5e game: The World

The map is a) incomplete and b) large-scale, covering only larger city-states and important places but not, for example, where the ruins of empires are or the towers of wizards. Most of the accurate maps are owned by sailors and more concerned with coastal locations. As per the DMG, most towns have ~1K people, villages around 5K and cities are 25K+. There are no mammoth cities with 100,000+ inhabitants and such at present and most city-states are at least 500 years old.  

(This means players are free to add their own city-states and towns for their characters to come from if they want to.)

No proper kingdoms or nations exist due to lack of raw materials to field vast armies and the varied dungeons, ruins and monsters that exist just outside the boundaries of civilization make expansion difficult on that kind of scale at present.

Note: The classes all maintain secret training facilities to train people up to level one; these are generally away from civilized areas and kept safe by being relatively difficult to find. Finding them is part of what sets the PC on their path towards level one in essence.  

(Map via here.)

Aria: The city-state of Aria has one strange claim to fame: while most spells to raise the dead are almost unknown (and very, very rare), citizens of Aria who pay the 1,000 gold price  can be Reincarnated within a week after death. The ungents and oils for the spell are well-known there but require a) the body and b) don’t travel well for purposes of being taken to other city-states. The weird benefit of this is that Aria boasts the strangest and most complicated family trees and is widely considered the most cosmopolitan place in the world. Those who try and come here just to get someone reincarnated alone are charged double the standard price since there are only so many ungents and oils available at any one time. The downside of this is that many adventures end up coming from Aria and seeking their fortune to get their families out of crippling levels of debt this magic can lead to.

Aragzar: A city-state ruled by arcane magicians, Aragzar has long been at war with Arknurdvik over magic and its uses. Attempts at diplomacy have only led to the deaths of any magic-user sent to the other city and the cold-war between them has been a grim affair for at least three hundred years. That Aragzar has not been able to win the war is, wisely, something travellers to the nation don’t bring up.

Arknurdvik: Once ruled by a tyrannical wizard, this city banned all arcane magic on penalty of death and working magic in the city is quite difficult due to ancient artifacts in use within it. A spat with an order of paladins in the last century has also led to a ban on all clerical magics. The gods have yet to respond though no one living can say why. The city is somehow still holding its own in the war against Aragzar and quite a few non-magic using adventurers end up here and become leaders of the city. The city is ruled by various noble families who worry that without the anti-magic propaganda holding it together, the city might collapse. Using magic here is naturally punishable by death.

[In game terms, no spell requiring Concentration works in Arknurdvik]

Cambia: A large, sprawling city, Cambia is a city-state ruled by strict patriarchal law. All power and authority reside with men though a wife is to be accorded at least the same respect that a husband gives to his cattle. As females count as property, harming anyone else’s property is a hangable offense and women have used this to make a large secret network of thieves that are, technically, not punishable by law. The male head of each household is dominant over all the other man (and their women) though the women who are yours (wives, daughters, in-laws) mean punishment is meted to you more than the head of the household proper. The villages and towns outside the city-state are less strict but still bound by Cambian law. In an effort to ensure the royal family remains intact, kings tend to have enough children that a civil war happens every century or so.

City / City (2): The only known cities on the Shattered Isle. their names lost to history.

Cuheath: One of the largest militocracies, Cuheath is ruled jointly by their army, navy and airforce (who fly on Hippogriffs) while magic-users form their special ops who function in any part of the arm as needed. The city has been ruled thusly for over two hundred years after a disastrous diplomatic incident with Gundinal almost saw the city razed to the ground. It is a very heavily taxed city-state but every town and village is walled with the same thick stone as the city and all buildings are solid and fortified as well. The streets are narrow and winding to limit invasion, even towns have more of an armed guard than other villagers and it is generally one of the safest city-states to live in as long as you don’t break their strict laws.

The military guard have the authority to execute any criminal on sight for theft by word or deed (this included deception in any form) and if there is doubt about the legality of their actions, truth spells are used to determine if they were out of line.

Davisham: No one visits Davisham if they can avoid it. The ruler is a dragonborn sorcerer named Minys who is the absolute and only authority in the entire city-state. Some say she has become a dragon, or that even dragons fear her, but her magics rule the entire area and she is considered the most powerful magic-user in the world and quite likely no longer mortal as she has ruled for over 1,000 years.

Dolone: An important trade-route, Dolone is a plutocracy ruled by the wealthy for the wealthy. You can buy anything in Dolone’s famous markets if you can afford it and caveat emptor is the rule of the day - if a merchant screws you over, that’s your own fault. (Granted, if a merchant does this too often no one trades with them.) The city taxes the merchants, and the city guard keep merchants safe from harm. Threatening a merchant is the fastest way to leave the city, and unless you’re very lucky you don’t leave alive. The ruling council of merchant-nobles have enough magic items paid to them as taxes that no assassin will even try to kill one. Who is one is unknown as their true identities are kept secret.

