A Widening Gyre
A Widening Gyre is a fluid multi-party, sandbox-style, heroic adventure set in Eberron.
A Widening Gyre comes from a line in WB Yeat's poem "The Second Coming".
Multi-Party by which I mean that the action follows individual characters. For sanity players are typically working in groups with other players but there may be more than one group and membership in each group may change. NPCs will be put forward (or other narrative mechanisms) to aid any groups that are badly mis-balanced in terms of party role composition. The main point here is that as the game develops I'd rather be true to the situation and the characters than to the notion of a single balanced adventuring party. It is also worth noting that real life happens and folks come and go. This fluid party concept makes the introduction and removal of characters much more natural, which helps to accommodate folks needs.
Sandbox-style by which I mean that I'm making it up as I go along. While dungeons and mazes have their place in the genre this game tends towards the other end of the extreme. I'll try to use in-character carrots and sticks, rather than locked doors and blind alleys to get guide the story towards the milestones that I have in mind. I typically think a few encounters ahead and know where I expect the PCs to end up, but I love nothing more than surprises. I'm confident that over PbP timescales I can set up appropriate challenges for any tact that the players choose to pursue.
Heroic Adventure The flip-side of sandbox style -- I don't leave it entirely up to the players to make up the goals and missions that their characters undertake. I try to establish scenarios that have a surplus, rather than a deficit, of goals that the players can choose to pursue.
I'm also calling out that the story I want to tell is is more heroic than tragic. The characters have flaws and weaknesses but this story is more about them overcoming both internal and external challenges than getting inexorably consumed by them.
Set in Eberron Eberron is a low-power, high-magic fantasy setting with a gritty noir twist. Alignments are all in doubt (good instances of traditionally evil monsters exist) -- there are far more shades of grey than black or white. On the continent of Khorvaire 5 'mostly human' nations dominate the interior, but they are all recovering from a terrible 100 year war that brought each of them to the brink of destruction. Actually, it did utterly eradicate one -- in a giant apocalyptic magical conflagration that left the entire territory of the nation a no-mans land. The terror of which collectively brought the nations (and many outlying regions) to the negotiating table to construct a shaky peace.
The world contains within it every element that we need to weave a fine tale.
I think that's probably about all you need to know, at least right now.
