Welcome to the Dragon Marches

The world has ended, and to the last bastion of civilization Drakkenfall, it's at risk of ending again.   Over a thousand years ago, the Cataclysm brought ruin to the realm of mortals. In a single war, in a moment of fatal decision, and in a blink of a mortal's eye, an age of wonders came to an end. Countless innocents died and civilizations untold were destroyed. The face of the world was reshaped, and the gods themselves faded from memory into myth, and myth into legend. The only protection between mortals and the arcane destruction before them were bastions of order and law, the dragons, who shielded the last survivors of the land with both their physical form and magical essence. Through ages of struggle, the people of this land survived, but the world isn't what it was. Those nations that remain linger in the shadows of their ancestors’ wonders. Only slowly have they begun to push back centuries of darkness and rediscover how the world has changed.   The city of Drakkenfall led by the Grand Alliance, a triumverate of surviving cultures who united at the Cataclysm's final battle below the city's border, faces an escalating crisis of it's own. Overpopulation, political tension, and diminishing resources eat away inside of The Greatest City In This Or Any Age's walls. Everything the realm's lords and their ancestors built and cultivated is now on the precipice of collapse. For as long as their citizens can remember, excursions outside of the walls of the city were kept to a minimum and only to the most experienced warriors and survivalists of the citadel. With desperation mounting however, a dire ruling has been enacted by the Alliance for the prosperity of their people.   Adventerers of all backgrounds and skillsets have been harried from across the city districts to lead an excursion into the unknown. An adventurers guild tasked with frontier combat, study of flora and fauna, expansion of the Drakfallian civilization, and outside exploration within the realm unknown. They venture into a land of ruins and fallen societies overtaken by nature and remnants of calamity. They journey into a land built across the bones of fallen titans, one their ancestors would never recognize.   They heed forth into the Dragon Marches.  

Introduction

The Dragon Marches is a heroic fantasy, drop in/drop out campaign set a millennium after a grand arcane cataclysm that reshaped the world into something unknown even to ancestor's past. The adventurers of this land belong to a guild sponsored by the city of Drakenfall's government, the Grand Alliance, and are in charge of exploration, combat, and expansion outside of the walls of the city. Their journey's for the prosperity of the guild and the city will lead them to encounter a new frontier filled with creatures of all kinds. From cultures who survived the desolation of the material realms through sacrifice of ancient dragons, the denizens of the natural world overtaking the land once ruled by mortals, or even creatures whose origins stem from the arcane calamity wrought 1000 years before. You are one of these adventurers.   As a member of the adventurers guild, each session will explore a new aspect of the unknown lands surrounding the city. Sessions will be decided by the Bounty Board, a collection of different quests spanning from exploration into new regions and locations, recovery of artifacts or treasures of the prior age, or excursions into hostile territory to defeat threats to the last bastion of civilization. Parties of adventurers will vary from quest to quest, each one being a member of the adventurer's guild who opts into the session with fellow guildmates when they are available. Player characters adventure for not only their personal reasons but for the betterment of the guild and their city; Both them and their respective players are expected to work collaboratively with all members, even those they may only cross paths with for small instances.  

Setting Expectations

The following expectations are set for the campaign:

• Tone. This will be a heroic fantasy adventure set in a high fantasy setting with a focus on exploration, fellowship, and cooperation with a vast guild of other players (Ex: World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Monster Hunter: World, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Your character should be a hero (or have the potential to swiftly become a hero when faced with a life-or-death situation) and team player. Be prepared to cooperate and collaborate with other members of the guild, immediate and adjacent to your party, in order to succeed.
• Theme. While this style of campaign will not allow much direct focus upon your character's personal backstory, it will explore plotlines directly entwined with your character's actions and discoveries over the course of their adventuring career both in and outside of the city. You should allow the campaign's setting to inspire your character to evolve because of their discoveries, bonds, flaws and conflicts.
• Engagement. This campaign takes place in a setting with a deep, forgotten history waiting to be uncovered and a tense political climate within it's modern era. The outside world is a mystery to everyone inside the walls including your adventurer at the start of their career. You should expect to take notes and take a sincere interest in the unknown lands you will adventure in.
• Scheduling. Using the bounty board, players will decide what quests they would enjoy engaging in as well as the frequency of play. Players are expected to gather other guild members who would be interested in tackling a quest and scheduling a date for the session to take place. A calendar will be available for the DM's schedule and availability, with any day that is free and not already scheduled for DND being an available day to play.
• Tactics & Difficulty. This campaign scales it's difficulty the farther you depart from the city of Drakkenfall. Stronger and deadlier foes await on the fringes of your civilization, and each enemy is playing to win in their encounters with you. Play tactically in the frontiers of this land and know that retreating to return stronger another day is always an option, as death is a possibility for an ignorant or unprepared adventuring party. Consider the consequences of your actions carefully, and avoid taking actions without careful consideration as the political powers and undiscovered enemy factions will react to the guild's actions accordingly.
• Roleplay. This campaign is primarily driven by it's exploration and combat mechanics, however each of these are built upon the comradery and cooperation of other adventurers, powerful figures within the city walls, and interactions with forces outside of the walls. Be prepared to form meaningful relationships with the characters you encounter, and allow yourself to emotionally invest in you and those characters' successes, rivalries, and feuds.
• Rewards. Treasure, magic items, and other material rewards will vary from quest to quest and may not be tailor made for your party's composition. A guarantee of gold for each party member and the guild itself will be guaranteed with the completion of a bounty, and rewards found in the world are welcome to be sold to merchants of the city or deposited into the guild treasury for others to later obtain. A chance for other kinds of abstract rewards will also arise throughout your actions in the form of allies, information, and new story hooks.
• Player Levels. Adventurers will begin their careers at Level 1, and retire at approximately Level 12. Experience points will be gained at the return of an adventuring party from their quest based on difficulty and other modifiers. In addition, further experience can be gained from completing personalized quests dictated by your chosen ancestry, class and background known as Milestones. Because of these factors paired with a varying frequency of play for some players, adventurers will level up at different stages. Characters of different levels will be encouraged to partner for quests amongst their given Tier of Play, but are only allowed to pick from their current tier or higher when deciding quests to pursue.
• Narrative. The campaign begins as an expansive sandbox dictated by one-shot quests decided on the bounty board. However, as mysteries are uncovered and factions are encountered, a questline will become apparent for adventurers to pursue evolving the campaign into a linear structure for said adventurers until it's completion or abandonment. Be prepared to prioritize multiple quests, including many with clear deadlines, but still have ability to communicate with other adventuring parties to both provide aid for quests of higher tier and divide and conquer when many priority adventures develop.

 

Character Creation

The following expectations are set for character creation:

• Creation Options. A variety of new players and those returning to the hobby after an extended time will be participating within the campaign. In order to prevent over choice, provide greater depth to mechanics and lore of established races/ancestries and backgrounds, and an overhaul of how martials and spellcasters work, a total of 10 races, 10 backgrounds, and 5 subclasses per class (with the exception of cleric and wizard) will be Supported. If you desire a character option not included in the list of supported options, consult the DM on your ideas and we will attempt to convert an unsupported option or compromise on an idea that fits your character fantasy.
• Race & ancestry details can be found here or within the Character Creation sidebar tab. A brief list of supported races are found below:
• Dark Elf
• Dragonborn
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Gnome
• Human
• Kobold
• Minotaur
• Orc
• Tiefling
• Class details can be found here or within the Character Creation sidebar tab. A brief list of supported subclasses are found below:
• Barbarian. Path of the Ancestral Guardian, Path of the Berserker, Path of the Wildheart, Path of the Storm Herald, Path of the Zealot
• Bard. College of Eloquence, College of Glamour, College of Lore, College of Swords, College of Valor
• Cleric. Arcana Domain, Death Domain, Grave Domain, Knowledge Domain, Life Domain, Light Domain, Nature Domain, Order Domain, Peace Domain, Tempest Domain, Trickery Domain, War Domain
• Druid. Circle of Dreams, Circle of Spores, Circle of the Land, Circle of the Moon, Circle of Wildfire
• Fighter. Champion, Commander, Echo Knight, Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior
• Paladin. Oath of the Crown, Oath of Devotion, Oath of Glory, Oath of the Ancients, Oath of Vengeance
• Ranger. Beast Master, Fey Wanderer, Gloom Stalker, Horizon Walker, Monster Hunter
• Rogue. Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Phantom, Soulknife, Thief
• Sorcerer. Aberrant Mind, Divine Soul, Draconic Bloodline, Storm Sorcery, Shadow Magic
• Warlock. The Fey, The Fiend, The Great Old One, The Hexblade, The Undead
• Wizard. School of Abjuration, School of Conjuration, School of Divination, School of Enchantment, School of Evocation, School of Illusion, School of Necromancy, School of Transmutation
• Background details can be found here or within the Character Creation sidebar tab. A brief list of supported backgrounds are found below:
• Acolyte
• Artisan
• Charlatan
• Criminal
• Entertainer
• Folk Hero
• Noble
• Sage
• Soldier
• Urchin
• Character Context. Your player character is a new recruit and founding member of the recently-banded Adventurer's Guild in the city of Drakkenfall. Because of this, a bare minimum of character facts are required for your place in the setting. You would have spent the entirety of your life within the walls of the city with very little contact with the outside world. You would have a reason for joining this guild and to seek adventuring as a profession. And finally that you are able to work as a team and be cooperative with guildmates, even with those you aren't acquainted.
• Creation Questions. Because of the requirements within the Character Context section, naturally some questions will arise about your characters background. From what society did they live in and come from in the city? What did they do before adventuring? Where they involved in any of the factions active within the walls? Why did they choose to begin adventuring, let alone join the Guild? All of these will allow you to get a better understanding of your character's place in the Dragon Marches, as well as easily transition those backstory questions into Milestones for your character to complete outside of the walls.

 

Homebrew Rules

The following homebrew rules will be used for the campaign. These are smaller, one-off rules that can be referenced quickly:

• Potions. Potions may be used as a bonus action in place of an action, but you may also drink a potion as an action to receive the maximum healing. You can also feed a potion to someone else using an action, but healing is rolled as normal.
• Switching Weapons. Switching weapons is a free action once per turn.
• Attunement. Attuning to a magical item takes one action, and unattuning takes one minute.
• Initiative. Creatures adjacent in the initiative order take their turns at the same time.
• Flanking. Flanking provides advantage on attack rolls for creatures on the direct opposite of the targeted creature. Some creatures however are immune to the Flanked condition and prevent the benefit from occurring. Creatures with a Passive Perception of 18 or higher are immune to the Flanked condition.
• Reactions. There is no limit on the amount of reactions a character can take per round, but the same reaction cannot be taken more than once.
• Intelligence Proficiencies. You will gain a number of proficiencies equal to your Intelligence modifier to demonstrate how you pick things up quicker than other people. This can be any form of proficiency: weapon, armor, tools, language or skills. This also works the other way, if you have a negative intelligence modifier then you will a lose a number of proficiencies equal to that. (e.g. -1 int loses one proficiency, +4 int gains 4 bonus proficiencies). You can gain or lose proficiencies as your Intelligence changes over the course of the campaign.
• Bloodied and Mortal. If a creature (including Player Characters) is ever below half health they gain the Bloodied condition, and if they are ever below 10 HP they gain the Mortal condition.
• Death Saving Throws. Saving throws can be affected by modifiers like any other saving throw (such as bardic inspiration, paladin auras, or even advantage from an inspiration point). However, failed death saving throws remain failed until your next long rest. This means if you fail a saving throw and are brought back to 1 HP but subsequently downed, you will already have one saving throw failed.
• Round Timing. Each round takes place over the course of 12 seconds, instead of 6.