Dread Wood / Dread Wood: There are two Dread Woods. One between Jamoor and the Waysham Mines, the other between Pilkath and Gul’Drun. Both areas take fierce pride in how deadly the woods are and how their wood is far more Dread than the other wood that dares to take that name. In extreme cases, adventurers who drastically reduce the perceived level of ‘dread’ in a wood can be driven out of the area by mobs of outraged citizens. Outsiders, rather used to not travelling through forests that try to murder them as a hobby, find the situation utterly baffling.

Feywild: The feywild is possibly the original home of the elves. Displacer beasts come from it, along with dryads, owlbears, pixies, satyrs, sprites and even treants are found among it. If you make it there, or even back out alive. Feywild is larger than it appears on maps, hidden behind powerful illusions protecting it against the undead - and the living as well, often enough. No one who leaves ever has safe passage to return.

Gul’Drun: The easternmost city in the known world, Gul’Drun is also one of the most famous as 90% of the population are bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins and  kobolds all living together. The city is also famous for bloody gladiatorial matches and boasting more dangerous back alleys than it has actual streets. The people are dangerous and breaking the few laws even moreso but they do welcome any traders of any race. Adventurers are often advised to go unarmed and tread carefully.

Gundinal: A newer city-state with a halfling monarchy, it is largely famous for the war against Cuheath when the old royal family of that city made the grave mistake of thinking that the ruling queen of the time, Aya, was a human child. Gundinal boasts a large number of dwarves, gnomes and halflings and much of the city is not sized for larger visitors except at the edges. This also helps defend them in case of war, but no one has sought out a war with them in some time.

Hamura: Situated between the wildness of the Feywild and the terrible undeath of Shadowsfell, the island of Hamura is not the place people plan to visit. Which is rather a pity. A true democracy, every citizen of the island is linked in a telepathic field and group consensus determines all laws and customs. Any race is welcome as long as they are part of the Democracy. The island is rather self-sufficient and makes calculated use of all resources at hand to deal with threats from Shadowsfell. People only journey from it to find items of power they require for use back home and often find other cultures baffling and half-mad.

Jamoor: Situated next to the Dread Wood (thank you very much), the city of Jamoor takes a terrible pride in how evil and nasty the Dread Wood is. Just about anyone is welcome in the city though those who dare weaken the Dread Wood will face mobs of irate locals. The trade routes are well guarded so that travellers to the city-state can safely view the Dread Wood and get told tales about it. The city is ruled by an oligarchy with a ruling family of humans as a figurehead through which the council operates.

Kibaram:  Home to many elves, Kibaram is a gerontocracy ruled by the elders. This consist of elves and a few others but you need to be over 500 years old to be an Elder so it is largely only the elves. A deep vein of elder-respect runs through the city-state and it is generally considered conservative and slow to change with the times, taking decades to make many decisions and weighing every aspect of them. As a result of this, it is also one of the oldest and most stable of the current city-states and also home to the oldest library in the known world, the aptly named Library of Kibaram.

Klof: The city-state of Klof is a republic ruled by an elected king. A new royal family is elected every decade and only landowners who are native to the city and have a certain amount of wealth are part of the voting process. If the ruler dies, their spouse takes over. If they die, it is one of the children or an early election happens. The royal family has power that varies depending on the strength of the ruler and the state of the city-state at the time and it is generally considered a relatively safe place to be so long as you do not insult or assault a Voter.

Macot: The city of Macot is ruled by a half-orc royal line. As half-orcs don’t often breed true, this often leaves a vacancy that is filled by other half-orcs in the city. In at least one occasion, a half-orc adventurer was press-ganged into becoming the queen. The reasoning is that half-orcs have a low life expectancy so the other, long-lived races, can simply outlive any problematic rulers. The historical reason was apparently a very nasty gnome ruling the city-state for almost three centuries that led to the current system. The city is generally considered a decent place to live if you avoid any royal attentions and many longer-lived races dwell here.

Nalukkhol: Nalukkhol is named after the vampire-king who rules it. A human who desired power over death, he made terrible bargains with Shadowsfell and gained awful powers. Some say the undead only reach as far as Dolone because he acts as an anchor in the known world for Shadowsfell itself, and they are probably not wrong in this. With a massive army of the undead and the alive, Nalukkhol is a stain on the world that at least seems to be content to be a small one perhaps because it is mostly contained by a veritable army of clerics and paladins out of Kibaram and Cuheath who are stationed just beyond the borders of the city-state.

Neford: A fortified and walled city, Neford is ruled by hierarchical bureaucracy where the heads of each branch form a ruling council of elders. The city is matrilineal in nature and men cannot hold power - including military power and any use of magic. Strangely, they have never been at war with Cambia and both city-states diplomatically pretend the other one doesn’t exist. Unlike Cambia, males are citizens even though they have no real power in the city.

Northern Barrens: The north-most point of true civilization, even if it is mostly inhabited by barbarians. The barrens boasts only small towns who trade with the Oreland Mountains for supplies and the inhabitants know more about the undead than most of the known world.

