Paving the Road to London

## **Come Together, Right Now...**

*Over here*.

You can't second-guess your players – especially if they're a creative bunch. Let's review the player-side goals for the *Road to London* (RtL), which kicks off the character construction for the campaign. From the Referee side, the RtL kicks off the *Convergence Stage*.

The campaign itself is global – *and beyond* – and the RtL strives to get players in touch with an origin that will help them feel invested in the story. As this is set in 1389, the geography that lends us our culture and a portion of our identity is somewhat removed from the modern experience. Further, we may *think* we have a connection to our history and deeper roots, but even then, it's probably not as romantic a view as we've envisioned from our ancestors and forefathers.

The Hall of Records, and especially the wiki links that provide historical context, help put a little perspective to our notions. Likewise, the *Timeline* gives all the players, *including the Ref*, a chance to see how things have changed from the history that once was. The characters now have the chance to rescue not only the cultural contributing source of their chosen identity, but perhaps a chance to make it better.

Even though the characters will ultimately end up globetrotting, the personal sense of identity is why we want players to choose a place that really calls to them, whether that's London, the French-Norman countryside, central Germany, Western Arabia, Southern India, the Northern Yucatan, or the Tennessee River Valley.

Now, let's review a few strategies that Referees can take to get everybody at the same table actually into a single party.

## **Overview**

The three stages of the campaign were noted on the Darkness Rising page, the initial landing spot for referees:

* **Convergence:** bring the characters together from their chosen point of origin. This sets the tone on how they'll proceed. This is where characters will grow into their major path.
* **Connection:** this is the *actual Road to London* portion of the campaign. This will give characters a direct connection to one of the major figures of the era (as chronicled in the Timeline). This will also pull the veil from some of the mystery of the "Darkness" adversary.
* **Evolution:** the series of quests (goals, objectives and tasks) that opens up once the characters can survive longer than a minute on the high-lethality battlefields of our future past.

Ultimately, the first two stages are a warm-up for stage three. The Evolution stage is less an end-game as it is a portal to a series of sub-campaigns.

Let's break down how each of these phases can potentially play out and how referees can game plan to stay one step ahead...

### **Convergence**

 The key to the Convergence is narrative logistics: *create a short, paragraph-long story for each of the characters that brings them together, no matter how far their home or how different their experience*.

This may be the perfect opportunity for a *Session Zero*, just getting the players up to speed through character construction. A little metagaming is perfectly appropriate here as refs are going to face a few challenges in *bringing the party together*.

1. **Does everybody in the party come from the same place?**
	* If so, great. That *might* simplify things.
	* What does this look like? *It looks like Session Zero metagaming*. The players get together and develop a consensus that they all want to hail from the same village in the XYZ Province. The whole area has been wiped out and they are the only survivors. The home area may or may not be occupied by the adversary, the specific adversary may or may not be extant.
	* All the characters will be Tier Three (normal folk) that begin the journey together into the larger world as refugees. Their first stop is likely the next larger town.
2. **Everybody comes from the same village, but some player[s] choose to start play at higher tiers.**
	* The higher tiers should optimally pre-play before the main group.
	* If not, note that the higher tiers take longer to create their character, so there's that aspect of real-world timing at your table. If everybody is already physically present, either the other players are spectators or they take a break while the other characters forge ahead.
	* Creating a role-playing context: the higher tier character could be the hometown kid who leaves, adventures, and returns home after a campaign. Perhaps the returned person is on hiatus, or they've served and retired from service (Millennial, *meet Gen X*). Maybe the folk who stayed in town have simply been working at their professions, building a family, and now have a new reason to fight (or possibly a tragic reason to leave). Maybe the returnee has been assigned as garrison in their hometown, or is simply returning to touch base for a reunion.
	* Either way, the passage of time will have to be accounted for. If they were all buddies growing up in that village, how do the other PCs feel about remaining home while the other guy ran off? The characters should be able to work through most of this themselves, with the Ref mostly there to provide guidance to what's happened in their area for the last twenty years. You tell them what they grew up with.
3. **Everybody comes from different areas, but will start at the same tier.**
	* Use a central meeting spot. Regardless if some, all or none have met in their back stories, use one location to bring them all together.
	* If they're all starting at Tier Three, they're chasing a rumor or fleeing a memory. They reach *the spot* before they feel a moment of peace – at least long enough to meet these other interesting people...
	* If they're all starting at Tier Two (or above), it will depend on if they are in service to some element of the Commonwealth, independent operators, or some combination. Tier Two/One is a little easier in that characters expect they've been out adventuring already.
4. **There is a wide variety of origin points *and* starting tiers.**
	* The motivations mentioned still work, but it's a more dynamic first meeting.
	* The Ref should integrate the character states (Tier and affiliation) into the meeting. Somebody in service to the local crown would have precedence as this is their jurisdiction. They could start out as the Point of Contact, the local representative, or an official escort to see to the interest of the king [or whoever].
	* You could even enlist Tier Two/Tier One players to be "ringers" in the group: discreet, covert or otherwise secret options until they're ready for the big reveal.

 It's possible for a player to have a micro-adventure on the way to meeting the rest of the PCs. This might be akin to suffering pirate or privateer attack as they're sailing to the destination. It could be assault from a band of brigands and the character just barely escapes (or doesn't initially escape, only to slip free or be let go down the line). Depending on where the character is coming from, there could be a very high attrition rate among the NPCs.

