Silver Moons & Golden Suns: The Zourlands (Group D)

Silver Moons & Golden Suns is a 5e derivative built using the Black Flag Reference Document by Kobold Press. Fundamentally, it is D&D 5e so heavily homebrewed as to justify being called it's own game. Some of the changed elements include: * The Action Economy. SM&GS uses a 4 action turn and how you use those actions is up to you. Run far, attack 4 times, cast a few spells and then run for your life, and then cast another spell. Save all 4 actions for a huge reactive attack. Whatever feels tactically sound to you. * Attack Options. While basic attacks still exist, martial characters gain special options. Barbarians can perform Bloodletting, Howling Strikes, and special rage enhanced attacks for example. Fighters gain Armor-Piercing Thrust and Unstoppable feats for example. No more standing around trading basic attack after basic attack! * Defensive Options. AC is replaced with Defense (DEF) and is an active roll same as any attack. Hostile forces have a static number for their attacks, and when selected as a target, the player chooses from their available defensive options and makes a roll to avoid taking damage. These defensive options can be tricky, sometimes allowing counter attacks or giving risk vs. reward scenarios for the players to eek out an edge in combat. * Spell Slots Reworked to Mana. Spell Slots are gone in favor of a mana system based on the 5-Colors of mana in Magic: The Gathering. Rather than committing to prepare spell slots, you prepare X amount of a color of mana and then spend that mana to cast spells. Spells have also been reworked entirely, some feature "variables" allowing casters to upgrade the spell on the fly. Your magic-users will be more flexible than ever! * Lineages & Heritages Transformed. Each Lineage has a different set of starting attributes and a number of "Build Points" allowing you to customize your characters easily as well as creating defining strengths and weaknesses between each Lineage. Ursus begin with a higher Strength score, but less build points than the adaptable Goblins for example. Creating hybrid characters is also easily done by selecting one Lineage and one Heritage from a different line. You can be half whatever you want and half whatever else you want and be supported mechanically in-game. * Every Class Reworked. All of the classes you know have been given a top to bottom rework. Familiar features still exist but have been given a balance pass to bring every class in line and make sure there's no wrong options when trying to fulfill your power fantasy. * Arsenals & Armories Reworked. No more slapping on the armor with the best AC / max DEX and calling it a day. Different classes have access to different weapons and armor. Druids have access to an Ironwood Cuirass or a Grass & Mud Caked Ghilie Suit. Fighters have access to Venerator Class Raiments * Dungeons are Dangerous. The hostile forces you'll encounter have been redesigned around a "Tension Die." The dungeon hates you, it wants you dead or gone. The longer you spend in this hostile environment, the higher the Tension Die goes. The higher the Tension, the more hostile the creatures you encounter, and the more powerful they become. The more traps and other deterrents activate and increase in lethality. Some special moves the enemies may use against you are even locked behind higher Tension levels! While ways to mitigate Tension exist, they are fleeting and come with their own dangers. You might perform a dark ritual to ease the evil forces of the dungeon, but in doing so, spawn a powerful and vengeful Nemesis who hunts you the rest of your expedition! * The Game Extends Beyond Combat Simulator. SM&GS has focused on overland travel and downtime mechanics as two other complimentary pillars for the already robust combat and exploration mechanics in 5e. Now dungeon crawling and combat is relegated to an Adventure Pillar while overland travel takes place in the Journey Pillar and downtime and social mechanics are expanded in the Quarters Pillar. These rules have been created with a mind for feeling simulationist without mechanics that feel burdensome. * Other Stuff. I'm probably forgetting some things. --- As for the world, The Zourlands is a living open world hexcrawl setting. I will be running up to 5 tables, all within the same shared world. The actions of Group A will impact and affect the world that Groups B - E are playing in and vice versa. Failing to save a town from an evil plague means that town is dead and gone for four other real tables of real players. Building a magic shop emporium means it can be visited by real players at other real players, you get the idea. The Zourlands has become the nexus area for a slew of horrible and powerful villains called "Scourges." These villains are so dire, their appearance is often the precursor to the total destruction of a realm. At the first signs of their possible existence a powerful, but distant, legion of protectors called the Atlas Wardens begin recruiting local adventurers to mitigate the influence of these Scourges until reinforcements can arrive. This will be the role you and your characters take in this game, recent recruits to an underfunded militia looking for ways to staunch the effects of a great and terrible evil. How this will work mechanically, is that I've created a complex generator to help me manage the world and it's inhabitants. It is built to require very little direct input from me. As a result, even I won't know exactly how the villains will manifest or what their moves will be. This generator also handles some other elements of the world such as diplomacy between regions, weather, economics, etc. --- We'll be playing in Foundry VTT with a number of QoL mods. I intend to make use of Czepeku and Borough Bound maps occasionally as well as maps of my own design from Dungeon Alchemist. I'll also likely use Tabletop Audio for sounds and Moulinette to integrate everything easily. I'm unsure at this point if I'll use assets from any other patreons at the moment. We'll play using VOIP from my personal Discord. You will need a microphone, but a facecam is not necessary (although you can use one if you want.) You'll be able to discuss games with your fellow players both at your own table, and at the other tables sharing the world there. A link to a black & white basic document of the Silver Moons & Golden Suns game will be available after you join. No reading is mandatory, I expect to be walking every player through the changes. But if you want to read up before the game starts or just have the rules reference handy while we're playing, it will be accessible to you. --- One last note about payment. SM&GS is in active development, meaning some features are unfinished. However, this is not a playtest! This will be a normal campaign run with my full effort dedicated towards entertainment, not mechanical balancing for the project. That being said, it is still an opportunity for me to collect feedback. I will give you a free seat at the game if you are willing to play pre-made characters I design beforehand to test new systems. I'll also compensate you with free sessions and give you credit if you make meaningful contributions to the development of the game. Even if you're not interested in playing a pre-made character, or trying to get a development credit, you're still very welcome to give detailed feedback and useful criticism of the system or ask me to prioritize future content you're interested in. But again, none of that will be expected of you, you're very welcome to just come, pay and enjoy the game normally, and then not think about it again until the next session pops up if that's your style.