AOP:GMStart

## **You Are a Brave, Brave Soul...**

You are beginning a mini-campaign within a larger campaign. Lucky for you, if you're an experienced GM/DM, the amount of preparation at this introductory level is nominal beyond what you might normally do before your table comes together for game night.

If you're familiar with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, that will definitely help... *but only so much*. While this is *Realms* through-and-through, it's alt-history *Realms*. The last two centuries have been diverging from the canon timeline, dragging game physics with it.

For *An Outsider's Path*, the setting takes place outside the epicenter of change. That means homebrew modifications and suggested House Rules are minimal and manageable.

### **Getting Your Head in the Game**

Primal Magic as a campaign is really a mindset of player empowerment. The closer the game gets to that epicenter, the more in-game power they have. They'll blow through average opponents and the in-game experience becomes more about finding the fights that will create a lasting change in the world rather than just fighting back the next flavored tide of evil.

This mini-campaign is a re-introduction to the setting of Faerûn. It's a chance to get used to the changes in small bites. The action and magic are pretty stock, though we'll dangle a gloriously overpowered goody to get them started and toss them another goody when they're done.

But that's them... let's talk about you.

### **First Steps**

That divergent timeline is really the key. You don't need to know all the gory details, at least not yet, but having an overview is absolutely necessary. You want to be able to give the action the context it deserves and start foreshadowing all the contrasts that players will experience versus playing vanilla D&D, D20, or Pathfinder. If all they've ever known is regimented RAW Adventurer's League modules, you may want to lay out tarps and have medical-grade tequila standing by for this experience.

So, first: go read the **Campaign Concept**. It's short. That'll point you at the "**Welcome to Stonehearth**" primer. If your players want to learn more, point them there. There's no spoilers and it's a good place to get a feel for what this meta-laboratory is really doing.

When you've gotten your feet wet on how the world has changed, there's pair of pages specifically designed for you, the guide and facilitator for this adventure. First, lean on the "**Referee's Resources**" for more mechanical tips and connections, then dig in to "**The Campaign Trail**" for an overview of the design philosophy.

## **Details: Nits and Grits**

Just like you're reading this now, the whole mini-campaign is being designed for players who are fully or semi-connected to the interwebz. They have a **player splash page** that sets a bit of tone and you should check it out if you haven't already.

*The idea is to make your job easier*.

Over the course of game play, you'll hit beats in the story. Many of those will have a map, picture or some sort of visual to help you get a handle on Who/What/When/Where/Why/How. As often as we can, we'll include a player version to you, which you can preview and send to them at your discretion. All your pages are linked, but all of their pages are isolated so they don't accidentally go flying ahead.

### **Guiding Character Creation**

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details of the scenario, be ready for the inevitable questions that are coming your way. While that player splash page should tell them everything they need to know about rolling up a new character, they might find a few angles to bounce off of you. Here are a few supplementary thoughts:

* When we say "stock" characters, we're doing that for the sake of simplicity for them and for you. This is, after all, a self-contained mini-campaign. Bare-bones basic out of the SRD, or what's available to the free accounts on D&D Beyond, is *not* actually a necessity if they're itching for more options.
	+ A player with the Player's Handbook or who has invested online at D&D Beyond (or comparable) for all the bells and whistles, official-alternate builds, the *other* schools of wizardry and so on, are encouraged to build whatever level-1 character they'd like.
* How flexible are we? Once you see the mechanics of **Primal Magic**, you realize it forces us to toss any pretenses of "balance." In deeper campaigns, outsider builds will have a challenge keeping up... and these three mini-campaigns tease just a bit of that. If somebody wants to try a concept they read in a D20 manual, or something experimental from an *Unearthed Arcana* article, or import something from the wonderful flexibility of Pathfinder: *be our guest*.
* The character-building notes specify the default level starter kit, plus a "modest" mount. How flexible or strict you are with that is your call.
	+ Starting kit: we're defaulting to the standard rules to ensure that PCs are "hungry" enough to realistically take a commission and recognize that it's pretty generous as contracts go. Somebody who waltzes in off the farm with a Bag of Holding *might* not recognize comparative values...
	+ The *Outsiders'* character-landing page provides a link to the campaign **Mounts and Travel** page. There is no technical differentiation of what "modest" means – we're leaving this up to your call. We assume no elephants or war horses, and a riding horse is borderline.
* *Are we "higher than level-1" flexible?* It's your option, GM/DM, to grant liberty for higher-level builds. This mini-campaign is tuned to starting at level-1 but if a player has a cool story in mind and doesn't mind being a bit OP as they RP, we'd grant it. It's a mini-campaign, it's *supposed* to go fast.
* A campaign-specific twist: we're rolling back the 5e assumption of character literacy. This point is emphasized on the character page, but just in case, you may want to track **who is literate** and make sure at least one party member can read and write.

### **Reputation Tracking**

There are a few different takes on how to track character reputation in D&D. The Primal Magic campaign has a system that's tuned to the kind of quests, adventures and missions players would likely undertake. It might be worth a glance, even on these one-off mini-campaigns, especially if you think these characters might be retained for a later *Stonehearth Allies* campaign.

Think of it as Stonehearth **vetting a character** to see if they're both capable and trustworthy to earn that next step. If it seems like they are, that's where the Marquisate keeps their "file" on that person and how they've performed and represented the cause. As the **tracked rating improves**, so do the missions and rewards, up to and including potential lands and titles.

## Where To From Here?

* Basics: you read "**Welcome to Stonehearth**," right?
* More Basics, just in case: **Referee's Resources**
* **The Campaign Trail** gives behind-the-scenes details.
* Oh, and the actual start of the **Outsiders' Path mini-campaign**. Spoilers...