The Hollowlands: Fantasy sandbox adventure [Christian friendly]

Creating your character

I have a fancy video I made and which I will share with you which will make creating a Hollowlands-ready character a breeze. If it's your first session, you'll get extra attention your first week to make sure you love your character and that you're brought up to speed.

Preparing for the session

We will use Discord to communicate.

What Dystopiapathy brings to the table

The Hollowlands is a narrative feast, but one which is incomplete without your story. As a novelist, my favorite stories are NOT the ones I've written. They are the messy ones, created in dimly lit kitchens or basements (real or digital) with a group of friends, creative people, who care enough to put their collective perspectives and ideas into this cauldron called role playing (along with a healthy dose of random) and then sit back and watch, delighted by what comes bubbling to the surface. At my table, storytelling comes first, above all. It is the ultimate outcome, the ultimate good. And keeping the story first is the ultimate rule of cool. There may be times in which rules must bend for the story's sake (though these will be rare). After story, if there is a runner up for most important, then that thing would be the party. Your character belongs to the party and the party belongs to your character. They are bound together and, as such, characters (regardless of background, alignment, and ultimate goal) must have motivations which narratively stitch them together with the rest of the party. Else, why would they travel together? Ergo, players must be flexible and creative as they spin the threads of their narrative in a way that binds the party together. It's unlikely, for instance, that lone wolfs, bullies, or psychopathically evil characters will work well in a party trapped in a high fantasy struggle for good against evil. That does NOT mean characters should be homogenous. On the contrary, it is the contrast between characters which makes storytelling so rich! Raistlin and Caramon. Conan and Red Sonja. Drizzt and Catie-Brie. Royce and Hadrian. Anthony Crowley and Aziraphale. Legolas and Gimli. These are pairs of sharply contrasting characters who could not possibly be more different, but who are united in purpose. And since they are bound together and yet they contrast, they are interesting! Interesting in a way in which a homogenous pair, even if equally bound, simply would not. Finally, I keep a family-friendly table. Occasional swears are fine. But this isn't the place for sexual content or overly gratuitous violence.

Homebrew rules

We use basic Shadowdark rules with only a few modifications. Namely: * Start every session with one luck token * Good storytelling MIGHT restore a spent luck token * Level 1 characters get max health dice. Every level after it is rolled. And a few others (but those would be spoilers).

How Dystopiapathy creates a safe table

Direct message me any time about any concerns! My response shall be swift, and you will find an empathetic ear and compassionate advocate. And in a West Marches style campaign like this, Open Door is certainly the policy (take a break any time, for any reason).