Return from the Sky: Build and protect a new settlement
The time has come at last for civilization to return to the ground, but refugees, pioneers, and explorers will need your protection.
$30.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Wednesday - 11:30 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3–3.5 hours
4 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
You have lived your life amidst the clouds. In a floating city of refugees, you gaze down at a wild world overrun by nature. But the time has come at last for civilization to return to the ground. You have been chosen to help establish and protect small frontier settlements. Why have you accepted? Are you fleeing something in the sky? Do you simply long for adventure? Do your ambitions guide you? ☁️ Enter a custom world full of flying cities and airships. ⚔️ Join a team of adventurers. 🪓 Help settlers return to the world's surface. 🗺️Navigate the world's dangers, and the sky's tensions. 🏘️Make a flourishing settlement. Explore the wilderness. 📖 Designed for veterans and newcomers alike. This game invites you to become a member of a band of heroes tasked with safeguarding a new future for the world. As the party protects a community of refugees, they will be tasked with deciding the best way to deal with dangers roaming the wilderness, the gathering of vital resources, and the political tensions of nations looming large in the sky. While the story offers plenty in the way of exploration and good old fashioned monster slaying, it will also challenge players with navigating the influence of external forces, and the lingering tribulations of their own past, or those of their homelands. The world is on the cusp of major upheaval, and the players will shape how that influences their growing new community... and their own ambitions.
Game style
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Realm Building
Roleplay Heavy
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
2 years on StartPlaying
573 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, World Builder
About me
Nothing makes me happier than providing a fun experience for others, be it through tabletop roleplay, creative writing, gaming, or any other means. Almost as soon as I learned how to play Dungeons & Dragons as a teenager, I decided to become a dungeon master. I suddenly had a whole new way to tell stories, and guide my friends in telling them, too. One of my fondest memories brings me back to the grocery store where I was stocking shelves, and a new friend approached and asked, "So, do you know about all the dragon colors?" Work quickly became far nerdier. I love using tabletop to build a story around the creative ideas of every player, and believe even the newest players can be the greatest. The best way to learn is to play, and I'm always happy to help be the guide while that happens. I am a career journalist who loves weaving in themes from history and literature into my games, and even playing homage to the rich literary history that inspired many of the tropes that survive in gaming today.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Characters will begin at level 1 in session 1. They advance together as a party. Character sheets on Dndbeyond and Roll20 are welcome. We use the point buy method for stats. Feel free to iron out your character idea ahead of time if you're comfortable. But there will be additional features you will gain by exploring your background in our Session 0 as we make our characters and their prologues. I will be available to help teach anyone who needs it, and love doing so.
This is a part of a group that recently finished a long-term game together. We're looking to have another! This is an adult group who appreciates a relaxed, friendly atmosphere at the table, while fostering a teamwork first approach to the game. The party is looking to build a game with a strong focus on the moment-to-moment roleplay as a new town is built from the ground up, as well as the fun that comes from working together to overcome wilderness survival. The party will start together at level 1 and level up together. EXP will be rewarded based on stopping or defeating threats to your town, and finding resources to help the town. The party will track food, water, and environmental factors. The party will not track weight and ammunition. We wish for the game to exemplify the fun of building a town as a base of operations, which can act as a place of peace and comfort for its heroes. Adventures in the wilderness can therefor have a clear beginning, middle, and end upon returning home to your friends. While there are many dangers to overcome, the party wants to lean toward a heroic game, rather than a grim one. The game's story will be paced around exploring to deal with threats and find resources, while uncovering secrets on the way, and then returning to town to oversee improvements, to get to know allies and neighbors, and deal with the politics of the day. While the party wishes to build a community and keep it safe, the method we'll use to track this progress will be more expansive and organic than the Bastion rules.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You will want to prepare: Discord, a working mic, and a free Roll20 account. Share your Roll20 account with me so that I may invite you to the game. Be sure to join the Discord! Also be sure to bring a collaborative attitude! We'll build this story together, and I consider that foundation an exciting part of playing D&D!
What Jer Jones brings to the table
I'll bring D&DBeyond so everyone has access to the rulebooks we need and tons of supplementary material from my own custom content as well as an Arcadia subscription. I will provide reference art and maps as needed for the game, a detailed, custom world to explore, and interesting characters with their own motivations for you to meet. I have equipped an open mind so we can figure out how your character and their goals fit into this world. Cat pics!
Homebrew rules
- Advantage and Disadvantage stack - Flanking grants advantage on attacks - Forced movement does trigger opportunity attacks - Standing from prone provokes opportunity attacks unless you use the disengage action - PVP is forbidden. Character conflicts should be collaborative and non-lethal. - EXP will be gained from "stopping threats" and "gathering resources." EXP will be tracked, but not grinded out from kills. - The "Fixed" HP gain on level will be used.
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Internet
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Jer Jones creates a safe table
It will be up your characters to decide how they want to tackle the world's many challenges. As they face a wild world on the ground, they may need to take a direct or cunning approach. How will they handle the myriad ambitions of those who survive in the skies? While each character will have plenty to overcome, it will be up to us as a group to decide what sort of content we want to include in the game. In our first session together we'll discuss boundaries and expectations. Players are welcome to communicate their limits ahead of time with me, too, as I will lead the group discussion with my own. Our first session will also be spent creating a prologue together. From where does each character travel? What has influenced them to go on this journey? What bonus abilities will their personal experiences grant them? All of these questions will be answered as part of character creation, and influence the direction of the story. The top focus of the game is roleplay, but players should expect a balanced game that does include at least one combat every session.
Content warnings
Safety tools used

