Road to London

Players looking to participate in *Where Angels Fear to Tread* should utilize the *Speculation* character-building process. The key first step is creating a character background, and the *Road to London* helps players uncover what has shaped them to be who they are.

The year is 1389, late middle-ages, and the whole world has been profoundly affected by strange incidents over the last quarter-century. Not all of the oddities have been destructive but in the last decade, some of those incidents have been absolutely cataclysmic. The forms of devastation have varied widely, and there have been two *global* events.

Some variation on these *Incidence of Incidents* should be the driving factor to push the character to make the journey of a lifetime, whether it's simply to start tracking them, perhaps to seek help against threats to their home, to seek illumination in what it all means... *or to seek revenge for all they have lost*.

## **The Magic of Motivation**

The spread of magic, *real magic*, has been tied to the incidents themselves. It is a source of both fear and fascination, but it is one of the few tools that enabled humans to survive these perilous times.

Most areas have no magic that the characters know of, but they've heard of a near-by village where there's a minor practitioner. Further away, there's a town where magic is almost common. Beyond that, in the big city, there are rumors of powerful, indescribable magic.

The magic itself, both arcane and divine, is what makes this campaign a fantasy setting. There are appearances from angels, demons and monsters that turn 14th-century religious notions and assumptions on their head.

## The Insanity of the Angels

Both the Battle of Moon's Shadow and Starfall were both global events. Their passing was never foretold, but was definitely foreshadowed, from the Scream of Spectres to the Devil's Teardrop – an apocalypse in London, 1378. There were also the Burning Frogs of Cairo in 1379, a biblical-level plague that looped for a month before sputtering out. Even as Jesuits and Sufis achieved the ability to channel healing and plague-curing miracles, the angels themselves fought a civil war, sparking terror and dysphoria among the mortals.

### **Your Roadmap**

The early portion of the campaign is tuned to an inexperienced, illiterate, rural-origin human (about 97% of the world at the time). The characters find powerful reason to leave home, broadening their horizons as they learn the nature of the world beyond their home village.

Players may build a character from any region on earth where humans would be found in the late 14th century. The few urbanites of the time will have a different set of experiences from the rural, as expected, and the variation between cities is just as massive.

### **Check With Your Ref**

The referee is the arbiter, umpire and judge of the campaign. It's very likely they have a particular tempo and maybe even special scenarios planned out, so check with them to sync up character backgrounds and capacities with player expectations.

For the *Where Angels Fear to Tread* campaign, there are three tiers of character capacity, starting at third tier and progressing towards first tier. Whether that happens in the course of playing, or right out of the gate of character creation, should be part of the talk the players have with the ref. More experienced *characters* will give an overall faster-paced game, but may risk some situations feeling like less of a challenge.

Figure out what the Ref is comfortable with, and the consensus expectations of the table, and adjust personal expectations accordingly.

## The Humanity Effect

This campaign is designed around the human experience, defending against an onslaught of monsters, demons and worse. There are other civilized races as of late, including dwarves, elves and so on, but these mythic foreigners aren't yet a "playable race" in the WAFT campaign. Allies or adversaries, each of these races has a complex history of their own and future expansions might open those races up as a player option.

#### **Tier Three**

This is most of humanity, covering the range of experience from birth to death. It includes grizzled veterans of traditional wars before the rise of magic, like the famous English soldier Sir John Hawkwood.

The recommended character age is between 14-22: the lower margin being the average Age of Majority in which a weapon would be slapped in their hand and they'd be sent forth to war. In the introduction and early objectives, they will learn the capacity and capability of their character, the stakes – and what they can do to change the odds.

Advanced players seeking a challenge may create characters who are younger or much older, weaker or otherwise infirm.

 Tier Three
 Tier Two
 Tier One

## A Mixed Table

It's often smoother between players if the characters are a comparable level. Nobody feels like they have to shoulder the load, nobody else feels marginalized during the big fight. That said, real-life parties often have specialists and a certain escort quest to destroy a ring featured a mix of beginning adventurers among battle-hardened warriors.

A player might be well-suited to the role of a guide, mentor or wizened knight to some upcoming squires. For those who are adept at the "mysterious traveler" role, there is ample room for wizards of the Order of Merlin or shadowy Sergeants-at-Arms from the Commonwealth. These types of higher-capacity characters are best pre-played in an early private session rather than simply jumping in pre-generated.

The difference between Tiers Three and Two is as much a gear-check as a skill-check. The critical difference is access to magic, whether that's magically enhanced training and conditioning, magical weaponry, or spell casting.

Lower level Tier Two capacity can be reached by independent adventurers who have access to the right schools, shops and so on in the Commonwealth. This usually requires some sort of contract with either the local crown or the Commonwealth itself that such arms will not be turned around to fight against them.

Mid-level Tier Two starts to achieve rarified air for independent adventurers. Based on the legends of their respective capacities, this would be the level of King Arthur and Merlin, at least how the myths were retold. Generally, if characters want to advance beyond this range, they'll likely have to at least ally with some portion of the Commonwealth.

Common in the mid-level Tier Two are characters in the employ of the Commonwealth, her Crowns or organizations. Lower-rank Royal Arms, such as Mobile Infantry in the Royal Army (which ever army that happens to be) are mid-level Tier Two characters.

Upper level Tier Two capacity tends to be filled by "low level" Commonwealth specialists, whether they are Order of Merlin mages, or Commonwealth Marines, Rangers or Royal Guard.

#### **Tier One**

The Top Tier characters have been personally enhanced by magic, be it through training, conditioning or other more exotic means. They have an extraordinary amount of experience and would be equipped with magical gear that would've inspired its own legends from the likes of Arthurian writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Independent characters are *extremely* rare at this level, while most characters in the Commonwealth chain-of-Command at this level *won't want to retire*. The Commonwealth's royal protectors and spies, the legendary *Sergeants-at-Arms* are solid Tier One characters, as are certain divisions from the Order of Merlin.

### **Tiers of Joy**

All three tiers can be reached out of the gate if it's appropriate for the campaign. The path to training is laid out, though the overall scenario builds for characters that will adventure for a time as Tier Three before "unlocking" the opportunity opens up to train into Tier Two (and so on).
This stepped growth gives players a chance to learn the system and gain the context of how much of a jump magic materiel provides. It also foreshadows the level of the some of the future challenges.

 As the character takes definite shape and form, you may want to transcribe the notes onto an official character sheet. You can download a Speculation character sheet from this link: **Character Sheet** [PDF].

## **Take the next step in creating a character**

So far, you've worked out the character's origin. Maybe you even did a search through the timeline for notes on what that area is like. It'll stand you in good stead as you work out the rest of the background.

* **How the place shapes you: the specifics of building *Who You Are***...