Urban Shadows

Whatever the opposite of a railroaded adventure is, this open-world campaign is that. The rules are simple. The world is complicated. What happens to it is up to the players. You will hear rumors, discover locations, meet competing factions, and encounter problems, but the game will not tell you which direction you must take. Some things the players have chosen to do so far: Join the local mercenaries to learn the ways of the sword as a mage - Retrieve an old lady's purse - Become war chieftain of an orc village - Decapitate a wight with a cursed sword Also some new races that are crafted to play and feel very different: - Pixie - fly, perfect hiding, cast phantasmal forces at will, insults cause physical damage to you - Orc - infra-vision, can recruit monsters more easily Races and classes are kind of blended together. Multiple characters are encouraged. Each choice allows you to do something that appears to let you break the game, while saddling you with something else that seems debilitating. This is by design, and players have come up with a few ways of getting around and abusing these things to the betterment of the story and lore. - Fighting-Man - Doesn't have to actually be a guy, but is a human. Can use all weapons and armor. - Magic-User - Has one spell, one "shot". Can meet with magic learned peers to exchange knowledge. The most notorious spell in the game right now is Charm Person because it doesn't wear off like in later editions. - Cleric - The best of the two above, but must be Good, and by the Law. - Elf - Essentially a Magic-Use/Fighting-Man with extra perks and ties with elves and the ability to sense magic, enhanced senses, etc. but capped at a certain point - Hobbit - Capped early, but can hide flawlessly in urban areas and snipe REAL good with slings. No magic. - Dwarf -  Capped early, but high resistance, good with all axes and hammers, can sense what stone touches and its shape, and ties with and extensive knowledge of dwarven culture and holds. There are major events going on in the background but instead of shoving players in the middle of them, I showcase the developments of those events that come about, for good or ill. The players decide what to investigate, whom to trust, which dangers are worth confronting, and what their characters want to accomplish. How many hirelings do you need to bring with you? How much can you do successfully alone to maximize profit? Play alone, 1-on-1 with DM and player, or up to 10 others at once. The world continues to develop around the party. Factions pursue their own plans, NPCs remember your actions, enemies adapt, settlements can change, and neglected situations may grow better or worse. Player choices can permanently reshape the campaign world. Let me know if you are interested!

GAME START: I have three players. voting on starting date and time begins now.  I am still looking for more players. Game system: Pathfinder 2e Remastered, with optional rules to recapture more of the 3.5 D&D feel. CONTENT WARNING: This is not an inclusive or “safe space” game. Fantasy adventure involves horrible and offensive topics. Not for the fragile or the mentally ill.  Published module: The Fall of Plaguestone. Twist: Run as an Otherworlder / Isekai adventure (influences include Sword Art Online, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, The Wizard of Oz, the “Den” segment of the animated film Heavy Metal, and similar stories). You and a few others are somehow brought to another world of monsters, magic, and madness. Optional rules and Character creation: All player characters are Human only. Ancestral Paragon, Free Archetype, gradual ability boosts, Automatic bonus progresion are in play. Characters begin with amnesia. They have no classes or background—these must be earned in play. No evil characters. Not using the free ability boosts method. Ability scores are rolled: 3d6, then replace the lowest die with a 6. Only ancestry boost is applied. Ability scores (and the resulting bell curve) help describe your character. Attribute − 10 is the modifier. Good and Evil are objective, real forces, real committed sins player actions are tracked. Introduction: You arrived at the northeastern tip of the nation of Isger, inside a farmer’s harvest and seed storage building, surrounded by Tar Baphon's undead hordes. one of the otherworld characters on watch ran outside and was promptly slain by ghouls. Seems all of you are trapped! Bort Bargrith's caravan clears the way and intent on resupply stop at the harvest storage building. Bort the dwarf rogue, Tamil the elven bard, and Shae the halfling ranger discover all of you. There is a confusing moment when no one can comunicate due to language. Bort provides a magical ring that gives you litteracy and fluency in the Common Andorian language. Bort says, "you must come with us or you will die here! The farmer families who opperated these farms are dead and by salvage rites you lot own all of this Stock. You can join my caravan fleeing Tar Baphon, in exchange for some of your goods."   GM: on the journey you may learn languages, purchase 30 gold of starting equipment, through use of Bort's magic rings and from the mass of refugees in the caravan get training in a trade (earn your background) and adapt to this world (earn your class) in the months of travel south. Setting context (past twenty years): Tar Baphon, the Slayer of Aroden, the Arch-lich, and the Dread Tyrant’s undead armies are marching south. The Goblinblood Wars have recently ended (a united effort by greenskin and scaled races to genocide everyone else). The orc war against the dwarves of the Five Kings Mountains has only recently ended. The hobgoblin Ironfang invasion of Molthune and Nirmathas has recently ended. Cults of undeath, disease, plague, death, chaos and destruction (Urgathoa, the Whispering Way, Rovagug) have been largely decimated, but hidden cultists remain and anyone you meet could be one. A recent witch-hunting inquisition died out, yet public suspicion of spellcasters still runs deep among survivors. A plague on the east side of the nation of Isger killed 70% of the mortal population. Platform: Discord. Voice. I will share my screen. I use Pathbuilder ( $5 to unlock all features, it is helpful if you have it, but you do not need it.). Starting: At a time the players agree on, once I have three or more players. Contact me here if you want to join and play in this Adventure.

