TTRPGs count as gaming, right? So tell me a little about what you have going on!
I’m currently in two DND 5e campaigns.
The first one is a homebrew setting, but still pretty standard as far as DND settings go. All the usual races. My character is Velena Zausek, a level 3 half-drow draconic sorcerer. Her backstory is that her drow father escaped the Underdark when he was young, then he and her human mother went on to start a successful weaving business. One day a badly wounded man stumbled into their town and they gave him shelter, fully expecting him to die. But he miraculously recovered, and then he claimed to be a dragon in disguise. As thanks, he offered them a boon: He would ask his dragon god to bless their bloodline. Thinking he was just nuts, they accepted and thought nothing more of it… until Velena hit puberty and started growing scales and setting things on fire.
When she reached adulthood, Velena inherited the weaving business but was bored to tears by it, so she decided to set out to be an adventurer. She and her buddies just finished fighting some drow who were about to sacrifice people to perform a ritual, and I suspect we’ll try to figure out what their whole deal was as our next move.
Oh, and one of the party members is a draegloth (drow monster thingy) who took one look at Velena and decided she must be in charge lmao. Velena didn’t initially realize this, but upon figuring it out she is so uncomfortable with it. I’m loving roleplaying it.
The second campaign is set in the Old Margreve, though I believe the DM just borrowed the setting and isn’t planning on using any of the premade stuff otherwise. This campaign is newer, so I have less to say about it, but it seems really fun so far. Amusingly enough, we’re following what seem to be drow through the forest, so drow are possibly the bad guys in both my campaigns.
My character is a Tabaxi swashbuckler rogue named Wind on Water. He just hit 4th level, and if anyone has any suggestions for feats, that would be appreciated. (I already have Alert.) He doesn’t have as much of a backstory as Velena, but he grew up dirt poor in a big city and is adventuring to make money for himself and his brother. He and one of the other PCs are con men who were hiding out from their last heist when they got roped into this adventure. Their game was that his companion would steal from nobles, then Wind would “catch” him and turn him in for a price before freeing him. Kind of like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, if you’ve seen that.
Both Velena and Wind are a blast to play, but for very different reasons. Velena is my first DND character, so she’s a lot like me because I figured that would be easier to roleplay. With Wind, I wanted to try something harder, so he’s not much like me at all.
But enough about my bullshit. Tell me about your bullshit!
Don’t currently have a group, but I’m working on a dieselpunk setting I’m pretty stoked about.
TEN years ago, the world powers signed a détente to end the disastrous Nachtkrieg war. A combination of escalation, outdated military tactics, and the development of chemical necromatic weaponry resulted in millions of deaths with no clear Victor.
Worse, the untested necromatic weaponry resulted In the destruction and abandonment of a large swathe of territory on the Asturican continent where the Mindless undead roam in endless torment; horrible amalgamations of dead flesh and barbed wire.
Unable to cure the afflicted, or diffuse the chemicals they released without understanding the consequences, the geopolitical powers of the world were forced to collaborate and formed a defensive barrier around the dead-lands in hope to contain this threat. But that is not to suggest that they have set aside their differences.
The Nachtkrieg exhausted most nation’s armed forces, and a non-aggression pact Amongst member-states of The Symposium (a League of Nations Analouge) makes outright war both unfeasible and foolhardy. Most average citizens are relieved that the war is over, unaware that the conflict never really ended.
Mercenary companies, composed primarily of battle-hardened veterans of The Nachtkrieg, have flourished in the post-war era. Hired by Nation-states to sabotage and otherwise cause mayhem to their political opponents, they operate largely unregulated; resulting in a cold war where military contractors operate in the shadows for the highest bidder.
All the while, the undead menace remains a very real and present threat to the world. Military intelligence from forces stationed along the defensive barrier have reported that the undead have begun to mutate, their twisted forms becoming less recognizable as anything that may have once been mortal. Behind closed doors, scientists and researchers fear they may eventually be there unable to halt the ceaseless march of the soldiers they left behind. An international man-hunt is underway by covert intelligence agencies for a mythological figure only alluded to in obscure scholarly texts, the first and perhaps only true lich, Zosimos The Apostate; whose supposed writings were the basis for the development of chemical necromatic weaponry.
Anything goes in this brave new world, and traditions clash with progress behind a thin veil of optimism and peace.