Old Port: The oldest port in continuous use, Old Port is worn and battered but still in use. It is ruled by a dragonborn monarchy who keep uses of sorcery to a minimum to avoid comparisons with Davisham and their light taxes on trade vessels make it a popular stop, the city making up the revenue in sailors visiting various brothels and inns. It is one of the only city-states without any villages or towns beholden to it and survives via merchant traders.

Oreland Mountains: The only mountains with readily accessible mineable ore left in them, the dwarves (with the aid of gnomes) guard them with their lives. It is said that half the world's dwarves live there and the rest would return if summoned. The mountains aren’t old, relatively speaking, which is why the ore exists in them but they are quite dangerous at the best of times.

Pilkath: Pilkath is a town-state, a collective of towns and villages bound together for mutual defense rather than having any central city to call their own. The Pilkath Collective has survived for over a hundred years with only the loss of a few small towns to show for it, and given their location beside the one true Dread Wood that is likely more impressive than outsiders believe.

Shattered Isle: A long time ago, a monster ruled the northern end of the Shattered Isle. Only it died and became an undead monstrosity owing to the proximity of Shadowfell. A wizard summoned another of the creatures to do battle with it their war has been waging for centuries with all who end up on the island drafted into an undead army or charmed into a living one. Both creatures believe themselves to be perfect and seek the destruction of their rival by any means necessary.

Shadowfell: The land of undeath, domain of the vampires, shadow dragons and all undead underneath them. It is said to be vast, with the barest edges of it on any maps and there are far more undead in the eastern half of the world than the western just due to its influence. No one travels there by choice and it is a place of monsters and madness.

Shifting Isles: The shifting isles used to be the basis for various pirates until a band of adventurers unleashed a magic on them that alters their state. The islands change from jungles to swamps to deserts and all things between overnight, making survival for most creatures quite, quite difficult indeed.

Tul’zen: Detailed below; the starting location for the game.

Tythorp: Ancient springs supply this landlocked city with water. It is ruled by the wealthiest families, who in turn pay for various guards and merchants to take goods to and from the city. Any coinage is welcome in Tythorp and the artisans are famous for their skills in spotting cursed items and will often tell whether items are cursed or not for a very small free, or take the item and keep it, removing the curses and selling them at a later date. Adventurers are welcomed into the city with open arms but are still expected to obey the rule of law.

Uldiz: Perhaps it is proximity to the north or being between a Dread Wood and two odd city-states, but after the Shifting Isles were formed, the city-state of Uldiz became the go-to location for pirates and thieves in the known world. The result is a kleptocracy of breathtaking scope, where the ruling guilds elect five members who serve as the ruling council every five years. Uldiz has no taxes per se, but bribes and corruption are necessary to get anywhere and even barbarians call it as unsafe as a city can be and still be called civilized.

Underdark: Not on any maps, the underdark is an area of vast caverns and underground rivers below the world. The remnants of a terrible Illithid empire exist down there and the Drow did once until the ‘white wyrm’ arrived some centuries ago. No one knows if it is a dragon or something far more loathsome but it claimed the entire underdark for its own, slaved creatures to its will and drove everything else out. Only the Drow and the Flumph properly escaped.

Waysham Mines: The Waysham Mines are the only old working mines that aren’t infested by monsters or the underdark creatures at present. The mines are heavily guarded and linked to every major trade route. The owners identities remain a secret but the workers are very well-paid for their labours and the mines are surprisingly safe, all things considered.

Weebluff: The city-state of Weebluff is situated on a bluff. The Wee part comes from long ago when it was a small port but a magical accident raised the entire area up and what was once a port is now ruins and jagged rocks the ocean collides with. Weebluff is ruled by a ruling family of human lords who don’t call themselves anything more; they tend to just keep to themselves, trade with other city-states as needed but mostly guard the towns and villages under their protection and tell stories of the old Empire that Weebluff was part of long and long ago.

?: Everyone agrees there is a city-state here, but no one can recall the name of it.

Tul’Zen

Fed by rivers around with the various towns and villages tied to Tul’Zen dwell,Tul’Zen is a large town aspiring to be a city-state. The towns and villages around it are in a tacit agreement and each ruled by a local lord who has sworn to be vassals of the monarchy of Tul’Zen. The ruling line of Mordrin are human though there are some half-breeds in the royal family. The distaff branches of the royal family are not allowed to be Lords of the other towns etc. and mostly take on varied diplomatic roles after brief stints in the military. Few members of the royal lines have practised magic, and it is generally considered taboo for ruling Lords as well.

The PCs are sent to the proto-city upon reaching level 1 as Tul’zen wants the area clear of bandits and wealth in the ruins scattered about the area explored. They had one group hired a year ago but they vanished into a dungeon and never returned; enough funds have been raised to employ another group. Tul’Zen is making no demands on the name of the group being tied to this place or that you must remain in Tul’Zen proper. The  three towns and five villages connected to it are aware of who is coming and you can expect at least cheap room and board, becoming free once the PCs prove their worth.

King Mordrin is not expecting you to remain here forever - he’d be stunned if you all did - but clearing out bandits and making your superiors aware this is a good place for adventuring and to send adventurers. Helping the city in their goal will earn his graces.

