How An Adventure Works

An adventure, in short, is basically a form or LARPing with gamemplay rules similar to D+D. You create a character whose personality and skills you choose, and you show up on the day of the adventure in costume and in character. The adventure you will go to is a continuation of a long history of adventures, and so is affected by all the things that have happened in previous adventures. A lot of this history will be known to you, but the information should you want/need it will be available in the Library.

Being a roleplay game, it’s important that you really get in character. If you get poisoned, act sick and if you have been killed, fall over and wait for someone to revive you. If you are casting a spell, feel free to throw your arms out dramatically, or yell in an old English accent (not necessary but funny). The more in character you are the more experience points you gain, and the more of a kill-joy you are the more experience points you lose. The more experience you gain the faster you advance your character.

Each adventure is run by an Adventure Master (AM) who decides the date, time, length, and plot of the game. For the duration of the game they are in charge of all things game related. They have ultimate say on everything, and are who decides your experience and character advancement for the game. Most rules are here on the website, but your AM is a great resource for getting started as they can help you navigate the nitty-gritty details and focus you on what you need to start out.

The setting of the adventure is in the realm of the Shadowlands, and the town you will start in is called Fallenstar. Surrounding Fallenstar are the various locations within the realm such as Melcinda’s Peace, the Woodland Altar, and The Forest of the Damned. Each of these places is special, and has certain gameplay rules that must be adhered to. When you arrive to your first adventure you will be given a map and a booklet with descriptions of all the places. The rules for each place will be included in the booklet, and you should read them before you enter the realms. There are a bunch of buildings in Fallen Star, there is the Tavern, the Library, the Traders Hut, the Alchemy Shop, The Armory, a few buildings for sleeping in, and of course the Outhouse (named the Dragon’s Anus).

The basic time period is medieval, with most characters wearing tunics and carrying swords, axes, or maces. I would strongly suggest wearing long pants with long socks. This is VT, and there are ticks, mosquitos, black gnats, and lots of other biting things. There are also prickly plants and sharp sticks in the woods, and you’ll be grateful for the long pants. I would also suggest bringing a range of different temperature items. You’ll alternate between being freezing in the mornings and night to being super sweaty during the hot humid days. You’re also going to smell really gross (like medieval times!) but there’s no good way to avoid that.

The adventures are designed to be as realistic as possible, so there is no schedule, no activities you will be forced into, and you have to pay game coin for food and drink. You are free to go out into the woods whenever you like although if an AM is setting something up for you they may ask you to stay out of a certain area. You can trade things freely, and if you have applied to run your own shop you may sell items, but your main source of income will likely be from selling the treasure you collect to the Pawn Shop.

The goal of each adventure is different, but like other sandbox games, you can pretty much do what you want. There is a plot or two you can choose to explore but if you’d rather just get drunk in the Tavern, horde treasure, and assassinate your friends we won’t stop you. Every action you make has a consequence and you have the potential to either destroy or save the Shadow Lands should you choose to. So if you do assassinate your friends they may all gang up on you and kill you then not revive you. If your character dies and you are not revived in time (which happens when your hit points are the negative reciprocal of your max hitpoints) your character will be erased and you will be SOL.

There are a few basic things to do that will occupy most of your time:

Socializing in town: buying, selling, eating, talking with spirits in the graveyard, pooping in the outhouse, etc.

Looting: Looking for treasure in the woods, following treasure quests, getting killed pulling fey sticks.

Combat: Fighting mobs and/or your fellow players. Combat comes with a host of separate rules that you should know about. This will be talked about in detail later during our weapon-making phase.

Following Plot Leads: Investigating in the Library, talking with spirits, looking for runes, translating runes, investigating mysteries you’ve found in the woods.

The adventures were also designed to have a million different ways to solve a given problem. For example let’s take the most basic spell in the game: Know Rune. You can start the game with Know Rune, you can learn the spell if it is within your sphere, you can buy charms enchanted with know rune, you can use a truthsense point to function like know rune, you can find single use treasures that can be used to cast know rune, you can pray to a deity to translate a rune, you can buy a potion or dust or scoll of know rune, you can call your friend to come cast know rune for you, etc. It can get really confusing keeping track of all your abilities and all the ways to do things. You may choose to ignore a lot of the more obscure things and focus on the basics of your character. The most important things you need are:

- How much money do you have?

- How many spells do you have left and how many can you cast per period?

- How many HP do you have and how much damage have you taken?

- What are your armor and weapon ratings?

- What spells can you cast and what level can you cast them at?

There are a lot of kinds of treasures and most of them are fairly harmless. All of the fey treasures have caveats and most boxes of treasure have traps that need to be disarmed. All potions must actually be drunk, and the taste + color will indicate their effect. All dusts must be scattered on the object they are being used on. HOWEVER, if one of the potions is CLEARLY moldy or is in someway not safe to drink don’t drink it. The Narzyn chalices for example, tend to get gross, and if you find a gross one just take a picture and report the number on the bottom of the chalice and It’ll count.

Since we are in the modern times, we can do a lot over text. So if you are entering a realm like the Blight which hurts you when you enter, just shoot your AM a text when you enter and when you leave. A lot of this game is based on the honor system, and while you may choose to play a thief or an assassin type character, its important you stay honest with the AM, about what you’re doing. You have to stay true to the amount of spells you have left and how much damage you’ve taken, and you have to use potions and dusts only once. Cheating the rules of the game is not tolerated.

There is magic, deities, different races, different languages, and spirits in the game. Before your first adventure the AM will give you a more in-depth talk about these things, and if you still want to know more, the Library would be a great place to get answers

As you develop your characters and you become more confident with the adventure jargon, it will feel much like a much more natural immersion into the world we’ve created. But for now, I hope this basic guide helped you get a foundation for playing in an adventure!