RHoD Addendum - Sandbox Play

RHoD Masterpost 

Hey folks!

So far in this remix, we've assumed you are using the Fast Advancement variant rule, where you only require 800 XP per level. I think stretching the established encounters all the way to 1,000 XP would be a bit of a grind, and this variant fits the core progression of the campaign better.

It also leave us a lot of room to play! We can add 200 XP worth of material every level - either one major side quest or a couple of smaller challenges - without bloating the adventure too much. Even better, if we seed tons of side quests, we can give the players a choice about what they pursue! This both puts the players more in the drivers seat in terms of what they want to pursue and allows us some leeway if they do end up skipping content (we don't want them to be a whole level weaker just because they didn't head to Rhest, after all).

I'll be updating this post as I add more side quests and sandbox elements rather than making new posts, though I'll be linking separate documents for each region to help keep things contained. 

Elsir Vale Map, by Antariuk

Sandbox Documents

• Elsir Vale Travel - GM Copy / Player Copy
• Drellins Ferry Sidequests
• Witchwood Sandbox

General Principles

We want to do a few key things:

1. We want the world to feel big and busy.
2. We want the players to feel like they're in the drivers seat.
3. We want to emphasize important themes about the campaign and setting.

While we won't be making a true sandbox, stealing elements of it will be really helpful for us!

Overland Travel

The mechanical core of our changes will be the Overland Travel system I shared a few weeks ago. I learned a lot from playtesting of previous versions, and the current version has been going really well so far! While I recommend reading that article to learn more, this system has a few core features:

• It's based around the Hazard Die, which means something is always happening, though usually not something that will take very long in play.
• Even the "threats" I've rolled so far have usually been ignored, whether because they were travelling slow or because I rolled a high enough encounter distance that players were able to hide/douse fires/etc.).
• It really makes things feel like an eventful Journey!
• It gives meaningful tradeoffs for different travel paces (trading speed for safety).
• It has several built in ways to tax player resources, including rations, other gear, and most importantly time (something that matters a great deal to RHoD).
• It builds in ways for us to highlight the environment (every 6 is "free", but you should use that space to describe wildlife/etc.) as well as present cool opportunities for the players (on a 5, "discovery") that can take up time and reinforce themes.

I made a player-facing Elsir Vale Travel document, and you can find the full rules here.

Side Quests and Discoveries

The other two important aspects of opening up Elsir Vale are 1. side quests for players to go on that aren't directly related to the main plot (both "more ways to advance the war effort" and fully unrelated quests that might be worth pursuing anyway but will eat up time) and 2. interesting Discoveries for each region that include both quick interactions (surprise food stores! cool vistas! ancient shrines!) and possible time investments (side dungeons! injured animals/people that will take time to heal!).

This is what we'll be building out in the rest of this post!

All of this, whatever this is - this war or this civilization - was a pale echo of a better world, a better civilization, that had long past... everything that happens... is a pale echo of greater things that had happened earlier... more vital, more important struggles, which were in vain. (Matt Colville, "Dead Empires")

Part 1 - The Witchwood

Drellin's Ferry

In order to bring Drellin's Ferry to life and help get the players more invested, I put together this document with a handful of sidequests that will hopefully help pull the players in:

• Iormel and Jendar are feuding over Jendar undercutting Iormel's steep warehouse rents! Fed up with Iormel, Jendar's cousin Kellin Shadowbanks decided to take a petty vengeance...
• There are bandits on the road East causing problems! And the guard are (obviously) a bit preoccupied with other things.
• Avarthel the Druid is fed up with over-logging and is trying to scare the lumberjacks off!
• Jarett Nurth is secretly a serial killer! Specifically, an adherent of Dahak, the Endless Destruction who has been slowly paying back slights and grudges. (outlined in the original Drellin's Ferry post, now with more detail!)

The GM will still have to do some work bringing all this to life, but the idea is that there's now enough going on in town that the PCs might spend some substantial time there (and might build relationships / be helped out by townsfolk) before making the decisions at the end of Chapter 1.

Discoveries in the Witchwood

Here is the Witchwood Document. It includes:

• Travel Details. Includes slightly alterations to Travel Complications and some sample non-encounters.
• Factions. Obviously, the Red Hand. Less obviously but still in the book, the Twistusk Giants and the Keepers of Eth (druids). New to this remix, Ser Elysant the Vigilant and their bear companion Arttu.
• Discoveries. Include an Ancient Shrine, Mystical Grove, and Spirit Well, all with brief mechanical thoughts. Also has vague thoughts on potential Ancient Ruins expansions.
• Side Quests. One is just formalizing the Hydra fight and giving the PCs a heads up that it's coming by having Jor potentially make killing it a condition for his help! The other is helping Ser Elysant clear the woods of some trolls, either by combat or negotiation (they are fleeing from the Red Hand).

You could expand it further by adding full sub-dungeons (beyond the trolls; or even putting the trolls in a dwarven ruin), but I think we've got enough going on to make the forest feel busy.

More to come soon! This post will eventually include the Blackfens, Brindol, and the Thornewastes, and I'll likely do separate posts on the Hammerfist Holds and Endless Plains (order will likely depend on where my PCs end up heading).

See y'all then!