General Setting Info

## **Adventurers**

In my setting adventurers are considered little better than beggars. Oftentimes the locals can’t tell whether the troubles started before or after these dangerous mal-adjusted brutes came to town. Those in power barely tolerate them as a useful bludgeon to be unleashed. At all times, however, they are keenly aware that whatever happens to adventurers out there in the wilderness could make them strong enough to cause major problems for them as well.

Most developed kingdoms and nations strictly curtail access to arcane and divine learning. While this means most of their practitioners are not as powerful as even amateur adventurers, societies are considerably more stable.

This means most adventurers thrive on the frontiers between civilization and the wilds. Here they’re more often than not seen as the lesser of two evils when there’s monsters knocking on your door.

## **Whitereach**

One such edge of civilization is Whitereach. Ostensibly a colony of Zoloera but given the distance it operates almost entirely autonomously. Its capital Coldharbor is the last bastion of safety in this frigid land. Dotted across the landscape are homesteads and villages full of people trying to eke out an existence. Though, underneath their feet are usually the remains of kingdoms and civilizations who tried and failed.

People come from all over the world to Whitereach, most for opportunity but some to escape whatever awaits them in their homeland.

## **Gods**

The two prime forces of Law and Chaos are immutable and unknowable. Cultures do sometimes worship and personify them but they have never interacted with the world in that way.

### Champions and Demi-gods

Most worship is directed at the servants of these two forces. The rare few we would recognize as standard D&D mount olympus type entities. Think of the rest as biblical angels or other strange beings.

## **Magic**

This is a low fantasy setting. Magic items are rare and hard to come by and usually highly controlled in the civilized world. It’s difficult to even sell magic items let alone buy them. One proven way to acquire magical items is to unearth them from the ruins of fallen civilizations. Who would be foolish enough to do that?

Spellcasters of skill are also rare. A town would count itself lucky to have a wise woman or shaman capable of casting a few cantrips. A city would be blessed if even one priest could cast first level spells. Most arcane spellcasters are concentrated in the few academies scattered throughout the world and rarely share their knowledge with outsiders.

There are, of course, exceptions to these rules. Every town or village has their rumors of a woods witch or hermit that can provide services for a price. And they rarely trade in gold.

## **Downtime**

Breaks are good for both players and characters. Fifth edition gives a lot of cool stuff for characters to do when they’re not fighting for their lives. At certain points during the campaign your characters will have a few weeks to even months to take care of their own business. This can be character specific RP stuff or more mechanical things like learning proficiencies or crafting items. This is one way you might take some control over what magic items your character acquires.

## **Cheese Sandwiches**

I leave it to the player’s discretion where/who made the best cheese sandwich they’ve ever had.