You are a subject of Baron Gunther II, baron (surprise) of the southern peninsula. For the past century, the fortress-city of Marakhand has been held by the Hell's Teeth orcs, led by the immortal warlord Ugruk Devilfather. Marakhand's strategic position along the only pass through the mountains that top the peninsula means that the barony has been isolated since the fortress fell. The orcs were content to make occasional raids on the citizens of the Barony, but large incursions were few and always beaten back by the baron's elite soldiers.
9 months ago, the Three Year Siege ended with the destruction of Ugruk and the scattering of the Hell's Teeth clan. Cleanup and reclamation of Marakhand has recently been completed and the city is beginning to bustle with human activity for the first time in over a hundred years. With the unclaimed mainland opened up, an occupation previously thought extinct is beginning to reemerge: The freelance adventurer. With the size and relative stability of the southern peninsula, there was little adventure to be had; virtually all places of adventure had been picked clean decades ago and the land was too settled for any of the great beasts of Myth to stake a claim. None of that is true in this new land, and the adventurous, opportunistic, and foolhardy are already gearing up to relive the glory days of exploration and adventure.
The northern frontier is wild and mysterious. Danger abounds but so does opportunity, for those skilled and daring enough to take it. Remember: Losing is fun! Strike the wilderness!Alright, now that that bullshit is over with, let me explain. Northern Frontier is a
West Marches-style game. To summarize: Low-level, low-magic, high-lethality, semi-competitive, old school exploration/dungeon crawling. You and your comrades in arms are adventurers. Your home base is Marakhand, and from there you organize adventuring parties to brave the uncharted wilderness. There's no limit to how many players can join, but I'm going to limit you to one character per player. Having a backup in case you die is fine, but backups can't be used until your active character dies or (permanently) retires. Anything in the core rulebooks is generally okay. Things outside of those rulebooks require my approval beforehand.
No Book of Nine Swords, it's goofy and the campaign is low-level so you won't need to worry about overpowered mages cramping your style.
No psionics, I don't know anything about them
I'm going to preemptively say no to Tome of Magic too, because I don't know anything about it.
No warforged
Now then, here's how things will work for the most part, and along the way I'll explain what you can expect. Everything related to planning an excursion is on your shoulders. There are no set times for playing. If you want to play, talk amongst the other players and find a time you can get a group together. PM me or message me on
Steam, Hamachi, or however you can get a hold of me and tell me who's going, what time, and where you intend to go. If I can make that time, I'll set things up and we'll have fun. If I can't, you need to find another time. There's not much more to it.
At least in the beginning when you're close to town, you need to plan to return to town before the session ends. If you know when the session is going to end, don't run up against that. Leave enough time to deal with potential travel encounters on the way home.
If you can't do it and you're not going to make it home in time, you will camp out until the next session. This will become more common as you venture further from home, but you should still make an effort to get back if you can.
If another party is camped out at a location, consider that location and its vicinity off-limits. Go somewhere else for your adventure. It's too much of a logistics headache to have you meeting up with the other party.
However, if you partially clear a dungeon and head back to town with the intention of finishing next session, that location is not flagged. Any other party can go in and finish up/take stuff you missed. Consider it motivation to head back out as soon as you can.
Mix it up. I don't want to see cliques forming. If you spend more than two sessions with the same group of people, you're doing West Marches wrong.
No rules lawyer/munchkin/RAW bullshit. Character optimization isn't a sin, but if you're being egregiously beardy I will intervene.
No raise dead, resurrection, etc. Death is permanent. (This is part of the reason the campaign is low level. The availability of raise dead is factored into monster difficulty and you'd get hammered at high levels)
This is a low-level campaign. You won't reach level 20. I'm not going to place any hard caps, but I doubt you'll get past level 7. It's better that way. Monster coolness is a bell-curve, and CR7 is the crest. Seriously, look at all the awesome CR7 monsters in the books.
This is a low-magic campaign. Magic shops do not exist, and selling a magic item for coin is unthinkable. Magic arms and armor are rare and likely steeped in legend. Potions can be obtained at a shop in town, but they're expensive and stock is generally skimpy. Most characters will be relying on masterwork gear and mundane adventuring supplies. Alchemist's fire? Shit yeah, bro. Sunrods? I bet you've never had to use a sunrod before, have you?
This is a high-lethality campaign. Think of me not as a Dungeon Master, but as a Dungeon Referee. Success or failure is entirely in your hands. I will not fudge rolls, I will not tailor encounters to your party, I will not stop you from going places you're not ready for, and I will not hold your hand. No one will judge you if you run away, because the people who would are dead. Don't fault them for it, you'll be joining them soon enough. Let me restate that if it wasn't clear. Get comfortable with running away when things look grim, because I'm not going to save you.
This is a semi-competitive campaign. If you want something, go get it or someone else will. No one's making you share information with your party members. If you think you've found a lead to some hidden treasure, don't think you have to tell everyone. If you play your cards right, maybe you can slice off a bigger slice of the pie than your friends. At the same time though, this is still a cooperative campaign. Chances are that artifact isn't just chilling in a closet somewhere. If you want it, you may need to bargain for the manpower you'll need to get it.
This is an old-school exploration/dungeon crawl campaign. There's nothing to do in the town but recuperate, restock, and maybe find the occasional lead or bounty target. Town is for peasants. If you want political intrigue, play something else. If you want to kill monsters and make money, play Northern Frontier.
The world is persistent and dynamic, and the things you and your fellow adventurers do will affect how things play out. If you clear a dungeon, it doesn't disappear. Give it a few weeks and it may repopulate with new monsters, but the early bird gets the worm, so work hard if you want the best pickings.
Sunday: Might be a good day, might not. I have another game on Sundays at 10:00PM. If you're earlier than that I might be persuaded to do two games in a day.
Monday: Generally free, but I have class in the morning so it needs to be earlier. Start at 5 or 6 for best results.
Tuesday: Probably not a good day
Wednesday: Same as Monday
Thursday: Probably not a good day
Friday: A good day. I have class in the morning but past 6 or so I'm free
Saturday: Best day, schedule is entirely clear and I can stay up late.
This schedule starts the 28th. Before that my schedule is clear, but see below:
This week will probably not be good. The interior of the house is being painted and I'm going to have to pack up my computer and chillax with my dad for a few days. I'll upload my campaign notes to mediafire (No you can't have the link) and maybe, maybe I can do a game on the laptop. I should be back in action by Friday.
This post will be edited with relevant information as I think of it. A second thread will be opened up for roleplay, scheduling, and bragging/sharing info. More information on that stuff will be in the OP of that thread.
If you want to play and you're not on my shortlist, feel free to join. It's best if you know how to play or can teach yourself. If you absolutely can't, I can give you a rundown but nothing kills enthusiasm like teaching someone to play mid-game. That being said, I can schedule a learning game with one or two people to get you acquainted, but the real game takes priority.
Something I forgot to mention. We'll be using either Maptool or gametable. Maptool is cool but I'm leaning toward GameTable, as Maptool has a lot of features and a lot of this stuff is going to be pretty short notice. Gametable has a much faster setup.
The game will be using the default gods from the PHB, but divine magic comes from faith, not godly intervention. Worship what you want but please don't get preachy in an OOCly obnoxious way. Being obnoxious IC about your faith is one thing. Hopefully we won't have any problems like that but I wouldn't put it past some That Guy type people
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Topic: Northern Frontier - Freeform, open-ended D&D 3.5e (Always Recruiting) (Read 12981 times)