5e game: history & society

HISTORY

A long time ago, several mighty nations went to war. Their names have been lost to even myth but it was a mighty war between races that threatened to lead to all-out genocide. The problem is that each side, desperate for advantages, ended up encroaching on the homes of the few wizards in the world in their desire to gain weapons that could end the war. The eight wizards, roused from their studies, called upon their magics and ended the war.

This took them under an hour and reshaped much of the world at the time.

Even the gods took notice of that.

There are those who say the wizards were the progenitors of all modern races, or the first heretics. Some claim that races had gods of their own, until the wizards wiped them out. No one knows. What is known is that, in time, the wizards grew in power and ego and several of them banded together to challenge the gods.

The gods did more than take notice. The towers of the wizards were destroyed in the resulting conflict along with the eight wizards themselves. The downside of this is that the magic the wizards had stored and harnessed spilled out all over the world akin to a traumatological bomb going off. Magic ran wild and tree but was eventually tamed into varying different strands of power.

Centuries past, and magic continued to change. The great magics became lost and forgotten, some magics worked differently in differing areas but the vast storehouses of supplies needed for magic vanished as well. Some time ago there was, perhaps, a war against the gods. It’s not talked about by them, but since then there have been few empires of note and the servants of the gods are less seen in the world, apparently busy defending the seen and the unseen in other realms.

In game terms: Non-clerical spells above level 5 are almost never in use. Most everything higher is rumour more than anything else. Few warlocks, wizards or sorcerers become powerful enough to even learn or master such magics and most clerics and paladins etc. retire to teach the next generation of adventurers long before potentially reaching those levels of power.

SOCIETY

The world is currently made up of a wide variety of city-states of differing size and power. Some are impressive and widely known, others generally known locally. Cities are large affairs supported by towns which in turn are supported by villages.

Villages contain homes, small shops etc. Adventurers can expect to find basic supplies and rarely too much more in them. They’re way-points and rest-stops by and large.

Towns generally have an adventurer-based economy. Adventurers explore ruins, find treasure and bring it into the town, trading items with local merchants for things they need and heading out again. Trips into cities are rarer simply because city guards get twitchy around adventuring types and local laws and taxes tend to be higher. As well, some city-states only accept their own coinage while towns and villages are seldom as strict at all.

Adventuring In Society

In general, a surprising amount of the economy results from adventurers. Much of the easily minable and smeltable material has been accessed over the centuries, so the various treasures and trinkets recovered from the Underdark, dungeons, ruins and old cities are valuable more for raw material parts than anything else. Taxes on such items go to the local government, the city-state … and the various adventuring schools/training/hubs in the world.

There are not that many adventurers about, simply because it is that risky and dangerous of a business and few people have the stamina (or stats :)) to become one. A village might serve three bands of adventurers over the space of two years and consider that a large amount. The benefit of this is that the PCs are known (once they’re at about level 5 or so) to be Adventurers, Experienced and gain status from that.

Each class keeps the fruit of the training secret from others, but adventurers in good standing (and often recommended by a member of said class) can multiclass. Classes could be seen as akin to specialized and secretive guilds to some extent though characters pay no kind of tithe and aren’t expected to hide abilities/talents from allies though the unwritten rule is that one doesn’t question too much how another class can do certain things and so forth.

(Note: Ideally this means each player knows the Path their character is going to take in a class and it’s assumed the PC has been prepped/trained toward that in the run-up to reaching level one. This isn’t some hard or fast rule, however, mostly existing for flavour.)

Supplies

Adventurers trade items for other items. Depending on the groups rep and character, they get better deals etc. with merchants they trade with often and can use competing merchants for their advantage.

Potion Hut, for example, supplies only potions. Which means they have quite a few, but take less items in trade (beyond empty bottles, alchemical supplies, raw coins etc.)

Potion World has fewer potions (and at a slightly higher cost) but will trade for other items as well and, being the newcomer, make more deals if it means repeat business.

The surly shopkeeper is rare, in other words. Adventurers are good business and good for business, and towns and villages treat you accordingly. (Wiping out orcs/goblins etc. around the local area is, of course, a boon as well.)  PCs are expected and encouraged to trade for goods more than hold onto items and vendors in towns they frequent often can serve as banks as well - additionally, a lot of inns offer free room/board to adventurers. Especially at higher levels; would you say no to someone who can destroy your inn with a single fireball?

(Note: the game is not intended to be about Business (since that != dice fun, but it’s more that this aspect is some of the rewards the characters get for the risks they take.)

5e game: gods and magic

GODS

There are seven gods (two good, three neutral, two evil) but every god can embody any domain, An evil god with a cleric of the Life domain might be rare, but terribly useful for torture. The gods generally interact with the world via clerics and paladins - many of them are chosen by the gods to serve them and their magic often aids adventurers who protect the world from varied threats.  

It is said that there were more gods once, and a war, but this was long ago, even before the fall of the eight wizards, and has become mostly myth. The gods are all concerned with the preservation and safety of this world, though methods and motives differ among them.

