The Stars Above Samara: a 5E Tale of Secrecy, Power and Subterfuge

About the adventure

Are you curious to try a DND campaign that's roleplay-heavy, with intriguing political consequences and high stakes? The Stars Above Samara is a campaign where it's up to the players to determine the history of a completely original, immersive and historic world. Welcome to the Republic of Brooke, a young nation of proud hard-workers. The people of Brooke are plenty multifaceted, but as a rule, they are not too keen on troublemakers... Still, in this melting pot of cultures and compatriots, who will be the stirrer? On the final evening of every month, the Counsellors who govern the country meet in the city of Samara to discuss matters under their jurisdiction. On nights such as these, some celebrate, some wait, and some make moves. As a new group band together under the pressures of this chaotic city, what mark will be made on this world as we know it? Come, adventurers. The history of this great nation is ready to be shaped with your own hands. Campaigns within the Republic are run using DND 5e, alongside some fun home-brew variations upon the rules. The balance of combat and roleplay within the game will depend highly on the preferences of the players, but the true fun of this setting is the complex scenarios which extend beyond life or death.

Additional Details

How to prepare

You will need to create characters, but I am more than happy to help with this! Once the game starts, however, you will need to have all of your character information to hand (either physically or digitally). No particular software will be required, but if we are online, I prefer to run sessions with webcams on so that we can get excited and react to things together! Some way to roll dice is also required, but I do not mind if this is physical or digital. Apart from that, just come with your enthusiasm and focus! If you tend to struggle without something to fidget with, I highly encourage you to bring a fidget or stim toy to the session to help you focus and pay attention to the other players.

What I provide

If we play in person, I will bring fidget toys! Unfortunately I do not have enough dice for everybody. If players want to use tarot cards to begin sessions, I will bring these as well.

Gameplay details

Immersion comes before rules in this game - if it feels too jarring or unrealistic, we will bend the rules a little! The first priority is feeling connected to your character and being engrossed in the setting. Depending on if your characters have met before, I might suggest we do individual, or smaller, session zeroes. Either way, I will talk to each player individually before we start playing as a group, so that everybody has a definite chance to voice their preferences and hopes for the campaign. I will ask players to communicate lines ('hard no's) and veils ('preferably not's) to me, so that I can enforce them in a way which keep's everybody's comfort and privacy safe. Still, I slip up too, so we will also be using the X, N, O system (via message!) to let each other know when there is a point of discomfort. To begin a DND session, we will take a moment to ask ourselves how each of our characters is feeling. Depending on player comfort, we might use tarot cards to get insight into how each character is faring in that moment! I find beginning this way helps us both enjoy our story, and separate what happens to our character from what happens to us. To end our sessions, we will debrief by transitioning back to speaking about ourselves rather than our characters, speaking a bit about how we felt as an audience to the story. This also provides a good chance for players to voice their hopes for the direction of the story!

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

Debriefing
Lines and Veils
Session 0
X, N, and O Cards

How will character creation work

Character creation will be a dialogue between myself and players, where players pitch a certain idea (a class or a backstory, for instance) and I reflect back how that might work within the campaign setting. Characters should ideally be created by session zero, although I will understand if some changes need to be made within the first couple of sessions.

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.