conversations: human
conversations:  Campaign Setting 
   The world is new, the old world destroyed by the Great Dragon, but this world, with these five isles like an emerald necklace drifting forever in the endless, sparkling waves, is new.  Of course, nobody remembers the old world, the stories and traditions handed down for generations are just tattered strings hanging from a dream of something rumored to be much more grand than this hard, new life on the Isle of Man.  Everybody knows the stories though, the destruction and terror, the death of Kings, and the salvation of the great elven wizard Mellanin and his stepping circles, where our ancestors came through from smoke and shadow into this bright, new future, carrying only what they could on their backs to build a life anew.  Maybe some of the eldest elves still know, those with more years than books in the Learning Halls of Freeton, but the elders rarely if ever step foot on this, the most distant Isle of the Ring from their own home of the Isle of Roanoke, hidden away across the shimmering waters of the vast Shining Sea.
  
  The Isle of Man.  Humanity's cradle.  A long, curving stretch of land, towering cliffs facing the Shining Sea to the west, rolling hills giving way to deep forests and fertile fields as the island slips away into the Endless Sea to the east.  Men of three nations were saved, and placed here, some twenty generations ago as men count such things.  The high men of Tarn found purchase in the cliffs to the northwest, and built their homes as they tamed the very mountainsides.  The industrious Yeomen cleared the great forests and established Freeton in the northeast, the first city and the only true port of the Isle of Man, from which the lifeblood of the tribes ebbs and flows as the other nations come to trade and handle.  And of course, far to the south the Skalding, likely the hardest men to have ever walked the old world, except the Skalding rarely if ever walked anywhere, holding instead a deep and intimate tradition with the sea.
  
  Other races were to be found as well, but for the most part kept to their own isles.  This was, after all, the Isle of Man.  Nonetheless, trade and necessity found those willing to wander, and the elves in particular had a long and steady hand in the establishment and peace of Freeton.  Likewise, the dwarves had emissaries with the Tarnish, and could be found at the Castle of Salt, perched so high above the Shining Sea at the northernmost edge of the island.  The Deepwood, it was rumored, held villages of half-elf castoffs, prefering the quiet secrecy of the forest to the bustle, stares, and scorn of the city of Freeton.  And the gnomes?  Well.. nobody had seen a gnome in generations.
  
  Life was good, but hard.  The land was fertile and the crops prospered, but it required toil and pain, and dark things lurked in the forests, always hungry for a bite.  For many years, the three tribes of men had traded with one another and with the other races in Freeton, and known peace.  People were too busy building farms, to pick up arms against their neighbors.  But in recent years, trade had stalled, and simple things like good iron were hard to come by.  The presence of the wiser elves diminished, and people bickered and squabbled, fighting was even rumored to have broken out in places.   Life itself became ever more taxing.  The people grew restless, and weary, and would have cried out to their Gods, but the old gods were dead in the old world, and the only thing the people worshipped in WorldSea was the sky and the sun, the wind and the endless waters, and the very earth upon which they rested their lives.  And so it is we begin our story, as you make your way in the growing troubles of the Isle of Man, will you find peace and prosperity, or will you forge your fortune in the blood of war? 
   Character Creation and Setting Mechanics 
  
  Sources: PHB.  Unearthed Arcana by DM permission only.  Online homebrew sources are very unlikely to be accepted.
   http://5e.d20srd.org/index.htm   for an online reference, though it is missing the copyrighted things like feats.
  
  27 point buy, start at lvl 1
  
  You MUST come up with a backstory, I can help if you need and will likely work to adapt yours as needed regardless.  If you want to play elven or dwarven characters, you need a good backstory as both races are rare on the Isle of Man and will come with additional RP considerations which will be revealed to you after the character is approved.  Backgrounds in the PHB are only examples, feel free to come up with your own background following the rules (2 skills or tools, etc) depending on your characters' backstory.
  
  Races allowed : Human (including variant), Elven, Dwarven, Half-elven.  More will open up as the campaign is explored, but half-orcs do not exist in this setting, so don't even ask.
  
  Every character gets a free feat at lvl 1, including variant humans.  Lucky is banned.  Martial feats require your character has both experience and equipment as prerequisites, thus Heavy Armor Master is unavailable at lvl 1.  Sharpshooter is -5/+6 to keep it in line with Great Weapon Master.  Both of these feats only apply their bonus to the first main attack.  Crossbow Expert is no longer able to break the laws of common sense physics (rapid firing with no free hand to reload, etc), and for that matter, crossbows are very rare on the Isle of Man, as are all high-end martial items.  Ask me if you have any questions, I know this is a brief introduction.
  
