New Campaign Session 0 - Lore, Characters, and House Rules

In which I cover the first session of my new Shadowdark campaign, including stuff about the world, the characters, and the house rules that I'll be using!
Music from three great video games (DOS:2, TLoZ:ALBW, and TLoZ:TP).

[@ElShowDeJason]

We really want it. Give it to us. (Ok, actually what I really like is seeing the process of prepping. Just like Sly Flourish’s Shadowdark campaign prep videos) Picking maps Populating them. Etc

[@RedMageGM]

I'll focus on the prep, for sure!

[@Loweves2]

Seeing other folks prep is always helpful

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

Yes, please, video about the underclock

[@kajsjostrand8732]

wow i really love the idea of "roles" as part of a session 0! thats a great way to help players get involved with the world from the get go - for sure gonna try that in my next campaign!

[@RedMageGM]

I think for a really lethal campaign where players are gonna be making new characters frequently, especially early on, I wouldn't do it. But for anything else, it's been super fun for our games!

[@gommechops]

Ah I still need to finish watching the Strahdodark series you did, superb viewing that was. Looking forward to this.

[@n4tune8]

Of course we are interested!

[@RedMageGM]

Thank you! :)

[@n4tune8]

Could your players decide to join forces with the "dragon rider wannabe" against the caliphate? Is that something that you would be prepared for? Cause we all know that's what Amos would do...

[@RedMageGM]

Totally! I only try to plan a session or two ahead. So if that sorta thing started to happen, I'd be down. :)

[@paradeduck]

I've never been a fan of live play or summary videos. This video may have changed my mind. At the very least, I'll be checking out those Strahd videos as soonn as this wraps up. Would love to listen to more of this campaign!

[@RedMageGM]

Wow - thank you! That's great to hear!

[@Tunoc]

Ooh Redmage's homebrew campaign?!? Yes please!! After your CoS prep, I'm down.

[@RedMageGM]

Glad you're on board!!

[@harmonicaman79]

Legend of Zelda bgm!

[@Grel1963]

Good video. I like the world you made, hearing more about it would be cool. I have never heard of the Underclock, but I am 100% gonna try it out in my game.

[@RedMageGM]

I highly recommend it - it's been a game-changer, literally! :D

[@KevinMcMahan-ic3qk]

I love the Three-In-Six gods I might steal that for my campaign!

[@RedMageGM]

Steal away! I steal most things. :D

[@BakaPope]

I am shamelessly stealing the underclock.

[@RedMageGM]

That's how I felt!

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

Great. More!

[@gonzalotrasancos]

sounds like a great campaign!

[@RedMageGM]

Thank you!

[@PhilC_PhD]

I am not sure all GMs go this in depth to a homebrew world. I wish I had the history knowledge you do, but I am constantly working on my homebrew world for the games I run. I just run everything if I am running a fantasy rpg in that world. This can be west marches style games at events or when people ask me to run a game here and there or for the couple campaigns I run. Do you ever feel a bit of imposter syndrome when you realize something you write for your homebrew world history was super inspired by something else to the point it seems to similar? For me I recently realized one faction (I have no BBEGs, the players decide who the BBEG is to them) that has its orc forces wear black iron breastplate with a white devouring eye symbol. Now you can probably see the inspiration from Lord of the Rings. Now the orcs are slaves to giant kin and the giant kin pleadged their fealty to this faction so its a bit off but close. TLDR Version: As a fellow GM, Do you ever feel a bit of imposter syndrome when you realize something you write for your homebrew world history was super inspired by something else to the point it seems too similar? Thanks for the great videos!

