Prologue

Welcome to the campaign! Making a character on DnD Beyond is preferred! That link will walk you through character creation -- let me (Matt) know if you're confused or have questions! But you're free to use Roll20, physical paper, or any other resource you want, too. Just keep the following guidelines in mind:

**1. Please write a background for your character!** Not super long, please. I will incorporate it into the story! You're encouraged to include your character's hobbies, friends, enemies, hopes, fears, ambitions, past career, what drew them to their class / adventuring, etc. **I only ask that you keep in mind this campaign will involve journeying out into space for an indefinite amount of time, so don't tie your character's ambitions to specific places on their homeworld.**

Here's a prompt about your world at the start of the campaign to help build a backstory:

**Pryzonis is an old world. A dry world. A world past its prime. Thin strips of arable land follow rivers that snake through the vast sand dunes spreading over much of its surface. In these safe havens, dwindling kingdoms crowd into meager forests, spread over green valleys, or nestle between craggy mountain peaks. Beyond these oases of life, the all-consuming desert is dotted with many crumbling ruins of the ancient empire of Pryzonis, from which the world takes its name, its secrets long forgotten and its cities and temples reduced to thousands of cracked stone pillars and broken statues jutting out of the shifting sands. Legends say the ancient gods once walked amongst the peoples of Pryzonis, but they seem to have left centuries ago.**

**Many have looked up to the stars over the ages, wondering if there is something up there, something to yearn for other than this slowly dying land. Clerics speak of planes beyond, but it's difficult to muster hope in such a world. Rumors are whispered here and there, though, of people flitting among the stars. Decades ago, several people in a village say they saw a creature from the sky land a sailing ship on a mountaintop, but when they went to investigate, it was gone. Fishing folk sometimes claim to have seen huge insect-like machines descend from the heavens before swooping away at terrific speed. A few even claim to have barely escaped the clutches of alien abductors. Most people scoff at these stories as tall tales or the inventions of attention-seeking fabulists.**

**On a late summer day, several heroes have come to the small village of Talrid, a stopping-point for travelers in a high mountain pass slung between three gigantic peaks ringed with swirling cloud. As the shadows grow long, travelers who've come to rest for the night converge on the village's only tavern, the Tipsy Tarrasque...**

2. **I'm pretty open about character creation.** Other than the basic options below for DnD Beyond (or equivalent for other ways of creating a character), I don't have a lot of hard restrictions as long as you stick to some official supplement for all your options. You should have access DndBeyond to stuff from the new Spelljammer sourcebooks from me and a lot of other sourcebooks from Nick (Thank you Nick!! 🙏). You're free to use Spelljammer races and other stuff but (per the opening description above) I ask that you keep your characters "groundlings" at the start (i.e. they have not yet been off-planet).

I will write your backstory details into the history of the world, as long as they don't conflict with the above or close off plot possibilities in some other way (I'll let you know if they do). If you make an egregiously metagamey character I may ask you to tone them down a bit, and if you make an evil character I'm going to request some subtlety about the way you're evil (as opposed to "I like to kill everything in sight!!") to prevent the game from getting un-fun.

Other than that, go wild!

3. **Basic character creation guidelines** so everyone's on the same page:

* Milestone advancement
* Fixed hit point type
* No encumbrance
* Standard Array ability scores
* Take standard equipment (If you'd like, feel free to trade in any items for items of equivalent value!)