Lords of Harmondale - Age of Dragons
Power, politics, and a ruined kingdom up for grabs. Welcome, Lords of Harmondale. History remembers the bold. Everything else is a footnote.
$15.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Friday - 2:30 AM UTC
Oct 16 / Session 12
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
5 / 6 Seats Filled
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One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.
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Schedule
Meet your party members
5/6
About the adventure
Lords of Harmondale is a dark fantasy sandbox campaign set on the continent of Tharus. A dangerous world where magic is feared, power is earned through steel and silver tongues, but the wrong alliance can end a kingdom before it begins. This is a story about ordinary people handed an extraordinary opportunity and everything it costs them to seize it. This campaign's main ingredients will be: Conan the Barbarian Clash of the Titans Skyrim Might & Magic 7: For Blood and Honor Whatever spiciness you bring to recipe The campaign begins off the northern coast of Tharus on a small island known for it's emeralds. Here rival teams compete for the deed to a ruined city called Harmondale. What starts as a race becomes something far more complicated. Mysteries are buried in the rubble, enemies wear friendly faces, and a patron whose last gamble rides entirely on your shoulders. Win the competition and prologue is over. The tutorial finished. The real game begins. **The early game loop will focus heavily on rebuilding a fallen kingdom that will act as a home and HQ** What you do with the Harmondale once it's rebuilt is up to you. Broker unsteady alliances with nations in a land of distrust. Unravel a darkness at the heart of Harmondale that its last lord didn't survive. Choose what direction the story will go next. This is a story-first campaign built around political intrigue, exploration, and decisions that that have butterfly effects. Combat is dangerous and meaningful. Roleplay is expected and great roleplay is rewarded. The world reacts to what you do and remembers what you don't. The world is being built as an open-world sandbox so the adventures could be limitless. We could play forever and forever and forever. But not Forever-ever, I got a wife and kids and a lonely dog. No previous experience necessary. If you can tell me who your character is, what they want, and are eager to walk around in their shoes, I'll help you handle the rest. New and returning players are equally welcome at this table — what matters is showing up wanting to tell a great story. WARNING: (My party members are feral zoo animals disclosure) **This is an adult game full of adult players, humor, and themes, where you are free to indulge in adult beverages and vices.** Let's party as a party and see where the game night takes us. With all that being said, my job is to help you have memorable game nights that you look forward to each week. To foster a table where you are not judged by the contents of your character but by your terrible fucking dice rolls during clutch moments of the game (Salazar!).
Game style
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Realm Building
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(15)
1 year on StartPlaying
87 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Sets the Mood, Creativity
About me
Greetings Earthling. My name is Martin and I've been playing, but mostly GMing, RPGs since I was a teenager. It's been 21 years since I cut my teeth during the first days of D&D 3rd edition. I've branched into other genres and systems since. After college, I created the Youtube Channel "Nerds & Stuff" (link below in socials) and played RPGs with my friends in my basement to a dedicated audience of over 6k subs and a total of 700k+ viewers until I moved away and retired the channel. Now that I'm a dad, my focuses are on close intimate groups of roleplayers, who are looking to have amazing character driven moments come to life. My aims as a Game Master is to create forever memories with you and the characters/stories you create. Our time on this rocketship is limited, so let's make the most of the life we have left on it!
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Each character will start at Level 2! Final decisions on Character Creation will be made during Session 0. Until then, you can message me with character ideas to flesh out some thoughts. We will be using the Players Handbook standard array for Character Ability Scores. Character creation will be limited to the 2024 Players Handbook only. No custom content, no secondary book content. I'm keeping character options simple so we can focus on the story first and the buttons and levers later: No duplicate classes. No secondary D&D supplemental content. No homebrew character content. As this will be a kingdom building/hex-crawl exploration game. Your character will not be well traveled in the lands of Tharus. As a player, you will have a significant hand in developing parts of the world. Your character's journey, however, is just beginning. Backstory choices to help facilitate this naiveté of the world and familiarity with your benefactor, Roland Dawnguard, would be: *Having through misery or misfortune become a slave, which you were purchased at auction to join Roland's newest longshot endeavor. *Grew up in a small village in the middle of nowhere and never traveled much. Roland Dawnguard traveled through your village once and remembered who you were and that you were destined for greatness. *You are from another continent completely and have not traveled to Tharus prior to the game starting. Upon nearing the Untamed Lands of Tharus your ship was boarded by pirates and you were rescued by Captain Dawnguard. I have a spreadsheet world primer that I will send to each player prior to game start to familiarize everyone with the world we're diving into and to possibly assist with character creation inspired by the setting.
