Finding Adventure in a War Between Gods

About the adventure

The First Age is Ending. Things are not as they always were in the realm of Elua. For as long as we can remember, the Gods walked among us in different forms holding court for their followers. It was assumed that since the Gods had always existed, they would always continue to exist, immortal unlike the humans and other mortal creatures they created. Their immortality *was* assumed, until an elf named Celasaer killed Amril, the God in Deepgarden. The great era of peace known as the Golden Run has now ended as Celasaer has announced himself the new God in Deepgarden, claiming he has taken Amril's life and therefore their powers as well. This declaration came as a shock to the Gods of Elua, but the Golden Run has been long, and has given many of the Gods time to nurse petty feuds and delusions of grandeur. Now, new opportunities await them. If a mere mortal could somehow kill a God, then perhaps the other Gods could as well? Such greedy thoughts have led an array of the Old Gods to ally themselves to Celasaer in the hopes of becoming a new and more powerful pantheon through the defeat of their once-family. The clouds of war darken the horizon. Amidst the rising tensions, communities of humans, elves, orcs, dwarves, halflings, and others must decide how to look after themselves. Will they side with the Old Gods in the hopes of protecting and affirming the prosperous Golden Run? Perhaps scorned by Gods in the past, will they take up the sword and imitate Celasaer? Perhaps some of them will find things that even the Gods forgot about as Elua is torn asunder. Most will probably try to hide from the world, but the world has a way of finding everyone. The party will likely be residents of a village or small town outside a larger settlement, but the exact location will depend on the kind of game that the players would like to be involved in. We could have a more combat-heavy game involving dungeon-crawling for relics forgotten by the Gods. There could be a more political game centered directly in the city of Deepgarden as rival factions compete for power in the settlement. We could play a Globe-Trotting adventure as the party is sent by one of the Old Gods on an important quest that will test their mettle and loyalty to each other, or something else entirely!

Additional Details

How to prepare

Players will definitely need a mic, though webcam is not necessary. You can use a webcam if you like; I will be because I find it helps keep people engaged. Players can read the DungeonWorld rules in advance if they would like but it is not required since the system is pretty intuitive, and I will be providing materials. Unless there is a strong preference for something else, we will probably be using Roll20 for the campaign, so no software will need to be installed except for Discord where I will request we have a group so I can be contacted easily outside session times. No need to bring your own dice or a printed character sheet because both will be implemented into Roll20.

What I provide

I will be bringing maps, notes, resources, and reference materials in PDF or image form for all players as needed. I will probably in consultation with the players make some character illustrations using Artbreeder so we have an idea of what they look like unless a player has the ability to design portraits themselves.

Gameplay details

As I said above, the gameplay will mostly be determined by the interests of the crew that sign up, but usually I like to start sessions with a recap of where we are in the story, introduce or reintroduce the major objective of the session, and then end by asking the players questions about what they liked or want to see more of so I can plan accordingly for the next session. If interested, the first session or two could be some collaborative world-building, but not if the players are not interested.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

(none)

How will character creation work

For the main game, we will likely be playing DungeonWorld, so while players can come up with ideas and build a character prior to the game, I usually prefer to players to collaboratively build characters in the first session / session zero. Working together in the session zero makes it easier for me to involve characters in each other's stories and also make sure that no two people are using the same playbook and negotiating if two people *want* the same playbook. One of the reasons I like to do collaborative worldbuilding prior to campaigns is because it gives players a good sense of context for creating their characters, but alternatively I can do most of the worldbuilding and act as a resource for players during character creation.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.