Most villages and every city contains a temple to the gods, which is largely a gathering place for locals as well as training for clerics, paladins, scholars healers etc. Smaller towns have shrines to specific gods and shrines can be found commonly during travels. The gods are said to respond to prayers spoken in shrines more often and it is rare - though not unheard of at all - to get audiences with at least one god in such places.

OOCly the stories about there being other gods is represented by the fact that infernal entities, the language and realm(s) are almost unheard of. The inhabitants of those realms are often old gods and the servants of them seeking a war back into the world. Much of the celestial-class monsters and entities are pretty much in a constant battle with them on the higher planes. It is, perhaps, also why high-level adventurers are rare, since many tend to be drafted into this war and vanish from the normal world.

Atien and Caldor [Good]

Atien is the god of Creation. It was she who brought the world into being even though the power of all the gods is necessary to sustain it. She is deeply concerned with the preservation of the world and many clerics of the Life domain are drawn to her.

Caldor, her husband, is the god of death. It is he who made the world beyond this one for the dead, though little is known of it by the living. His rule of the afterlife is generally seen as benevolent since spells to bring the dead back to life exist. He is the most beautiful of the gods, and some say the kindest as well.

Muan, Ranbir, L’tosh [Neutral]

Muan is the deity of birth and agriculture. All cities have at least one shine to Muan and no two depictions of the god are the same.

Ranbir is the god of trade, luck, and travel, beloved and feared by merchants. Travellers who do not put some token into the common roadside shrines to the god tend to have more problems befall them than otherwise.

L’tosh is the goddess of knowledge, which some say compasses magic as well. History is within her purview and all scholars venerate her above the other gods.

Ashkatan, Seshan [Evil]
Ashkatan is the god of war. He can be called upon to make and end war, and tends to revel in chaos - though this includes disruptions to social orders and other acts more subtle than detractors of the god might suppose.

Seshan is the trickster, and doesn’t even call themself a god. Seshan appears as any species, neither as male nor female and pretty much takes the piss out of everything, though often with a dark intent.

Clerics serve one god of their choice (unless they are chosen by the god into service). The same applies to paladins.  

The nature of magic:

Wizardry remains the most common (and safest) application of arcane magic. Sorcerers are generally considered dangerous (and sometimes scary, esp. with the stories about wild magic) while Warlocks are less trusted because of the Pacts they make that are poorly understood by others, and sometimes even by the warlocks themselves.

Clerics are generally trusted - depending on the god they serve, of course, and the way in which they serve Them. Clerics can recognize other Clerics - and Paladins - on sight and know what god they serve, though it is rumoured that followers of Seshan can trick this ability if they have to.

Bards and Druids are said to have magic sourced in the world itself, though how that makes it different from divine or arcane magic is often a debate for scholars.

Other-Class magic is generally held to be the result of exposure to magic as far as the common people are concerned, rarer but generally considered less powerful or scary. Most people would be unaware a rogue or fighter could use magic at all in the general run of things - which can be quite useful.

In general, most villages have at least one healer and a few people with cantrips at their disposal though it is often just the mend one. Potion-makers are relatively common because of adventurers, however.

5e Game

PRELIMINARY POST

I have ideas brewing in my head for a 5e D&D campaign (some of them suiting D&D as a setting for specific reasons). As a brief overview of where the GM thought-process is going: level 1 PCs, characters made as a group during 1-2 sessions. Making PCs as a group helps avoid overlap in abilities and figuring out how you want the group to mesh together on meta levels etc. which can be pretty useful. Plan to run it in game1 via Sparkie so we’ll be going more Theatre of the Mind than using grids [unlike 4e, one can do this with 5e]. If you have a character concept that you feel NEEDS grids (for tactics or what have you) chat with me and we’ll work stuff out OOCly. Expect PCs to level every 1-2 sessions early on, 23-4 later on.
Note: if players avoid certain classes, supplements can be worked out. EX: Potion Hut and Potion World supply ample healing potions and will compete for the business of your adventuring party. NPC hirelings to cover a missing class/skill/talent the group wants is entirely possible as well. They may, or may not, be named Bob.

Campaign-wise: the world is made up of varying small city-states with 7 known god and the existence of spells above level 5 is the stuff of myth and legend. (Cue PCs eventually becoming, you know, myth and legend :)) As the world is built on the back of many other nations etc. - and perhaps even gods, but that would likely be heresy to voice aloud, there is very little ore, minerals etc. that is safe to mine. As such, most coinage, supplies, magical relics are recovered by adventurers and sold/traded to the world at large via larger towns and cities in essence. You are rare - because it takes a long time to train people to reach even level 1 and also because not all adventurers last/survive to higher levels - and rewarded for that rarity with boons, gifts etc. as the game progresses.

(OOCly, there are potential downsides: NPCs may think the PCs vastly more powerful than they are and you are going to run into ruins/dungeons/ancient keeps that are far above your paygrade at any point. Most of the ‘easy’ stuff will have been done by other adventuring groups over the last century or so.)