As the Ref, you can encourage your players to create intertwined backstories where coming from the same home town, or at least the same region of Country X, is just the beginning. If the players lead the way, it could help you create interesting narrative points in the future that call on those details. Characters who are related, old friends or romantic interests automatically up the dramatic ante when they're in danger.

## The Visiting Team

The Home Team is definitely the humans. There are dwarves and elves among other fantasy staples, but these are capital-F Foreigners. They are as alien to Earth as Roswell crash survivors. That said, they may become playable races in later sub-campaigns.

Likewise, don't be shy about rewarding the players in regards to their backstory. If they have a house somewhere and can explain how that fits in the backstory, *excellent*.

You may want to caution against (or limit) the assumption of high-level political personalities (counts, dukes, kings) as those likely have NPC roles already. Close associates of those high-profile NPCs is perfectly acceptable: relatives, rivals, frienemies, etc., are okay as long as the player knows the character loses some of their self-determination when they come from that socioeconomic strata.

## **Dead Silence**

*Dead Silence* is the Convergence introductory scenario. We provide the outline and structure of a scenario, you fill in a few details to personalize it for your table.

## Convergence Made Easy

Intro details overwhelming? Don't sweat it: Dead Silence puts the choice in your hands, Ref. Where this scenario unfolds is up to you.

Wherever it is, if the characters know each other, then somebody has heard a rumor. If they don't know each other, then they're wandering nearby ("relative term"®) when a rumor floats by. One way or another, they're here now.

One of the keys is that we're intentionally vague on exactly where in the world this is. *Why?* Because that's for *you*, the Ref, to decide. This helps ease the referee into the Convergence, especially if you're looking at story-guiding players in from all over the globe.

*Suggestion:* look at character origin spots. If there are a cluster of characters, put it *somewhat* nearby. 90 miles away is only a few days ride on horseback, but it may as well be another planet for day-to-day provincial life. Compared to crossing an ocean or a continent, 90 miles is a virtual stroll to the kitchen.

If you get the feeling the players are looking forward to exotic locales, give them one: put it far away from *all* their origin points. Likewise, if you have localization ideas, a particular setting/terrain type, go with it.

### **Scenario Overview**

It's called the "Fainting Lands" because every few months, everybody in town simultaneously faints. Nobody knows why, but they do know it's irritating as all get-out and occasionally dangerous. There doesn't seem to be any defined pattern to it, and it's definitely related to the region – people don't suffer the lapse when they're not *there*.

This has already been subject to a few search passes from wizards, rangers and adventurers, but so far, they've found nothing. This has been going on for a several years, but nobody is really sure because of all the chaos going on in the world, *especially there*. Five years ago, there were several sparks that touched the ground nearby during the Battle of Moon's Shadow. Adding insult to injury, two years ago, the fire in the sky from Starfall torched a vast swath of land, killing so many more.

The last two years, things had generally calmed down – but as of two months ago, the fainting spells started happening more and more. Now they're roughly once every seven to ten days. The Commonwealth, including the Order of Merlin, is interested – but they're so overwhelmed right now that they can't send anybody. They're doing the next best thing: putting a bounty on discoveries. The more information – and evidence – the more they're wiling to pay.

The locals are fed up, and the local adventurers have already tried and failed. Regional adventurers are in the same boat – or want nothing to do with searching a land blighted by both fire and "sparks" from the War of the Angels.

* Fainting: seems harmless enough.
* The rewards would be generous.

That would be enough to draw adventurers from far, far away...

### **Moirai's Travel Agency**

Once you've decided where *Dead Silence* takes place, you have to provide the *narrative* means for the PCs to get there. Nobody has to buy a ticket at this point, it's part of the background story, but there's a good chance the characters will eventually return to their origin area (especially if they still have a home there). This lays the groundwork for that eventual scenario.

It's easy to bring a party together when the assumption is that everybody is from the same general region. Also, when backgrounds are generalized and so is the starting kit, that makes it easier to gloss over the details of what happened before the start of the adventure. This is personalized, but it's definitely not "easy."

With the background influencing what can be a substantial starting kit, or motivation after substantial loss, the intro gets trickier. Knowing what draws the character out is complicated, but the player should have that part handled in the overall character creation. The Ref can work that in as they bring everybody together.

If a character is traveling on their own dime, especially from more obscure areas, overland coaches or commercial ocean passage is common through Eurasia. The Western Hemisphere, Africa and Southeast Asia have a few *very* advanced areas, with the rest of the areas either monster-infested or simply undeveloped. A Tier Three character might also take a job as a deck hand in exchange for passage if they need to cross big waters.

Note: there are Commonwealth travel hubs in both hemispheres (and sprinkled all over Europe). Those are natural spots for the character to lean on. Though the portals have been around for the better part of a decade, they are still glamorous, exciting, and one of the few things that gives people faith that they can still fight back against the orks, the Darkness, demons and anything else.

## Where to From Here?

* **Let's back up a step. Show me that overview again...**
* **Okay, moving forward. Let's get a look at the *Connection* Stage...**
* **Do you hear anything? *Neither do I*. Check out the *Dead Silence* scenario...**