Welcome to Foxton!

This is a new thing for me.

Normally, I run fantasy games of high adventure. You know, killing monsters, rescuing princesses, fighting wars, exploring strange new continents, that sort of stuff. But I wanted to try something different. Something smaller in scale, filled with intrigue and drama. Less emphasis on fighting and more on building something of lasting value. The heroes aren’t saving the world; they’re building a community (and not infrequently saving that community).

So I created Foxton, a small but growing town on the frontier of a great nation. Foxton sits about 2 weeks’ hard journey from the nearest large settlement. It stands on the edge of a mountain range, filled with rich mineral and metal deposits, so its strategic value to the nation cannot be underestimated. It also guards a pilgrimage trail, leading to a holy site deep in the hills.

So we have a frontier town sitting on the edge of a hostile and mostly unexplored territory. It’s isolated from the rest of the country, but it holds great value to the rulers of the nation due to its vast mineral wealth. And it has religious significance, as pilgrims from all around the world pass through its gates seeking blessings and enlightenment. Perfect for my campaign!

So after thinking about it for a while, this is what I came up with…

The Game
Keeping the caveat of “The best laid plans” in mind…

What I’m planning for this game is for it to be a game about the characters, and their interactions with themselves, each other, and the world around them. There will be a fair amount of combat, of course (this is an adventure game, after all!), but the main focus should be on more intangible things, like mystery, intrigue, romance, drama, and the day-to-day life of people in this out-of-the-way province.

So while characters should be combat capable, they should also be more than just that. They should be fleshed-out people, with a history, background, likes, dislikes, friends, and enemies. My plan is to take what you create and base a lot of what we do in the campaign off of what you give me.

Unlike the last game I ran, the background of both the world and the characters will be very important. Like a good mystery, small details could become major obstacles later in the game, so I’m hoping y’all will remember the early stuff – the people you meet, the things you learn, and so on – and put the pieces together later.

The people you meet will be real people, with their own hopes and dreams and goals. And there are no alignments – generally speaking, very few people are actually “evil;” they just have their own goals that are sometimes contrary to other peoples’ goals. Wars are fought over these conflicting goals, but just like in the real world this doesn’t necessarily make people on the opposite side evil.

Characters
The characters are people who are important to the town, with unique skills. These are the type of people that the Baron would call upon in times of trouble. They could be officers in the Demorian army, members of the Baron’s staff, or simply civic-minded residents of Foxton who have unique powers and abilities. It’ll help me a lot if you are can give me some good reasons why you’d be called upon to help with “official” community business — why would the mayor, the baron, or the people call on you for help when they’ve got trouble.

Humans, Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves are appropriate. Godstouched are allowed with a decent backstory. No other races are appropriate. Most Professions are appropriate, and I will encourage (though not require) everyone to take at least one (but not more than two) Professional packages. I’ll be sending out a list of races/racial packages and professions/professional packages before too long. In general, racial packages cost between 20-30 points, and professional packages usually cost between 30-50 points.

We’ll be using standard 6e Hero rules. Players will have 150 points on which to build their characters. Complications will be done a bit differently. You don’t get any additional points for taking Complications. Instead, think about your character and the story you want them to have. Choose from three to five Complications that really define your character, things that you really want to come up in the game.