[@RedMageGM]

Hm...I'm not sure imposter syndrome is how I would put it. I do try to avoid 1:1 correspondences in my world from inspirations or other sources, but sometimes it definitely sneaks in. I'd say that when that happens, I usually don't mind. I'll consider it an "homage", and if the players know the source they'll chuckle for a moment before buying in. And usually, in practice, things are different enough that even direct 1:1 things don't end up the same way. But at the end of the day, even if you do have something taken directly from something else, the players haven't "interacted" with it before. Like, the players may have read about (or watched) the orcs of the White Hand in LotR, but they've never fought them! It's like the typical fantasy tropes - players have read about and seen the "last scion of the fallen noble house" trope a million times...but they've never *been* the last scion of a fallen noble house! It's fine to draw from inspirations directly because we're not writing a novel or a short story - we're playing! That's how I think about it, anyway. :)

[@bigbiggoblin2873]

Very cool! So the players are aware of the underclock die? (As opposed to behind the gm screen). If so, that is an interesting meta mechanic for tension.

[@RedMageGM]

I have them roll the countdown, yeah. Although I don't show them what it's at, so although most of the time they know, occasionally they'll get lost and forget what it's at.

[@bobader794]

I too am very interested in you making a series out of this! Are you using hexographer for your maps here or something else?

[@RedMageGM]

I'm using the full version of Worldographer, which is sort of the updated version of hexographer.

[@bobader794]

Thanks!

[@andrewgibson4189]

I’m not only interested im inspired!

[@RedMageGM]

That's so great to hear!!

[@andrewgibson4189]

Hearing you create this from Al-Andalus/Iberia is so cool. I’ve wanted to do something similar using the Wolves on the Coast engine but either for China in the 3 kingdoms or for Iran/Byzantines during either the Rashidun caliphate or Mongol invasions

[@RedMageGM]

Dude - you should totally do that! The Three Kingdoms period is so perfect for a big epic campaign! I honestly can't believe that someone hasn't done something like that already!

[@matthewmadden8943]

I'm interested. Please tell me more 😀

[@RedMageGM]

Awesome!! I'm glad it struck a chord!

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

I am about halfway into the video. I am used to your videos being reviews and such like, so to me this feels like a departure from the norm. That's not necessarily a bad thing--merely an observation. I have a question or two, which i will put in a different comment (so you don't have to read the whole thing if it is long and tedious. Lol). I like the basis for your setting, and it seems to me your choices simultaneously lean into some standard frp tropes (recent history = conquerors v conquered, built on top of old empire, built on top of ancient empire, elves immortal and mostly gone, etc) while avoiding some of the more Tolkien-esque tropes (singular evil/dark lord,etc). The way you have positioned various elements seems to me you are going for a gritty environment with alot of "realism", as opposed to high--or epic--fantasy, OR whimsy/gonzo. Very promising: you have my attention. 😊

[@RedMageGM]

Thanks man! Yeah, I've said in other videos that I'm a sucker for vanilla or "tropey" fantasy, so I definitely wanted to include the more standard issue things, but I do tend to enjoy either realism or romance (in the Arthurian sense) in my fantasy, rather than the sort of high-fantasy that we see from a lot of mainstream fantasy these days.

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

Amos was a compelling character, especially in the books. I'm curious if you watched the Expanse show or read the books? Or both...?

[@RedMageGM]

I've only ever seen the show. The books are on my list of books to read...but it's a rather long list. :D

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

Now, a question: your "roles" idea really made me sit up and listen. I'm not through that section of the video yet (and I'm on my phone so i can't read the text when i zoom in...). Are the roles "merely" role play guides, or are there "mechanical" elements to them? (i.e. does each role give plusses/minuses, boons/banes, to attributes, skills, powers, etc?). Is this something that you are cribbing from the Shadowdark rules? I don't have Shadowdark: if i had Shadowdark would that answer my question?

