This is a player-pool-based, consistent, open-world, discovery-focused Vivid game, running on Roll20, inspired by the West Marches play style.
The Dusk Barrens are the lush, cold lands to the west, a place of dark forests amid fog-covered mountains. The Barrens are so named because of the apparent inability of the civilised people to establish a permanent hold in these lands – no-one in recorded history has ever been able to do so, as The Gloom keeps pushing them back.
What will you find in the Barrens? What will you bring back? And with whom will you be travelling? Let's find out!
This is not a regular RPG campaign. Continue reading to familiarise yourself with its unusual play style.
This is a game about pushing your character to overcome challenges, in careful and clever ways (or by smashing hard, that might work too). You are heroic, but not because you are good or just (though you might be), but because you dare despite the dangers. You’ll be doing this for several months, alongside a rotating cast of adventurers who are just as desperate or fame-seeking as you, until this character either retires or dies. Then bring in the next one, and let’s discover her story.
This is not a game about cunning politics or relationships with NPCs. Adventuring skills are more valuable than conversational skills. (although, when you do find things to talk to, you better be good at it). Most social interactions will be with your fellow players. The Dusk Barrens have a story, but it's one you'll discover by exploration and direct action, not by subtle intrigue.
Most importantly, the Dusk Barrens call for people who take action. As the GM, I am in charge of maintaining the world, preparing the secrets, and reveal surprises, but not of your motivation to head out and explore. You motivate yourselves.
Your adventures always start and end at the town of Prosperity Keep, the last bastion of civilisation on the edge of the Dusk Barrens. The town is poor and dirty, but it's safe - you won't be adventuring in it.
Each session is self-contained. Players venture into the wild, find or are found by adventure, and return home. There is no fixed regular party – the players initiate a game ("Next session, let's go after the rumors of a ghost in the Frozen Glade") and recruit each other ("Joe, you're good with undead, wanna come?").
Each session lasts 2.5 to 3 hours in real time, and then The Gloom descends and sweeps you back to town. The Gloom is a curtain of darkness that originates in the west of the Barrens, at unpredictable times, sweeping all adventurers and depositing them back at Prosperity Keep, confused and disoriented.
You get XP for every expedition you participate in. Extra XP is granted for making impressive discoveries, defeating formidable enemies, gaining treasure, and contributing to the game by writing sessions summaries.
<aside> 📌 These might change in the future, as you explore and uncover the stories of the Dusk Barrens, changing the town, the Barrens, and even the game's structure itself.
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The Dusk Barrens stretch to the west, sprawling across eldritch swamps and hilly forests that have never been tamed. There's nothing in the east for you. The Empire is rich and prosperous, but ever since The Long Peace began, there's no adventure there. If you survive and find what you're looking for, you might retire there, to live a rich and fulfilled life.