This thread is for general info on how you should expect the campaign to be run, and how you will fit into it.

Setting:

The campaign world aims for a medieval - early renaissance feel, with fairly low magic. You won't see things like: steam-powered gadgets, magic-powered gadgets, floating cities, ships made from anything but wood, armies fielding monsters, mages destroying whole cities, quests to save the world, etc.

Politically and culturally, I aim for a dark and realistic approach. Expect plots, racism, bigotry, diplomacy, backstabbings, ignorant peasants, uncaring nobles, etc.
Most people rarely travel further than their local markets. However, it's also a diverse setting, with many races and cultures, crafts, universities, churches, institutions and so forth. It's up to you as players just how involved you get in the politics - attempt to climb the ladder, or just get paid to kill things!

Magic is mysterious and not necessarily subject to rules. It is feared by most, and only inhabitants of large cities are likely to have witnessed more than a few cantrips. Mages are powerful, both politically and literally, but few in number and thus still bound by societal constraints.

'Monsters' exist and huge parts of the landmass is wilderness. However, the most common monsters are viewed more as animals. After all, we only call things monsters because they don't exist - if there really were often owlbears in the woods then we'd just think of them as another species of animal.

Ethos:

To get the most out of this campaign you must be willing to interact with the world, not just go on quests. Roleplaying is the key. in return you'll get a lot of freedom - I should be able to provide for you to make your way through the world in almost any fashion as long as it fits with the campaign setting. Also you should expect your characters to have to work hard and at great risk. There is no raise dead in this setting!

It's up to the players whether you form and stay in groups. I will expect at least one group to start with, but over time you can join and leave other groups as your storyline unfolds.

Confict between characters will be permitted to an extent but it's not the idea that you are out to fight each other. Actual physical harm or serious plotting against another character will only be allowed by mutual consent.

I also expect characters to be reasonably well-rounded people. I don't use alignments and you don't have to be 'nice' as such, but I'm not interested in providing for traditionally evil characters. Be flawed or mercenary by all means but you're expected to lean more towards hero than antagonist.

Economy:

Don't expect to see anywhere near as much gold as you would in the RAW. This is a pseudo-medieval world and I like to play up the fact that wealth lies in land and goods more than gold, and payments are often made in kind.

That said, I'm not interested in running a simulation, so prices for mundane items in PHB are standard. I don't care whether it scales up or not - 10GP is a huge amount of money to an average labourer, and it's very unlikely anyone will ever talk in terms of more than a few thousand GPs.

Magic items are rare, so you won't be making many of them, and you won't find them in shops or even generally for sale.

Difficulty/Danger level:

I don't pull punches if you do anything daft. There will be many situations that you will not be able to handle through combat. The world will not scale with you.

This is a fairly gritty setting so expect sentient beings to consider surrender or flight rather than fight to the death - and I expect you to do so yourself unless your character has a death wish!

In the tabletop campaign we already lost several promising characters:

One was killed by a Wyvern - when it attacked she broke from the party to attempt shelter under a tree. It saw the easy target. I think the party took revenge though, and that wyvern skin was probably worth a pretty penny!

One character (who was a returnee having left the group due to conflict IC) was torn apart by a pack of unearthly hounds summoned by some conspirators the party had come across - and failed to convince that they were harmless.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:31, Mon 27 Apr 2009.