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

A subset question: you are saying that the "healer role" character is a ranger. Fascinating. This directly goes against the grain of standard fantasy rp tropes: i.e. the healer is "always" a cleric, etc. So, are the "roles" more a reflection of the "character of the character", as separate from the character's class related capabilities? Or is it a story based thing, as in: you seem to be referencing Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces ideas, such as in the original Star Wars story (retconned by the creator to be Episode 4, 5, 6. I dont have an eye roll emoji) how Obi Wan is the wise guide, and Luke is the young whippersnapper with alot to learn, Han is the rogue with ambiguous loyalties, etc. Methinks you must do a video specifically about this "roles" notion, what it's for, and how to use it.

[@RedMageGM]

For the "roles" thing, they're not mechanical in any way. Backgrounds in Shadowdark give advantages on particular kinds of checks, and I didn't want to double-up on those. The players all picked backgrounds, roles, ancestries (or races), and classes. The backgrounds are like "genre-hooks", or archetypes for the players to use when approaching character generation. I didn't have anything further than what I wrote in each one, so the players were totally free to take them however they wanted. For example, my "black-sheep" character said his family were actually just wealthy merchants who were benefitting from the status quo. I had originally thought of that as like noble-family or something, but he took that and went a different direction with it, and that's awesome! No, these aren't in Shadowdark. Various home-groups I've run have tried different session 0 "hacks" to help party cohesion and narratively-consonant character creation, and this is the closest I've come to achieving those ends without stepping on player creativity.

[@RedMageGM]

Yeah, definitely more archetypes than "party function" aka healer, dps, etc. I might make a video just on them! That would be cool!

[@mikehallaron]

Interested? You betcha. Bring it @RedMageGM 👍🏼

[@RedMageGM]

Awesome!!

[@harmonicaman79]

Could you speak more exactly why you are dropping the real time light rule?

[@RedMageGM]

I just find the disconnect between real-time and in-world time to be a strange line. I also find adjudicating multiple light sources a little strange. Basically, I'm happy with the standard "torches burn for an hour" and don't see that the benefits of the real-time rules outweigh the trouble of changing. Basically I'm lazy. :D

[@ekurisona663]

redmage what word processing software is that you're using in the video? thx

[@RedMageGM]

It's just Word - I use dark mode though.

[@ekurisona663]

@@RedMageGM ty

[@kreegan]

I would have loved to watch this, but the music made it hard for me to hear

[@RedMageGM]

Sorry it was distracting!

[@christianmerz2232]

How does flesh and grit work?

[@RedMageGM]

So I basically just lifted it from Into the Odd. HP is considered "grit" - it goes down like normal and is completely restored on a rest. However, when it goes to 0 any additional damage taken comes out of the CON score directly, the "flesh". This only is restored at 1 point per rest. So if you're at 8 HP and you have 10 CON, and you take a massive hit of 15 damage, you lose all 8 hp, are at 0 HP and your CON goes down to 3. At that point, I have the player make a "shock" test - a Hard (DC 15) CON check. If they pass, then they stay awake and can still act as normal, getting 1 HP. If they fail, then they go unconscious, and at the start of each of their turns they lose 1 CON until stabilized. Characters die at 0 CON. I really like it because it makes characters more resilient at 1st level (and honestly at higher levels too) but adds in a long-term cost to continuing to adventure without down time. If you keep taking damage, and your CON gets lower and lower, even if you take a rest and heal your HP up to full, then you're still really close to death. I had a player in my Strahd Campaign who had 1 CON left, and like 12 HP. So yeah, technically he was at full HP but he was also super wounded and had to be really careful of that last CON point. It presents the players with great decisions, I find.

[@christianmerz2232]

@@RedMageGM thank you, this is very helpful. This is how into the ODD works out is this a modification?

[@RedMageGM]

It's kinda a blend, but this is the main idea yeah.

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

Ok. Interesting! So your medievalism PRECEDES your imperial togas? Ever heard of Harn? If so, think Tharda. If not, I'm so sorry for you... Lol

[@RedMageGM]

I've definitely head of Harn, but I've never actually seen the books or read through them at all. I have the world-map in my "inspiring maps" folder, but that's about it! :D