Flavour-stuff: Infernal entities (and the language) are almost unknown, along with most high level monsters, magics etc.  It’s been a few centuries since empires and kingdoms fell apart in various wars and left a series of city-states rather than vast kingdoms  or empires. Feywild and Shadowfell are locations in the world, the elemental planes are known to exist to the adventuring class, but details tend to be not well known. The Underdark has mostly been taken over by a great white wyrm and its allies, so the drow exist bitterly on the surface and there is one city-state that is mostly inhabited by goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and ogres.

OVA ARENA GAME

Some call it the nexus of all realities, the holiest of places, the wellspring of eternity or the court of the mad gods. To those who live there, the city-state of Non is simply home. No one knows how the vast sprawling city came to exist, but all agree it would be famous even if was not the most famous place in all the universes. Billions of gates link it sporadically to every location in space and time and travel to it – and even from it – is a thing of legend in many places. Every story of a portal ends up here.

All portals lead to Non. That alone is fame enough. But there is also the Arena. And this elevates it into myth and stories almost no one dares believe. Because every few years there are a series of battles in 12 Arenas on Non, fortunes rising and falling until there is a victor. The victor replaces the last one in the Manifold Palace. They step in, become a living God, and remake the multiverse in their own image.

Sometimes everything is altered, or perhaps just their home dimension. No one knows. It is said, by those who work in the palace, that the god does not move. They sit, thoughts and will on matters that nothing mortal can understand, until the energy that made them is used up and another God replaces them. The time between Arenas varies: this much is known as truth. And also that no one has been able to wake one of the Living Gods, though few have been foolish enough to even try.

The Living God seems unable to get rid of Non, or the Arenas. Or perhaps, knowing of some wider world, they simply have no concern for such small things.

Not all who come to Non to fight in the Arena seek to win. Some arrive by accident and seek only to find a way home. Others see cures for other ailments or allies in different quests. The reasons are as varied as the fighters. Some are veterans of battles in far-off worlds. Others pacifists pushed to the breaking point. The universes they come from are as varied as their reasons for doing battle and as more and more battles are won, the press of Non begin to zero in on prospective winners and seek to learn about them. And, sometimes, learn enough to try and sabotage the changes of some would-be God.

Nothing is simple in Non, but perhaps the Living Gods would have it no other way.

GM Notes:

This is intended to be an Arena-style fighting game using OVA 2e. PCs begin with 5 free points, and can get up to 5 more by taking weaknesses accordingly. No ability can begin higher than +3 and OVA uses the [u] dice with Sparkie. The GM has developed a cheat sheet to explain how some abilities mesh and overlap.

Characters can be from any setting and genre you wish – making characters who are genre-savvy to other genres than an Arena one is also a recipe for fun. Motives and goals are entirely up to the players though making sure there aren’t too many cross-pollination of powers is a good idea. (More than 2 PCs with teleport etc. could get silly.) Unlike most games, the family of a PC is unlikely to be involved so the relations made among contestants and other PCs in the Great Game becomes a springboard for other adventures.

There will, naturally, be far more to the game than battles in arenas. More info. will be added this this in a few days.

OVA ARENA GAME

Some call it the nexus of all realities, the holiest of places, the wellspring of eternity or the court of the mad gods. To those who live there, the city-state of Non is simply home. No one knows how the vast sprawling city came to exist, but all agree it would be famous even if was not the most famous place in all the universes. Billions of gates link it sporadically to every location in space and time and travel to it – and even from it – is a thing of legend in many places. Every story of a portal ends up here.

All portals lead to Non. That alone is fame enough. But there is also the Arena. And this elevates it into myth and stories almost no one dares believe. Because every few years there are a series of battles in 12 Arenas on Non, fortunes rising and falling until there is a victor. The victor replaces the last one in the Manifold Palace. They step in, become a living God, and remake the multiverse in their own image.

Sometimes everything is altered, or perhaps just their home dimension. No one knows. It is said, by those who work in the palace, that the god does not move. They sit, thoughts and will on matters that nothing mortal can understand, until the energy that made them is used up and another God replaces them. The time between Arenas varies: this much is known as truth. And also that no one has been able to wake one of the Living Gods, though few have been foolish enough to even try.

The Living God seems unable to get rid of Non, or the Arenas. Or perhaps, knowing of some wider world, they simply have no concern for such small things.

Not all who come to Non to fight in the Arena seek to win. Some arrive by accident and seek only to find a way home. Others see cures for other ailments or allies in different quests. The reasons are as varied as the fighters. Some are veterans of battles in far-off worlds. Others pacifists pushed to the breaking point. The universes they come from are as varied as their reasons for doing battle and as more and more battles are won, the press of Non begin to zero in on prospective winners and seek to learn about them. And, sometimes, learn enough to try and sabotage the changes of some would-be God.

Nothing is simple in Non, but perhaps the Living Gods would have it no other way.

GM Notes:

This is intended to be an Arena-style fighting game using OVA 2e. PCs begin with 5 free points, and can get up to 5 more by taking weaknesses accordingly. No ability can begin higher than +3 and OVA uses the [u] dice with Sparkie. The GM has developed a cheat sheet to explain how some abilities mesh and overlap.