  Magic users will find that there is a very important factor regarding casting which will be revealed to those characters only as the campaign develops.  It is by far, primarily an RP factor, but I would be lying if I said it had zero mechanical importance.  Don't worry, Im not secretly gimping your characters, so feel free to go with a caster, just be aware that magic is of significance in this world.  Magic is also rare to some degree, especially on the Isle of Man, so don't expect to walk into Freeton and buy a bunch of magic items, or to wander into an isolated village and hire the services of the local cleric.
  
  The Isle of Man itself is split into 4 areas (I'll get a map out at some point).  It is a long, slightly curved island with its back to the west, which is a long ridge of high cliffs and mountainous area, that give way to hills.  The northern part of the island is thick, with the eastern side being the domain of the Yeomen and the western side belonging to the Tarnish.  The weather is temperate and warm.  The southern part of the isle gets thinner and thinner, the soil becomes rockier, and the weather gets much colder.  This is the land of the Skalding.  The central part of the island is made up of foothills and the Deepwood.  Here be dragons.  Life is medieval and feudal, with the exception that with the death of the old world, all men are freemen. The economy is mostly barter with the exception of the major settlements, and iron is both in low supply and of vast importance.  Coinage on the Isle of Man is in Iron Marks.  Gold is unheard of as a measure of currency.
  
  Tarnish: Goat-herders who terrace the steep hillsides and build their homes from stone.  Their villages are natural fortresses, and they grow grapes and millet in the rocky soil.   They are hard men who cut a hard bargain, and they sit on one of the most important economic resources on the Isle of Man: a large salt mine, upon which they have built the Castle of Salt, which is the largest stone structure and the only true castle on the Island.  Tarnish characters add Intimidation and Athletics to their choice of skills.
  
  Yeomen: Farmers and forresters from a great nation of the old world, they run the port city of Freeton in the northeast, at the mouth of the Sweetwater River.  Yeomen are established tradesmen, and they produce a vast amount of food in their fertile farmlands.   Yeomen add Handle Animal and Persuasion to their choice of skills.
  
  Skalding: A hard people who tend sheep and raise no crops but the wild grasses of their homelands, they live in and on the Sea and have a deep kinship with the weather and the water.  Skalding fishermen and traders make up the backbone of the sea-going fleets of the Five Isles, an advantage which they press with great force.  Skalding add Vehicles(water) and Deception to their choice of skills.
conversations: Caesar:
conversations: human
conversations:  Campaign Style 
  
  As mentioned from the start, this campaign will be strongly story driven.  Obviously there is going to be some table-talk and BSing, but I hope people will be able to focus in and play seriously, as well, as I will put a lot of my free time into creating an interesting world for you to play in.  Put some good thought into your characters, and especially your characters' actions, as your choices will most certainly matter.  Ultimately though, I want us all to have fun.
  
  The world itself is multi-layered and much bigger and complex than the Isle of Man.  You will discover this complexity as you grow and explore.  The interactions that occur because of this will be key to a fun experience and a good story, and for this reason, not everything will be obvious at first, nor will it necessarily be revealed to all of you at the same time, if at all.  If you are given access to information in private,  DO NOT SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH OTHER PLAYERS WITHOUT A GOOD IN-GAME REASON .  In a similar vein, try to avoid meta-gaming as much as possible.
  
  Combat will be reasonably common depending on your decisions, tactics and choices involving your character builds will be important, but this will not be a straight-up hack-n-slash dungeon crawl.  If you are looking for that, now's your chance to bow out and play Diablo instead.  Combat will however be deadly, in-so-far that monsters or opponents have both a good reason and a good opportunity to kill you, they will not hesitate to do so.  Plot armor will only protect you so far, and if you insist on making really poor decisions (you will be given plenty of in-game warnings in most cases), you will have to accept the consequences.
  
  The early setting is rough.  Resources are in low supply and magic is not easily accessible.  As you explore the world, both on the Isle of Man, and perhaps if you can manage to see the rest of the Five Isles, you will find it is not always this way.  So don't despair if you cannot start the game with fullplate, a +1 magic greatsword, and a magic horn of plenty.   You'll get there eventually, with the right teamwork.
  
  Finally, the setting is a sandbox.  There are however, some overarching plots, which may or may not be of increasing importance to your group, depending on which path you choose to take.  You are free to go and do as you please, but as said, your actions have consequences.  That said, I am limited to the amount of forethought I can put into adventures, so keep that in mind.  While I will not overtly railroad you, if you ignore all the plot-hooks then the day's session will necessarily suffer somewhat.  It's fine to follow your character, just don't do it simply to spite the DM.
  
  As always, we are here to have fun.  Cooperation and immersion are key.
conversations: Caesar:
conversations: human
conversations:  Ander is a young man, a teenager, really - average of height and slight of build. His soft hands and fair skin reveal that he hasn't worked a day in his life. His shoulder-length blond hair tumbles in slow curls to frame his handsome face, revealing an easy smile and a likable demeanor.
conversations: Struensee: