Forbidden Lands (Newcomer Friendly, PC focus, Fully Custom)
Did you hear the story of the Forbidden Lands? Once, it was called the Ravenland, our promised land. These days the land is cursed...
$20.00
/ Session
Details
2 players following this game
Weekly / Tuesday - 6:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3.5–4.5 hours
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
Welcome to Ravenland, a place like no other. Long ago this place was supposed to save the humanity from certain doom. At at first, it truly did seem like it was the promised land... But tensions turned to wars. Magic turned to curse. And those who promised to be saviours, led men to doom. Finally, like a crimson plague, the red mist blanketed the land. For years, it prevented all travel, trade and exploration. Maps crumbled, and so did cities. But something changed... the mist is gone, and with it the world is starting to heal. You will surely be the ones who will save these lands... lest you lead it to oblivion. This campaign is a little different than most pitches here, as Forbidden Lands is perhaps the most sandbox there ever was. There is no prewritten tale; no predetermined fate; and no preset conclusion or victory. What there is, is a vast and expansive world, meant for you to explore. As such, there is no good way to pitch the promise or premise of the game: We will simply need to come up with one! You may be daring explorers and cartographers, set out from one of the few remaining settlements with the goal of charting new maps. You will trek through roads long forgotten, visit towns that fell to ruin and re-establish contact with those that remain. You may be diplomats, movers and shakers, set out to establish new factions, broker deals, trade agreements, in hopes of breathing life back into the Ravenland. You may be daring adventurers, with no set goal, out there for riches, glory and history. Or... you may be saviours, tasked with finding and establishing a new home for your people. What type of game this is: Simulationist Creative Agenda Player-Led Objective Drive GM-Referee PC-Agnostic Worldbuilding PC-Reflective Prep Character-Based Objective of Play Restricted Player Narrative Authority Freeform Play Structure In short: I referee a consistent world, you decide what to do in it, and I don't hand you a plot.
Game style
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Theater of the Mind
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(11)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
22 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Inclusive, Visual Aid
Average response time: 8 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
I've been playing tabletop RPGs for over 10 years and running games for most of that time. It started as weekend sessions with randoms and friends online and turned into something I take seriously as a craft. My background is in narrative and character-driven games. I've run extended campaigns in Dragon Age, Pathfinder, and systems like Blades in the Dark and Chronicles of Darkness. I've spent a lot of time with both rules-light systems that prioritize fiction over procedure and something as gritty as Imperium Maledictum. I'm also a homebrewer at heart; I've built original campaign settings from scratch, including a Ukrainian folklore-inspired world with its own calendar, magic traditions, and regional cultures. When I invest in a setting, I tend go deep. As a GM, what I care about most is the point where strong worldbuilding meets the people at the table: both the players and the characters. The world should feel real and specific, and your character should feel like they genuinely belong to it, or are genuinely at odds with it. I do my homework on lore, I take backstories seriously, and I do my best to build toward moments that are particular to the people at the table, not just the plot. I read theory: story theory, and TTRPG theory specifically; I'm writing a book on the latter. Practically, that means I don't build plots and hand them to you. I build people and places with their own momentum, and the shape of the campaign comes out of what happens when you're in the room with them. It also means I'll tell you plainly how a game is meant to work before we start, instead of leaving you to guess at the procedure.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We will be following the standard character creation rules, however: Before the campaign start, we will discuss what story are we trying to tell here. Once that is established, you will receive a small collection of gear to start you on that path. It is important to note that this is not a "combat" game: there absolutely will be challenges that require you to fight, but there is much deeper focus on exploration, traversal and roleplay.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Please make sure that you have: • Discord Account • A computer or a laptop (Foundry is pretty demanding. Tablets and phones just do not work well with it.) • Decent Microphone • Quiet environment (It's cool if you have some background noise, but I doubt that calling from a construction site would be appreciated) • Stable internet connection • Some means of taking notes (notebook, Google Docs, etc.)
What Aaron Nayd brings to the table
You will be granted access to all necessary content to make your character; including necessary files, rules texts and setting info. ‣ I will be using Foundry for: ⁃ Maps ⁃ Music/Ambiance ⁃ Tokens/Creature Art ⁃ Character Sheets and Dice rolling
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Webcam
Platforms used
Safety
How Aaron Nayd creates a safe table
Forbidden Lands are a bit of a grimdark setting. Not so comically overbearing as Warhammer, but this is certainly not a pleasant place to be. Decades of isolation, societal collapse and brutality of the land and its denizens, have made those that survived quite... depraved. To reflect that, I have outlined all the appropriate content warnings that may be included in the game by default. Lines, Veils and safety measures will be discussed during session 0. In game XNO cards are used. Postgame we have check-ins.
Content warnings
Safety tools used