Symbaroum: The Throne of Thorns
A dark cult threatens Thistle Hold and the relative peace of Ambria. Factions form and react. Whose side are you on?
TYPE
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$20.00
/ Session
Details
2 players following this game
Bi-weekly / Thursday - 11:00 PM UTC
Oct 29 / Session 11
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
4 / 5 Seats Filled
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Schedule
Meet your party members
4/5
About the adventure
Welcome to the exciting dark fantasy world of Symbaroum! This group has met for ten sessions, completing the following published adventures: "The Promised Land," "Blight Night," "The Mark of the Beast," and "Tomb of Dying Dreams." We are going to play through "The Curse of the River Goddess" next before moving onto the game's published adventure path: The Throne of Thorns campaign. The first of six long adventures is Wrath of the Warden, which takes place primarily in Thistle Hold and Davokar. We play biweekly - weekly when possible and when that's desirable. Session length is usually around 4 hours, though 3 is the scheduled minimum, and we have had a couple of 5 hour sessions. We currently have four players and the GM. New players to the campaign get to play their first session for free. Sign up, and I will modify your first session to $0. If it's not a good fit for you or the group, no hard feelings.
Game style
Theater of the Mind
Rules as Written (RaW)
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
4.9
(8)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
9 games hosted
Highly rated for: Beginner Friendly, Knows the Rules, Storytelling
Average response time: 21 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
My name is Michael, and I've been playing and running tabletop role playing games since the 90s when I was a young teen. My first character was a paladin in AD&D 2e. I was hooked. I became a FASA fanboy; Battletech, Shadowrun, and Earthdawn became my favorites. I attended a few conventions as a teenager and learned to appreciate all kinds of RPGs: GURPS, Rifts, Cthulhu, etc. When D&D 3.X hit, I ran a ton of that for my friend group. But then I moved away, went to school, began a career in teaching, and started a family. I took a long break from gaming not thinking I'd return. But 2020 was a wild year for everyone, and I got right back into gaming. I started a local in-person group then, and we still play weekly more often than not. We have a good problem: we have too many GMs. Since I don't get to GM as much as I would like, and my kids are at that age where they spend less time with dad and more time with friends, I started a second group online using Discord and theatre of the mind. I ran one consistent Shadowrun campaign for a year and a half, running published adventures more than biweekly. This was unaffiliated with StartPlaying, which I had not heard of at the time. I have a bucket list of systems, settings, and scenarios I've always wanted to run but haven't had the opportunity to do so in person. I am looking forward to running them for you, so let's StartPlaying. The link to my YouTube page below has videos of this profile as an audio tour, my GM expectations, and current campaign log.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
You can create a character prior to play or pick up a premade one. We will start you off with the party's average XP to build your character. We will use the core rule book. We also use the boons & banes, abilities, and equipment from the Advanced Player's Guide - just not the APG's additional races. We mostly play rules as written. A concise background of one paragraph, or even a potent sentence, is superior to a multi-page backstory. That works better in "playing to find out" and also allows your character to make connections to the published setting and adventures as we encounter them. It's beginner friendly too. Please prioritize playing a character that works well in a group and is flexible enough to connect to published adventures.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Basic Requirements: Computer, Internet, Microphone/Headset, Discord, and StartPlaying login. If you're new to tabletop role playing games, Symbaroum, or Discord, you may benefit from learning about them on YouTube. A paper copy of the character sheet and a scan/picture of the completed version would be great. A digital version PDF or screenshot would work as well.
What Michael brings to the table
We are initially sticking with rules as written with a fiction first priority. We have opted for the XP and Corruption for reroll rules in the GM section of the core book. We use theater of the mind. Play is done through voicechat and dicebot over my Discord server. Relevant files are stored there or in the shared GoogleDrive folder for the campaign. The assumption is the player group is united and PVP is currently not allowed. That would only ever change with universal player agreement over the development of a campaign.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Michael creates a safe table
Symbaroum is firmly in the dark fantasy genre. It has elements of violence, supernatural horror, moral ambiguity, and some dark themes. Consider it like a rated R movie or TV-MA show. It is often compared to A Game of Thrones meets Princess Mononoke. If those media examples make you uncomfortable, please choose a different campaign to join. If there are immediate issues, players are encouraged to address it before, during, and or after the session. We talk things out. There's usually a 5-10 minute biobreak some time midsession. Any player can request it. I always end the session with a short debrief including stars and wishes.
Content warnings
Safety tools used