MACHINE GODS primer
A decade ago, adventurers in the Land of Aldarnor discovered an ancient Vault created by Hoplon Industries. Within, they discovered a treasure trove of magical lore on the creation of automatons. Today, the Kingdom of Aldarnor is on the leading edge of construct creation. More and more of the semi-sentient machines roam the kingdom as a new kind of labor-force whose members don’t get tired or hungry or willful. Automated war-machines, like iron golems and shield guardians, are gradually inserted in the military. And for the first time on Erdos, a temple to the Modron deity Primus, has been erected. But lately, strange new deadly constructs have emerged in the wilderness. Some of them are ancient battle automata that had been dormant since the Age of the Varn. Others are never before seen dreadful inventions. All of them are hostile, causing havoc on the settlements and trade routes of Aldarnor. Who is behind these constructed horrors? What purpose do these seemingly random attacks serve? Once again, the Lands are imperiled and you must rise to defend them...
FAQ
Why is this in English?
I always write these in English; it comes easier to me.It's ridiculous.
Shut up.What is Machine Gods?
Just the fancy title of the new campaign story arc.Yes, but what is it about?
If I had to use a single sentence to pitch this, I'd say: "think Rise of the Machines meets Dungeons & Dragons." It's obviously a lot more involved than that, but let's not get into spoilers.What sort of campaign will it be?
It will be an epic campaign, by which I mean it will feature an overarching storyline where different adventures will be linked together, with your characters as the protagonists.Cool, so you mostly got the plot all figured out.
Nope. I only got a main villain with an elaborate masterplan(s) to achieve a certain goal. I have no idea how this will play out because I have no idea what you guys will do to mess with that plan. The story of this campaign will emerge from the collective efforts of all of us.OK, I get the story concept, but what about the game itself? Mechanically, what sort of campaign will this be?
First of all, it's an Action Adventure. I want as much roleplay as we can humanly put into it, but beyond that I can say it will feature a hefty amount of combat. It will also feature wilderness exploration/survival, dungeon delving, and an attempt to capture a semi-open world feel. Also--maybe--some outer space exploration as well.When will we play?
Currently, my goal is for us to start late December and no later than early Jannuary. Ideally I'd like to play a session per week. I expect each session to be around 4 hours--or more if you're up to it. As for specific date and time, after each session, I will be employing a polling system within Discord where each will input their available days for next session, and thus decide on the date we'll next play. We will use that system to also decide on when the first session's gonna be.How will we play?
Well, by now you all have your discord accounts and access to the Discord server. That will be the medium from which we will talk. And Fantasy Grounds will be our Virtual Tabletop for the game itself.Why not use Roll20?
It's true that Roll20 is more widespread. That's because it's free to use (at first), and a lot easier to learn. FG has a much steeper learning curve for DMs (not so much for players), but it also offers a hunderfold in terms of features and automations.Wait, are you saying FG is not free? Do we have to pay?
No, I have an Ultimate License. You will be using the Free Demo version. As an Ultimate Licensee, I can host a full game for free accounts.How are we going to learn to use FG?
I'll be teaching you while we play. Basically, you only have to learn how your character sheet works, it's not really complicated.And where can we download it from?
Click here and choose the Free Demo Version. You will also have to create an account.Speaking of creating accounts, do we also need an account for WorldAnvil (this site)?
For those of you that were Fatebreakers, you will recognize WorldAnvil as something similar to the old Obsidian Portal site we used. Like in Obsidian Portal, an account in World Anvil is not necessary, but it is encouraged.What books can we use to create characters?
The Player's Handbook, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. You can also use the rules presented in Tasha's to customize your racial ability score increases.What if I want a class/race that's not in those books?
If it's a race presented in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, I'll consider your request. Otherwise, I'm probably gonna say no. Primarily because I don't think it fits within the Lands, but also because I probably have not bought that particular book as a Fantasy Grounds module.The books exist as modules in Fantasy Grounds?
