Embedded Files
At the start of the campaign, once the group has created their characters but before the gameplay begins, the players map out the Glowlands the relationship their characters have to it.
The first step is to create a settlement, one bordering the more built-up and settled areas beyond in the region of Nordhald. This settlement is the area that will, at the start of the campaign at least, act as the main hub for the player characters, in the region of the Glowlands known as the Glow’s Edge. First of all, the group should agree where on the Glow’s Edge the settlement is and mark it on the map.
The map here cannot be relied upon. The Glowlands is infamously resistant to the efforts of Cartographers; as if to spite them, routes and paths seem to twist and writhe against attempts to trap them in ink, landmarks shuffling furtively away once mapmakers attempts to bind them. The only permanent sites are the machine fortress-foundries of the Deep Glow, forcing themselves in place like an iron stake through skin by the tyranical will of the Iron Priests.
(By all rights, if you travel far enough west you should eventually reach the Nasarann Lichdom. According to the whispered tales of Glowlanders, however, you will never reach it no matter how far you walk. While you go into the Glowlands, the only way to reach civilisation again is to turn back.)
As a group, everyone (including the GM) answers the questions below; there is no particular order that these need to be answered, and no order that the group needs to go around, but as a general rule of thumb everyone should give one answer then let everyone else answer a question before they answer again, so that no one player can dominate the process. Questions are:
What kind of settlement is this? An outpost, a town, a fort or something else?
What is its name?
What is the most important building here?
Who here is important?
How does the settlement govern itself?
Where do people go to relax and socialise?
Who here knows something useful? What sort of things do they know?
Name another important figure. What is their relationship to the settlement’s other key individuals?
Does the settlement have any links to larger factions beyond the Glowlands? If it doesn’t, is there any tension between the settlement and any of these factions?
Who here is closely linked to you?
Which god(s) does this settlement follow, and why? What is their most important festival and/or ritual? Which places do people mark as holy?
Who can you rely upon if you end up in trouble and need help?
Where in town do we stay?
Once you have answered these questions, the group should feel free to flesh out the settlement with anything else they care to add, and elaborate on their own position within the community.
Beyond the Settlement
Beyond the Settlement
Each player marks a point on the map. They outline what is there, and how their character is linked to it.
Now is a good time to remind the players of what the overall feel of Into the Glowlands is and what sort of things they could expect to find there. If a player is really stuck for ideas, they can also roll a d8 twice on the table below for possible locations and/or links to one. The die results aren’t necessarily binding, and the tables are meant to act as a springboard for player ideas rather than iron dictates
At the end of each Chapter, if you have moved towards this goal, or deepened or played off your link to it, you gain one XP. You may gain additional XP if you reach it or interact with it in some other way, at the GM’s discretion.
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