Characters can be from any setting and genre you wish – making characters who are genre-savvy to other genres than an Arena one is also a recipe for fun. Motives and goals are entirely up to the players though making sure there aren’t too many cross-pollution of powers is a good idea. (More than 2 PCs with teleport etc. could get silly.) Unlike most games, the family of a PC is unlikely to be involved so the relations made among contestants and other PCs in the Great Game becomes a springboard for other adventures.

There will, naturally, be far more to the game than battles in arenas. More info. will be added this this in a few days.

Low Life: Character Listing

PCs

Andrea: Electronics-shop worker who can teleport
Esmerelda: Would-be rocker who can manipulate electricity
Selena: Ex-military shut-in with the power to Scare people.
Tully: Telepathic stripper.
Yu: Fixer who can blow things up.


NPCs

Arnold: Scientist as Energon who, thanks to Tully, is developing Theories about powers.
Austin: Addict/Mugger who gains a new power when hurt. Yeah.
Brice: Andrea's friend; can heal appliances but when angered takes on a persona of armour, a sword and firey wings.
Claire: Woman 'kept' at Energon by scientists; she drains life energy for temp. boosts in strength and speed.
Dennis: The brains behind Wes's operation. Scary-smart.
Gary: Runs the electronics shop; secretly knows when and where he'll die.
Grant: 'Friend' of Andrea's who is full of secrets.
Irving: Ryan's friend. Can See things, and is a witch.

Kazimir: Old Russiah man who was part of Cold-War experiments. 

Kevin: Bitter 20-something Selena met; can see into the future a bit.   

Kim: McDonalds employee who can teleport in shadows and is insanely quick. Owns a ninja outfit.
Leo: PI who 'died' Monday night and is now something like a ghost.

Marvin: Chunky 17 year old with climbing powers.   

Ms. Osborne: famous local gossip. 

Ryan: Tully's little brother. Can turn into a the cutest doggie you ever saw! (Like that, but a mutt. Also cuter :))

Sandra: Can command people to do things; whereabouts unknown.   

Spencer: College student who can fire devastating energy blasts.
Tyner: Wes's gang, can turn into fire and control it. Unstable.
Wes: Gang member who now runs at least four gangs. Very strong and tough.
Yavin: 'low level face exploder' who works for Wes.
Zac: Teenager who can create butterflies and fly using fairy wings.


British Operatives

Ches (mentioned)
Mal/Chai/Hod: young thug with power over the earth. Currently trapped in shadows.
Zach: old balding man.

Low Life: Introduction.

It is Wednesday morning in Clearview Estates. It isn’t like last Wednesday. Honestly, it’s not even like last week in all the ways that matter. Oh, it’s the same crap living conditions, the same troubles with the authorities, but there is something new. A frisson in the air. Stories that are half-doubted, but there are many of them, growing every day. People who are doing things that people can’t do. Fire in fingertips. Flight. A girl who walks through shadows as though they were doors. People who can touch walls and break them with no effort at all. Some stories are about saints and devils, but most are just about weirdness. About people being able to somehow make the impossible real.

And you are one of those stories. Perhaps it started early Monday morning, when everything began. Some people claim there was a light show or meteor shower, but no one is sure if that was true. What’s now is the stories began, and they’ve been building. Everyone knows one, or knows someone who knows some story they half-believe is true. The Estate is changing, but no one knows into what. No one knows why, or even how. Did the government experiment on people? Were there aliens involved? No one knows.

There seem to be no answers save for those found within. Gifts. Talents. Abilities beyond the ordinary. Some are welcomed, some shunned, some baffling or useless. But they mean the world has changed, in ways large and small, and no one can be sure where it is leading.

Only there have been more police cars around during the day – and even at night – than usual. As though the authorities are aware the zeitgeist has changed, but have no idea what to make of it yet.

It is a warm spring day, and the world feels as though it is holding its breath, but that could be your imagination and nothing more ....

GM Note: The first use of power(s) is often tied to emotion. Maybe trying to get someone to be quiet, shut off an alarm, deal with having forgot your keys: something triggers you, and power(s) manifest. You’ve no idea if you have more, or really how to test them, or how many people like this exist.

Low Life: Clearview Estates

Clearview Estate – “Where the future waits for you!”

Clearview Estate was built during the Projects boom of the 1950s when housing estates were a leg up, a place where one could regroup and move forward. The original Estate was a city block with four large fifteen-storey high-rises (two of them connected together); a smaller fifth building was added twenty years after that and by the 80s desperate attempts to revitalize the project led to removing much of the green space in the middle and added town homes that ended up being as neglected as the rest of the Estate. Unlike other housing projects, Cleaview hasn’t been featured in horror movies or was made on land that developers wanted to claim for other uses. The lack of low-rent housing in the city had made razing and rebuilding it not politically feasible so politicians have turned blind eyes upon it.

The Estate was made with noble goals, but almost no maintenance happens – to save money for the city housing authority – and the eventual belief that people living in it somehow deserve to had seeped into popular culture like pus out of a wound. Every election cycle politicians drag out a handful of success stories as though it makes up for the horror stories that go unreported. Clearview isn’t where you go when you hit rock bottom. It’s what happens when you hit rock bottom and are handed a shovel and told to start digging.