Yes, you can access them during play from within FG at any time while connected to me. But generally you won't have to, as all elements in your character sheet are hyperlinked to the specific section of the corresponding book.Any class/race suggestions or anything that is banned?
Nothing on the PHB, Xanathar's, and Tasha's is banned. Beyond that, of course, I want you to play whatever makes you happy. Having said that, I do have some class suggestions: I can stronly suggest that one of you play an Artificer (found in Tasha's). The nature of the campaign's storyline has a lot of things an artificer can latch onto for goals, motivations, and overall RP-related interests. So, a lot of RP toys for you (and me) to play with. The fact that the Artificer is a pretty cool and capable class also helps. On the exact same vein, is a player chooses to play a cleric, choosing Primus (described later) as their patron deity would also provide a great many plot elements to use, as the Church of Primus features prominently in the story. Primus also grants access to some of the most powerful cleric domains. Similarly, if someone chooses to play a sorcerer, they might want to check out the Clockwork Soul subclass (again, Tasha's). It's basically a sorcerer who owes his magic to some connection to the plane of Mechanus. There's actually a major NPC that's a clockwork soul sorcerer in the story. I will, however, note, that've I've not looked deeply into its mechanics, so I can't attest to its effectiveness.And what do we need to know about your world?
Well, just read on:Adventurer's Guide to the Lands
The Lands of Erdos Campaign Setting as presented in WorldAnvil is essentially a comprehensive wiki, and as such it features numerous articles exploring various aspects of the world. While every entry can be a vital source of inspiration and an additional step in understanding the intricacies of the setting, not all of it is essential, particularly for character creation. This is where the Adventurer's Guide comes in. This is a curated list of fundamental articles serving as a primer to the Lands. They are your launching point to familiarize yourself with this world, and thus create a new character grounded in the reality of this setting. I've taken an effort to put here as few things as possible, so as to not bog you down with a lot of reading material. I even explain that for some of the articles you only need to skim over them to get the gist of what they say. In the unlikely scenario that you are hungry of more lore however, by all means, feel free to pour over everything on this site. There's nothing here that's off limits.The Guide
This article gives a brief survey of the planet’s geographical regions.Magic of Erdos
The following articles talk about the unique nature of magic in Erdos, the importance of the eldritch quartz known as magicant, and a house-rule regarding spell slots in the Lands of Erdos.The Lore of the Lands
The fundamental lore of the world.In case you're wondering about the various weird dates, here's how the Erdosian calendar works.
'Mechana' = 'magic items'. The word however also means 'magical technology' in general. That's pretty much all the info the above article contains, however, the article also functions as a hub for other entries that describe various types of mechana. You don't have to read those, but take a quick glance to get a good idea of the sort of flavor many magic items, and magical technology in general, give to the world.
A multinational adventurer's guild that all groups (including yours) are members of. Read this to get an understanding on how adventurers function on Erdos.
Races of Erdos
Short descriptions regarding the place in the world of the major races, plus a link to the article describing the stregoni, a race unique to the Lands.Gods of Erdos
A list of gods with short descriptions. Some of these gods also have links to dedicated pages with more detailed info on them. The detailed entries are entirely optional--though if you are a cleric that serves one of these gods, it's practically mandatory to read the deity's detailed article.And that's it!
If you managed to read through all of that, a) I'm super proud of you, and b) thank you! By now you should have a firm grasp on what makes this world tick. Now you can think up ideas on your character.To be Continued In Person... in Discord...
The Lands of Erdos Campaign Setting began with the launch of the 3rd Edition of D&D. Throughout these twenty years in has grown, changed, and evolved. Each new campaign ran, each new edition and revision, each new set of players; all of these added and shifted the formula ever so slightly. So even if you are an old veteran coming home, once again you’ll notice new details, some minor, others major.
Campaign Hall of Fame
(2001-2004 - Brightstones)
(2006-2008 - Spellblades)
(2010 - Edge Walkers)
(2014-2016 - Fatebreakers)
(2018-2019 - Raven Swords)
(2023 - ???)
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