Premise
Plentiful work is available as fixers and seekers for the University of Hylft, but your interests and discoveries may take you on self-motivated quests in the city and beyond.
The City of Hylft
Hylft, the city on the city. A small, bustling, and wondrous frontier city formed around a university that was established on the ruins of an ancient culture.
Mercenaries and mystical creatures patrol the region around the city. Ostensibly they protect the city’s interests in the alchemically fertile farming region around Hylft. Whispers and tavern tales suggest banditry, kidnap and more foul outcomes arise from meeting the patrols on a quiet day.
Life in the city is not much safer for many. While scholars, merchants and the wealthy live comfortably, insulated from the outside world, for almost everyone else life is hard and any time they leave the safety of the city may be their last.
Playing the Game
This game will be played in the 5th edition of the world’s greatest roleplaying game. On the GM side of the screen, inspiration and procedures are being drawn from older editions and their modern simulacra.
Players should bear the following principles in mind:
- Teamwork: seek consensus from the other players. Stay on the same page about goals. Accomplish more as a group than individuals.
- Group initiative will be used to provide greater opportunity for team work during encounters.
- Exploration: ask questions and listen for details. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to gain more information. There isn’t one correct way forward, information will help elucidate options.
- Socialisation: treat NPCs like real people. Use social interactions to gain information and solve problems. Most people are interesting and will want to talk things through before getting violent.
- In the OD&D vein an NPCs initial reaction will be determined by a dice roll producing a result of: friendly (5%), indifferent (25%), neutral (45%), indifferent (25%) or hostile (5%).
- Planning: think of ways to avoid obstacles through reconnaissance, subtlety, and fact-finding. Do some research and ask around about your objectives.
- Violence: Fighting is a choice, but rarely a wise one. Is violence the best way to achieve your goals? The world is a dangerous place and there’s no such thing as a fair fight. Stack the odds in your favour and retreat when things seem unfavourable.
Creating Characters
Ability scores will be rolled. 4d6, drop lowest. Assign to taste.
“Races” are diverse, play any from the official D&D books and choose where to apply modifiers. If the race entry says +2 str and +1 cha, assign the +2 and +1 modifiers to abilities of your choice. Variant human is, of course, allowed.
Feel free to ask what a common reaction to that species might be on the streets of Hylft. Or not, it’s your character…