ouroboros--2019 Relaunch

Hello! This is an invitation for mature players to join a game set in the world of The Witcher.

The game is human-centric, so all character types are not available. House rules will be used to capture the darker feel of the setting. Please do not consider this game if you are a min-maxxer, a multiclass abuser, or otherwise minded to emulate a video game using paper and pencil.

Premise: A century has passed since the Second Conjunction of the Spheres. Where once we were safe, night's terrors prowl again. The Witchers are gone, their numbers never replenished by the few of them who survived the Second Conjunction. The great Empire of Nilfgaard has crumbled; the powerful Kingdoms of Temeria and Redania are now unstable collections of principalities and warring pretender-kings; and everywhere, it seems, warlords and bandit kings rule with unchecked brutality.

The Party: You are hardy village folk, peasants beholden to no liege lords but always at the mercy of winter's cold and the hunger it brings. But winter is over now. The spring rains have come and the rivers and marshes are fat and swollen, providing food aplenty. With the late sun at your backs on the walk home after a day of hunting and gathering in the wetlands, your hats low and muscles aching, you smell the first hints of smoke and char just as the faint sounds of panic and terror doppler closer and closer. Dropping your heavy burdens you begin to sprint home. Something is wrong at the village!

Rules: the basic rules will be based on the excellent OSR game The Nightmares Underneath with elements added in from The Whitehack, Low Fantasy Gaming, and D&D5E.

Characters: PCs will be created together in a group session. Magic is inherently warping and dangerous. Clerics and druids are exceedingly rare and are NPC classes for this game. Picture an ancient land, soaked in blood and dark magic from ages past, on the fringes of civilization, with covens of old crones as the repository of wisdom, along with a person (?) or creature (?) called The Elder who is a patron/ess of sorts for the broader community of the five villages that make up what outsiders call "Near Velen."

Scheduling: The game will be played with voice (required), video (optional), and good manners and courtesy to fellow players (absolutely required).

Ideally, we will play once a week, two to three weeks in a row, and take a week off. Rinse, repeat.

Combat maps and other roll20 aids will be used occasionally; most of the action will be theatre of the mind until I dust off my rusty roll20 skills.

The first game is only tentatively scheduled. Once a player roster is sorted we can proceed with our first session. For now, interested parties can chat with each other as we sort things out.