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Mystery of the Sudden City: Beginner-friendly 1-20 campaign
Amidst the political turmoil of succession, the Glass Sea Rangers have failed to report in. Find out why, and save us from calamity!
$15.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Sunday - 11:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 2–3 hours
1 / 5 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
1/5
About the adventure
"Mystery of the Sudden City" is a sandbox-style game set in a desert continent that celebrates the joy of exploration and rewards players for discovery. With a capital city nestled in the mountains whose height keeps the rest of the continent from ever being reached by the rain, the homebrew realm of Carnegia is an archipelago of oasis cities scattered across the vast desert known as the "Glass Sea." Named for the magically active shards of desert glass sometimes found in the distant sands, the Sea is as rich a resource as it is a barren land. Called by the Throne, you will be tasked with setting out from the capitol city and finding any information you can about why the human settlements on the edge of the nation have reported scouting parties never returning. In a search for information you will visit the islands scattered across the desert, exploring each of them and engaging with their people in any way and any order you see fit. Each city has its own unique culture and customs, and your choices will matter deeply both to your own stories and to how those cities engage with the Carnegian throne as political tensions build. Using a milestone leveling system that rewards you with each chapter completed, our campaign will see opportunities for combat arise frequently, but it will be your judgment that determines when steel is drawn. Players will be rewarded for thinking creatively, engaging deeply, and immersion just as much as you will for finishing off a boss. This campaign is designed for people who want to have something consistent, rewarding, memorable, and most of all fun. Whether you're a brand new player or a TTRPG veteran, the game will be accessible and entertaining and will always strive to make you feel like your choices really matter. With new kinds of mounts to ride, demonic casinos to play in, halfling poisoners fronting as zookeepers, and the struggle of zealots pursuing power awaiting you, I look forward to welcoming you all to the Kingdom of Carnegia.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Sandbox / Open World
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(6)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Inclusive, World Builder, Teacher
About me
Now in my 7th year as a DM, I've been running players through games in a series of exclusively homebrew worlds. My players have gifted me with opportunities to hone my skills as a story-teller, a collaborator, and an improviser, and have walked away satisfied from both one-shots and longform campaigns alike. My tables are guaranteed safe for members of the LGBT+ community, as I am a member of that community myself. My villains may try to kill your characters, but they won't misgender them. My degree and background is in political science and activism, which gives me unique insight into world-building and intrigue and affords me the privilege of establishing urban environments that feel real and alive. My career as a social worker and background in mental health ensures that my tables create a trauma-informed environment in which to gently explore difficult topics and themes. My games will not use generative AI in any form.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Players will make 1st-level characters with ability scores determined by rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest die six times and assigning results how you see fit. If a player rolls a lower total than the standard array would provide (72 points,) that player may take the standard array instead. Any officially published Wizards of the Coast material is allowed, no questions asked. Unearthed arcana, homebrew, and 3rd-party material can be discussed. Character creation will typically take place during session zero, but all players will be assigned character sheets as soon as they join the Roll20 campaign and seasoned players are invited to make their characters ahead of time if they would like.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
All a player needs to play in this game is a roll20 account and good enough audio equipment to communicate in a voice call on that website. If players prefer, I do have a discord server with a voice chat function we can use.
What Max brings to the table
You can expect a thoroughly-built and immersive world right out the gate. Players will be provided a brief but thorough document describing the realm of Carnegia and the cities in the Glass Sea Archipelago so we can hit the ground running and know where we're heading in the story. Character voices are reserved for major, recurring characters, though many NPCs will get affectations to help them stay distinct from others. I embrace the Rule of Cool as just one more tool in a story-teller's belt. If you have a creative idea that doesn't break the story or the game's balance, odds are good we can make it work. Rules as Written is our baseline to facilitate the story being told, but player creativity should be rewarded. Each player can expect that their character will have a unique role to play in this story, and the world will mold around them to make their backstories and their choices feel important and rewarding. I believe in collaborative story-telling and I want you to feel like a collaborator from word go.
Homebrew rules
POTIONS: If you use a Standard Action to drink a potion, you automatically get full healing for it. A bonus action will require rolling the dice to determine the amount healed. DEATH SAVES: A Nat 1 is two failed Death Saves, but on a Nat 20 your character will pop back up with 1 HP. WILD MAGIC: According to RAW, a wild magic surge occurs only on a 1 on the die. At my table, if the first roll does not produce a surge, the next roll could do it on a 1 or a 2. The third roll could then produce a surge on a 1, 2, or 3. And so on until a surge is triggered and resets the die. REPRESENTATION: In order to make sure my own bias isn't limiting representation, most of my NPCs will have their sexual orientation and gender identity rolled on a table (D100) that is roughly representative of what we understand to be United States demography.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Max creates a safe table
I am a lover of safety tools and my tables reflect that. Explicit sexual contact will be faded to black. No sexual contact involving children under any circumstances will be permitted. Sexual violence has no place at my tables. Period. My villains may try to kill you, but they won't intentionally misgender you. (They won't do it by accident either, unless we've explicitly cleared this.) In Session 0, players will be given an RPG consent checklist to clear or decline certain topics, themes, triggers, or behaviors. Players should also feel empowered to employ the stoplight system with either direct messages to me or by stating their feelings publicly in our voice chat, whichever the player is more comfortable with. Each session will conclude with a brief talk-back to discuss thorns & roses and how players feel about their experience. Breaks will be granted when any player needs one. My hope is not to interrupt the flow of the game any time someone needs a bathroom, but if someone needs to step away to take care of themselves, no problem here. I am committed to being responsive and safe for my players, and will be happy to talk to players outside of our sessions about their experience.
Content warnings
Safety tools used