D&D 5e: Blake's Mythopoeia
I'm homebrewing some fluff based on Blake's mythology and such for tabletop gaming. I expect this game to be very varied in the kinds of players it would cater to. There'd be a lot of roleplaying, a lot of problem solving, exploring the mythology and the material world it creates, dungeon delving, hack and slashing, and basically just try everything out in the Players Handbook and Dungeon Master Guide. I know Ultimate Campaign book from Pathfinder is pretty cool so maybe there are things from 3.5 and Pathfinder we could graft into this, just to have fun with things and deal with whatever issues as they come up. I won't be giving you everything about the world but the fluff will come out as we play. Also, you don't have to worry too much about the fluff since, mechanically speaking, the changes are mostly cosmetic so you don't really need to learn anything new.
Character Creation
1. Basics. You can use whatever generation method the PHB recommends for generating your Ability Scores. All of the classes on the PHB are available. You don't have to worry about your backgrounds cos that's something we can just build together as the story unfolds. Think of your characters as emerging within the story rather then dropped into the story. The story itself is fairly basic and would give you the feel of a sandbox without losing direction.
2. Races. I'll only allow Dwarves, Elves, Humans, and Gnomes story-wise. Technically speaking, you are all derivatives of a singular race called the Orcish. Humans are split into the Ird and the Osser. The Ird are rampaging barbarians as a culture while the Osser are Pastoralists. The Osser occupy most of Arcturus, the continent your will be most active in; while the Ird roam about the borders of Arcturus just generally being huge, selfish dicks about everything. Osser aren't really the adventuring type, a very peaceful people, but they do see the necessity of endeavors into unknown places. As a people, they prefer to build homes for their families. The Gnomes are, cosmetically, only one people collectively known as the Osric. They are the most inventive of the races and also the most adventurous. I expect them, cosmetically, to be obsessed with the discovery and manufacture of clockwork devices. As for elves, they are split into the Oric and the Arcturi. The Oric and the Arcturi are the Orcish born closest to the Hedge, the line that divides between the mortal realm and the Feywild,. thus they are most changed by this closeness. Oric prefer keeping to themselves in wooded lands. The Arcturi are, mechanically speaking, High Elves who rule most of Arcturus as Mystic Kings. Arcturus is named after them. Then we have the Dwarves. The Dwarves are the Iard and Kard who exist in their own separate clans independent of that of the Arcturi and yet occupy the same borders as Arcturi. Arcturi rule the cities, they rule the hills and the mountains. Hill Dwarves are called Iard. Mountain Dwarves are called Kard. Again, they are all sprung from the one race and that is The Orcish. Also, the only difference is that dwarves are not SHORT AND STOUT. Instead, they are Tall and Stout and tower over the rest of the Orcish. The Iard specialize in working metals. The Kard specialize in working stone. This is just cultural fluff of course, the crunch is still wholly as the PHB says it is.
3. Gods. There is only one demiurge and that is Urizen. He shares space with two other emanations, Los and Enitharmon, but in the world Urizen created the other emanations do not have as much power as him. Los the Blacksmith exists as the Sun. Enitharmon the Singer exists as the Moon. Urizen's children are the Greater Circle of Gods and they oversee all of creation. They are Fuzon, Thiriel, Utha, and Grodna. Fuzon is elemental Fire and is the God of all Magic. Grodna is elemental Earth and is the God of all Skills. Utha is elemental Water and is the God of Inspiration. Thiriel is elemental Air and is the God of Invention. Beneath them are the Lesser Gods. The lesser gods are the Skill Gods, gods that oversee each and every Player Class; the Genius Loci, gods who oversee specific places of magical power like say ley line nodes and so forth; and then we have the Hearth Gods. Hearth Gods are the weakest, they oversee the well-being of families. The more powerful the family, the more powerful the god. Gods make deals with each other all the time. The closer a god is to mortals, the more it acts like a mortal. As far as Clerics are concerned, be imaginative in choosing a God and how the oath might turn out to be. In my mind, the Fighter God's clerics might be tasked in making sure Fighters act like fighters and so on while being granted domains that buff fighters out the most. The most fun would probably be a Cleric God, lol. Mechanically, if you choose a Skill God, I'll just add bonuses whenever you do actions that benefit the class which your God was born to patronize.
4. Levels. You all start at level 1, of course. Character progression will be moderate as there isn't really a rush to do anything. The story has direction, but the player's are still the ones driving it.
The World
You will all be playing on Arcturus, a continent on the Pillar of Thiriel the God of Elemental Air. Thiriel favors inventive fighters. His favored race are Gnomes and his Sons are Chad the God of Fighters, Timmy the God of Monks, Old Man Willis the God of Wizards, and Dexter the God of Artificers. Chad is a bit of a douche and Dexter is a sociopath. Timmy's a bit of a buzzkill and Old Man Willis is an ornery git. They all, also, act like misogynistic virgins. Except, maybe, Thirirel himself. As a greater God, he is most detached from mortals. Consider him an absentee dad.
The world you occupy is called the Fourth World. You'll figure more of it out as we play along.
The Adventure
You all start play at the threshold of a dungeon. I need, more or less, four players. I'll be choosing you for your commitment to playing the game. Also, don't worry. I'm going to try and do this in such a way that it will only ever be as demanding as your free time can handle. I'm going to preclude the need for maps and initiative will not indicate post order. Instead, it will indicate resolution order. What does this mean? It means that we roll for initiative as usual; but the initiative will indicate the order of resolving actions rather than the order of doing actions. This way, we don't have to wait for people to post. You just post your action and whoever is highest in resolution orders gets to have his actions resolved first.
Other Notes
Well, anyway, I hope this is enough information that anyone is ever going to need. If you have questions on the mechanics of how this will work, ruleset issues and so on, ask them in the Game Ad. For character proposals, I'll just have a thread for that made and attach it here in a jiffy. Hope to see you in the adventure.
Character Creation
