Welcome to the West Marches

0. Welcome to the World, And to your place in it.

Add the new player to the Discord, if they aren't in already.
Humanity has conquered the Eastern lands, they built tall walls and even taller cities within which they hid from the world's horrors. And it worked, civilised life is safe, but unmovable, stratified, full of rules and laws all designed to keep you where you are - which is exactly where you don't want to be. So if you choose to reject these structures, if you want more than the scraps society gives you, you have but one choice: travel West - into the Marches. Only here in this dangerous land of ferocious monsters, ancient ruins, and old fey-twisted magics may you find your own fortune. Your fate, whether death or glory, is yours to obtain - you poor forsaken adventurers.

1. The Game

Today we are creating characters for a game called Torchbearer, a roleplaying game of desperate adventure heavily inspired by that feel of original, dungeon-delving, 1960's, in a basement Dungeons & Dragons. In it, each of you will take on the role of a poor, inexperienced adventurer, shunned by much of society, your only hope is to go out into the wilderness and try to return with a little more loot, a little more experience, a little more power. To survive, you must carefully manage your food, water and light resources. To excel, you must fight for what you believe in. To prosper, you must fill your bags with loot and treasure.

2. West Marches

We will also be playing Torchbearer in a fairly unique way - as a "West Marches" style of game.

• Open-world hex-crawl.
• You will start in a central hub town called Kewick's Hollow, just past the borders of civilisation. This will be your main source of supplies and rest, and you will return here after each adventure.
• Around you will be a vast wilderness - called the West Marches - full of lost secrets, ruins from past civilisations, and dangerous monsters.
• From the town, you will set out into this wilderness to pursue rumours, to explore, or fulfil the adventuring job you were hired for.
• Whilst the setting overflows with dangers and dungeons to explore, there are also many towns and other opportunities - so you all, as a group, can do pursue pretty much anything as long as you give me enough notice.
• One exception: you cannot return to civilisation... those settled lands back East are not for you. Out here it's hard, and its brutal - but at least it's free.

3. The World

A little bit about the world - Ghal, the Second World. In many ways it's standard, gritty, medieval fantasy - but with a bit of a celtic bent taken from Irish, Scottish and Welsh law.

• Four distinct medieval human kingdoms cover about half the continent, the rest is just wildland - including the West Marches, the area you will be exploring.
• Non-human civilised species exist, but for various reasons are either isolated or extinct. There are a few other peoples that do mix with humans near the wildlands, and you'll find out more about them in character creation.
• Magic exists, both as a wild force of nature and as a controlled art channeled through runes and circination. Magic comes from Annwn, the First World, an alternate dimension which also acts as a kind of before-and-after-life.
• Gods exist and, though obscure, grant power and magics to their mortal devotees. The main faiths either worship the Tuatha De Dennan, celtic humans who became gods upon leaving the world, or they worship the Immortal Lords - former-humans who were powerful enough in life to become avatars of their ideals.

4. The Basics

At this point, send returning adventurers away to start the first two steps of the 'Adventure's Beginning' handout. Tell them to keep note of what they do, as we'll go through it during adventure setup.
The rules of the game are designed to be simple to learn, but hard to master. As we go through character creation I'll explain mechanics as they come up, but first it'll probably help to run through the very basics.
At its core, to do anything you will roll a handful of six-sided dice, the higher your skill or attribute the more dice you have to roll. When you roll, any dice that come up 4-6 are successes, the rest are failures. To succeed, you need to roll an amount of successes equal to the obstacle's difficulty.

Success very simply means you get what you were afterwithout any strings attached.

If you fail, you may or may not get what you want but either way there'll be some kind of twist, complication or cost - like maybe you succeed but are injured in the process.

That's the very basics, but the game will reward you for learning its ins and outs - making your success way more likely. If you're the type of person who likes to master a game, and feel good at it, then there's a lot for you to chew on here.

5. Character Creation

1. Need the Rules - show link in Discord. Dungeoneer's Handbook covers everything character-related. Scholar's guide talks about the core rules and procedures which make up the game. Loremaster's Guide is full of extra rules for both players and the GM.
2. To start, turn to page 25 of the Dungeoneer's Handbook and we will begin creation.
3. Choose your class: Direct to webpage. Class defines your general role in the party and the unique skills and priorities you bring to the table. Humans make up the vast majority of the setting's population and have access to the widest range of classes. Do you want to play one of the non-human classes?
   Then let them have at it - can start by choosing your class or by choosing your stock whatever you like.
   - Actions: Choose class (and stock if needed). Note abilities, skills, level 1 description and traits (traits start at level 1).
   - Once chosen: Describe: a. Health & Will, b. Skills, c. Advancement, d. Traits, e. Weapons & Armor.
4. Human Upbringing: Different human cultures: see human stock page - can choose your human culture now if didn't choose during class creation
   - Actions: Choose kingdom culture (if not already chosen as part of class), choose skill (see p29 DHB).
5. Where is your Home?: See Choose your Hometown article - choose whether from wilds or civilisation, and see the list. Discuss with GM specific hometown. define culture further if needed for flavour or for alt-Hometown trait..
   - Actions: Choose one skill at level 2 (or inc to level 4), and one trait at level 1. OPTIONAL: Define specific culture with GM's help and the world map - can replace hometown trait with specific cultural trait if desired.
6. What are your social graces?: see p30 DHB
7. What's your Specialty?: See p31 DHB
8. How are your Wise?: Explain wises (aid, post-roll rerolls). Humans use wises on p31 DHB, for other stocks see their article.
9. Nature: Nature is a very important stat that can really work hard for you if you let it: you can roll it in place of any skill you don't have, its value determines the ease of certain tasks, and by spending certain points we'll talk about later you can add ALL your Nature dice to your roll - which can really boost your chances of success.
   - Your starting Nature score is determined by your answer to a series of questions on your stock's article page, which we'll go through now...
   As you play your Nature score may change, either by Advancement or by using it outside of your three Nature descriptors - which are based on your stock and culture. Basically though you don't ever want to let it get too high or too low. If it gets all the way up to 7, you become too much like 'normal people' to want to adventure, and you go become a farmer or an innkeeper or something. Similarly, if it gets all the way down to 0, you're too weird to even adventure anymore - you want to go live in the woods and become a badger and open a tea shop. Either way, your character retires.
10. Circles & Relationships: Circles is a unique stat, it lets you find people that you know or find new contacts that can help you. You roll it like a skill, and if you succeed you find the person you're looking for, if you fail then maybe they're not available or maybe you find an enemy instead.
    Relationships are basically pre-rolled Circles, people you already know and who you can go to for help or trouble. Go through questions on p36 of DHB...
11. Choose Adventuring Gear: Resources at 0, you wouldn't be here if you had money. Explain the inventory system. See p38 DHB for steps: Fill Satchel/Backpack, Fill Pouch/Wineskin, Weapon & Armour (as per class description), Spell books & Relics (p42 DHB theurges & p12 LMM shamans)
12. So Here we Are: Long section, just go through it from Belief, Creed, Goal and Instinct. p43 DHB.
    For Beliefs etc, do this now but advise all this must change in the first session - so, pretend your character is travelling to Kewick's Hollow to start their life as an adventurer, what Belief, Instinct and Goal might they have?
13. Discord Bonus: Final step, find a character picture and post it into the Discord along with a brief description of your character. Doing so awards you a single Fate point - which lets you reroll die and learn from other adventurers, and a single Persona Point - which can give you bonus die and even save your life. See the 'Fate: Earning & Spending' handout on roll20.

6. Setup & Choose your Adventure

Kewick's Hollow, the last bastion of civilisation and the one town in all the land where adventurers are somewhat welcome. Elsewhere, you are all but shunned - normal people do not like adventurers. They're weird, they're dangerous, they smell sometimes, and they always bring trouble. The Hollow though welcomes you and the coin you bring. Your journeys may take you far, but the Hollow will always be here.
1. You all meet in Redspear Tavern, a bright little watering hole with large windows on its outer walls looking towards the town's Western gates. Adventurers are no stranger to this place, and the barkeep, an ex-adventurer himself called Mr Epnys, eyes you knowingly as you all settle at your table. He waves a large hand and an apron-wearing kobold quickly scurries over - what do each of you order? (Complete Step 1: Assemble for returning adventurers, if they haven't done it already).
2. Your orders arrive, and drinks in hand the party reflects on how they have been occupying themselves recently. For new arrivals, this is a chance to introduce themselves (see p43 DHB). For returning adventurers, action Step 2: Catch Up if not already done. If already done, returning adventurers introduce themselves and share their experience so far.
3. Head to step three of the Adventurer's Beginning handout on roll20, and with both new and returning adventurers aligned proceed from there. Welcome to the West Marches.