🎓 Who Are You? You are a student at the **Nocturne Conservatory**, a hidden college for young witches beneath the town of Duskfall. Most students are between **18 and 22 years old**, balancing two very different lives. By day, you attend classes, work part-time jobs, hang out with friends, and try to survive college. By night, you study advanced magic, dangerous rituals, and centuries-old traditions. Whether you were born into the magical community or discovered it later, you're still trying to figure out who you want to become. --- # 🏫 Your Two Worlds ## ☀️ Life Above Ground Outside the Conservatory, Duskfall functions like any other small coastal college town. You might spend your days: - Attending university lectures - Working a part-time job - Meeting friends at cafés - Going to concerts - Pulling all-nighters before exams - Exploring the town - Joining clubs or organizations Most people believe Duskfall is completely ordinary. They're wrong. --- ## 🌙 The Nocturne Conservatory Hidden beneath abandoned salt mines lies one of the oldest magical colleges in existence. Here you'll study subjects like: - Ritual Magic - Arcane Theory - Demonology - Magical History - Wards & Protection - Potion Brewing - Cursecraft - Spirit Studies -Evocation -Divination Your professors expect excellence. Failure can have consequences beyond a failing grade. --- # 🎭 What Is This Campaign About? This is a character-driven supernatural mystery focused on: 🔮 Magic 🕵️ Investigations 🎓 College Life 🤝 Friendships & Rivalries 📖 Hidden History 🩸 Difficult Choices While combat certainly happens, your greatest tools are curiosity, teamwork, and creative problem solving. --- # 🧙 Creating Your Character Think about the person behind the magic. ### What are you studying? Examples include: - Magical Law - Ritual Studies - Alchemy - Spirit Research - Enchantments - Magical Medicine - Ancient Languages --- What's your life like outside class? Do you... - Work at a bookstore? - Play in a local band? - Run the campus radio station? - Captain an intramural team? - Volunteer in town? - Spend every night buried in the library? --- How do you feel about magic? Maybe it's... - Your calling. - Your family tradition. - Just another subject to pass. - A burden. - An obsession. - Something you're still learning to trust. --- Why did you come to the Conservatory? Everyone has their own reason. Maybe you wanted: - Knowledge. - Freedom. - Answers. - Prestige. - Adventure. - A fresh start. --- 💬 Roleplaying Tips Your character is an adult, but adulthood doesn't mean having everything figured out. Lean into uncertainty. Make mistakes. Build friendships. Question authority. Support your classmates. Sometimes the biggest victories happen outside of combat. --- 📖 What Your Character Knows Every student knows: ✅ Magic exists. ✅ The Nocturne Conservatory is one of the oldest magical colleges in the world. ✅ Duskfall has a hidden magical community. ✅ Magical traditions are deeply important. ✅ Strange things occasionally happen around town. Your character does **not** automatically know: ❌ Every magical secret. ❌ Every hidden faction. ❌ The truth behind Duskfall's history. ❌ Why certain traditions exist. Those answers will be discovered throughout the campaign. --- 🌒 Welcome to Duskfall Study hard. Trust carefully. Question everything. Because in Duskfall... **Some secrets have been waiting centuries for someone to uncover them.** Like to application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf784PDqgFyQQcG_tInei2V3mVF9q-hKDGLUMwY23YeFNjbSA/viewform?usp=header