My name is Roland Dawnguard. You might not know that name yet. That's fine. You will. I'm not going to waste your time dressing this up. I'm a man who has spent the better part of thirty years making the world marginally less terrible and considerably less profitable for myself. I've fought monsters that don't have names. Buried friends in foreign soil that didn't deserve it. I've spent every coin I ever earned on causes that needed it more than I did. And I have one move left. There is a place called Harmondale. Walled. Ruined. Forgotten by everyone except the people who want it for the wrong reasons. I have a claim to it. Not the strongest one, but my name has been selected for a deadly competition on Emerald Island. What I have instead of the strongest claim is you. I don't need soldiers or saints. I need people who are hungry enough to do what needs doing. Smart enough to know that clean hands don’t always build better worlds. I need people with nothing to lose and everything to gain. But above all, I ask for your trust and loyalty. I will always give it freely in return. Here is what I'm offering. If you're currently in chains — I'm buying your freedom regardless. What I’m asking is that you spend it on something worth bleeding for. If you're standing in a village that was always too small for you, feeling destined for greatness. I once saw something in you worth betting on. I don't make that bet lightly. If you're from faraway lands and a pirate's hull was the first thing Tharus showed you — you're welcome for the rescue. Win this competition with me and I will hand you something no amount of honest work ever could. Land. Title. A seat at a table that matters. You won't just be building a home, you’ll be building your legacy. I’m promising that this will be dangerous and the odds are stacked against us, but if you're still standing when it's over, neither of us will ever be a nobody again. I'll be in Silver City, Capital of the Shimmering Isles. Come find me if you’ve always wanted more and never had the chance to take it. ~ Your friend, Roland Former Captain of the Dawnguard Destroyer Party Composition so far: Level 3 Player Characters Forest Gnome Druid / Aasimar Fighter / Goliath Paladin / Dragonborn Sorcerer / Human Rogue
What to expect
Preparing for the session
We'll be using Discord and Foundry VTT for sure. Maybe Syrinscape. Read at least Chapter 1: Playing the Game in the Players Handbook while we wait to get going. Continue reading the rest of the book at your leisure.
What Martin Baker - Adventure Maker brings to the table
Memories that will last you a lifetime and a playlist of character anthems and session recap songs that you'll be able to listen to forever. Tryhard voices and interesting NPCs Locations have an in-game playlist. I run mapped VTT sessions with tokens, fog of war, and art all with the intent of creating immersion in our shared world. This is a homebrew campaign being built from the ground up with your help...there will be some jank and that's okay. I run Rule of Cool at this table. If it's bold, creative, and makes the story better, we're probably doing it. The rules exist to serve the story. What excites me most about Lords of Harmondale is that the kingdom you build is genuinely yours. The alliances you forge, the enemies you make, the decisions you can't take back. All of it shapes what Harmondale becomes. I'm not here to tell you a story I already wrote. I'm here to find out what story we tell together. This is a phoenix from the ashes campaign. Your characters start with nothing and end up leaving a mark on the world. I'm just the DM. The heroes of the story are entirely up to you. Feel free to obsess over game night, I'll be right there with you! Links to Discord, Foundry (and maybe Syrinscape) will all be provided.
Homebrew rules
Natural 1's cause BIG ouchies. Special Full Round Actions may be available upon request.* New Rules to this Game (inspired by my friend being obsessed with Critical Role) are as follows: Rolling with Emphasis: For pivotal, high-risk actions where there is no middle ground, the player rolls two d20s and keeps the result that is furthest away from 10. This heavily increases the likelihood of spectacular successes or dramatic failures. If both rolls are the same distance away, the player rolls a third to break the tie. Desperate Measures: A D&D combat rule allowing *bloodied* characters to sacrifice safety for power by voluntarily failing 1-3 Death Saving Throws until a Long Rest. Players can use this sacrifice to gain powerful benefits, including rerolling attacks, maximizing damage, or taking additional actions.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Webcam
Headphones
Platforms used
Safety
How Martin Baker - Adventure Maker creates a safe table
We will be using the X card in game. With setting up lines and veils privately, prior to play.
Content warnings
Safety tools used