LAYOUT

North-East: Crack Towers. Even the management refers to Haversham Towers as Crack Towers. Most of the dealers and customers are small time and the police don’t even bother responding to calls about drug use in the Estate any longer thanks to the reputation of the building. The management does try and root out dealers, but it takes time and tribunals and isn’t always successful – nor safe.

North-West: Concrete Jungle (once known as Greenview Heights) is a concrete slab of a building that was painted green, covered in moss and meant to resemble the parks within Clearview Estate. Theyh saved the money spent on the exterior by not plastering any of the interior. The moss is long gone and the green now resembles some of the more distressing options in the Dulux colour chart. The building is cracked, decaying, moldly and in the worst shape of the four original buildings.

South-West: The Twin Towers, so named because they were connected together at the tenth-storey mark. The only part of Clearview to have underground parking, it earned a new name as the Trade Towers post 9/11 since a lot of the underground parking is used up with various spray paints and cheap chop shops on stolen vehicles.

The South-East addition of Galloway Place – known as the Gallows – is a seven story hellhole, even to the people living in it. Each rentable room can fit a bed and small couch, sometimes a dresser. There is one communal fridge in the hallway of each floor and the basement contains communal bathroom and showering facilities. Clearview lore has it that you can catch STDs just by breathing in the air of the Gallows basement. It’s the last place you live before being homeless, the one place that takes cash with no questions asked.

The Clearview Greens town homes are all similar eighties two-storey affairs with faded green siding. Almost none have working shutters anymore and thirty years of neglect has not been kind to them either.

REALITIES:

Building maintenance is non-existent. Power and water failures are common.

Most everyone uses cell phones linked to the crappy free city wi-fi since reliable internet service is a joke. TVs, on the other hand, aren’t a problem. One company is said to have actually showed up with a SWAT team top guard them while they and installed TVs for four homes and no one batted an eye. (This didn't actually happen, but it's entered local folklore as fact.)

Jobs are scarce, and getting a job rather difficult since many employers automatically dismiss anyone living in Clearview from consideration. Insurance is a joke.
The police tend to only come in cars of two or more, and seldom after dark. While there are gangs in Clearview, the general belief is that the police are the worst gang of all.

The local school – Thompson Farms Elementary – is notorious for its lack of gym, auditorium and even cafeteria, to say nothing of textbooks that aren’t grossly out of date. Typing classes are still taught on typewriters in order to save money.

Things have changed a little, thanks to social media. Some people posted enough photos of the state of decay in washrooms and units that the city had to begin spending some money in cleanups, but unfortunately the moment public attention turns away the city does as well. And the public has a rather short attention span.

Sadly, this isn’t the worst of the projects. Everyone has heard of Henry Horner Homes and Cabrini-Green in Chicago. Everyone knows it could be far worse than it is, but some days that isn’t the comfort it tries to be.


General Note: Despite the conditions of living at Clearview, it is better than being on the streets would be. Building repair is entirely done by local work at best but people do try and look out for each other the same as they do anywhere else. There are assholes everywhere, after all, and where one lives does not change that. 

Low Life: System

Dice: Risus, but with OVA dice (u3 for 3 dice and so forth). OVA dice work akin to Yahtzee, a la:

u3: 6 from [6, 4, 1]

u6: 8 from [2, 1, 2, 5, 4, 4]
The chief benefit of this is that an increase in dice is no guarantee for victory and also fits into discovery and useage of ones abilities.

Regular Cliche: you have 7 dice to put into normal cliches; none can be more than 3 dice.

Power: You have six dice to play with. You can have one power at 6 or two medium powers (3/3 or 4/2). One power is generally reserved for the more powerful abilities, two for complementary ones that fit the character.

Power level: low-tier X-men is the mental starting point. So the limited abilities of the original X-men could qualify and so forth. Characters will get more powerful as the game progresses in their abilities rather than gaining more powers.

Boost: You begin with 0 dice in boost. This is gained via RP, awesome moments etc. and basically becomes bonus dice to apply to situations in the game. If you want your PC to begin with Boost that regenerates daily (1-2 points) you can add some flaw to your power(s) as agreed by the GM. (In x-men terms, Cyclops not being able to turn off his powers or Beast looking like a beat would qualify.)

Damage: Roll dice, whoever wins the encounter (the defender wins ties) does the difference between them (in the above example, 2 damage). Certain abilities will increase this naturally as will weapons.

(Armour exists, reducing total damage from a hit by 1-2 points.)

Health: Regular people have 5-10 health as their base, depending on jobbs, general health and so forth. If you have abilities that are combat/survival;-based, you get more health. [Roughly 3 points/level, though variation can apply.] This does mean that PCs are not initially any kind of bullet-sponges and will need to act accordingly. It means the average person will have between 10-15 health most likely in total. 

Note: This is very rough and a first draft: it can be altered before the game begins, or even during play (if everyone is seen as having too much or little health).