Moonshire - Introduction page

1.1 Foreword

What is a roleplaying game? A roleplaying game, also known as an RPG, is a pen & paper game that is played around the table with a group of people who each play a person in a specific setting, like for example a courageous strong warrior or intelligent but aloof wizard in a medieval world. In the game each player creates a character he wants to play and can really develop his character in the story, like learning new skills, information, find items, have encounters with other characters or monsters, and so on.

Picture this, you step into a world bursting with vibrant hues and boundless creativity, where you can be anyone and do anything. Whether you're a valiant knight clad in shimmering armor, a mischievous rogue with a penchant for pranks, or a wise wizard wielding arcane powers, the choice is yours! In this medieval fantasy roleplaying game, the only limit is your imagination. So gather your friends, roll the dice, and prepare to embark on an epic journey filled with daring quests, mythical creatures, and endless possibilities!

The game is hosted by a 'storyteller' who coordinates the game's overall world & progress by describing the medieval world the characters are in and lets them encounter new things. A good storyteller or game master encourages and inspires conversation among the different people, creates an interesting dynamical storyline and makes sure the players can make use of their chosen skills. There are no real 'winners', like in many board games, as this game is more about having fun by enjoying interactions together.

Roleplaying games once used to start out in medieval fantasy worlds where mystical creatures such as elves and dragons live. In addition to this, I would like to say that these days there are many different books on the market about roleplaying games describing different settings, such as futuristic, gothic, renaissance and so on. The possibilities are endless.

Welcome to the Realms of the Moonshire!
The Moonshire project is a d20 Dungeons & Dragons game (D&D) that takes place in a medieval setting. It is participating in a fantasy Roleplaying Game. The general rules we use for this campaign game are Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition (used to be 3.5/ pathfinder).

In this fantasy world, many rulers strive for control and armies fight for existence or domination with many plots between them. It is a setting in which heroes venture through the lands who not only have to look out for dangerous people or beings they meet, but also for the plots that many lords have in their agendas. Even a clever adventurer may find himself getting into trouble sooner or later. Important is not only to think ahead, but also to be careful and not blindly rush into something. This offers great roleplaying opportunities that may go into deep thinking next to having combats against persons and monsters. Adventuring, combat and roleplaying are important elements in the game. These three items are all equally balanced.

Examples of stories can be as simple as a local mayor who is in distress saying: 'some brigands robbed the villagers, please do something about this', or as complex as 'In a bustling tavern three nobles of different clans have met to work in unison on a plot to overtake some of the trading guilds, in order to gain an unknown advantage against their competitors, which is also influencing the royal house. And in the meanwhile these 3 nobles may have different individual plans also against each other. Find out undercover what action to take and stay out of danger'.

For both the simple and the complex storyline, or anything in between, the players have to act out their character, talk with each other what they are going to do, talk to any of the town's characters, go on adventure and so on. What action you do, personal or groupwise, can have an effect on your character, and on your relationship with other characters.

1.3 Reasons for adventuring

- Boredom; too little experience in life/ wants to go outside
- Curiosity/ explore the outside world
- Debts to pay
- Desire for helping others
- Enemy somewhere - perhaps the character is out on revenge or has made enemies with some clan
- Escape from society (parents, theft accused)
- Fame/ Honour
- Learning/ teaching/ character class
- Meeting new people and, or likeminded people
- Mercenary/ hireling/ jobs
- On the run, perhaps falsely accused, spread a wrong rumour, or did something wrong
- Outlaw - wanted by council and the military; the can be a thief, swindler, con artist
- Persecution - perhaps facing persecution because of certain ideas
- Problem (to help parents/ sick brother etc)
- Proving oneself (for community, parents, ancestors, group, organisation)
- Quest - to find back a (long) lost family member or item
- Religious Persuasion, spread the faith, find redemption
- Traveling - to see new places and parts of the world, maybe an artist such as a bard
- Vow/ Oath - promised to help out someone, or broke an important vow
- Wealth/ Treasure

1.4 Rulebooks

Dungeons and Dragons Rulebooks: In a medieval fantasy world you can roleplay a variety of imaginary characters. There are powerful fighters, righteous priests, stealthy thieves, wise mages and many other characters in the world. You can play many sorts of characters that you like. You have to use the Dungeons and Dragons d20 rulebook to create such a character.

There are different rulebooks on the market for setting up and creating new characters, amongst others the Dungeons & Dragons books. The choice can even be overwhelming for a beginning player, at least it is for me.

Each character has to be created with the Dungeons and Dragons rulebook with the option of adding one additional D20 sourcebook of choice. Each character has certain statistics that represent strong and weak points. Together these statistics form his personality. These are strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma.

Dragonlance Books: Some parts of the storyline in the game are also based on the Dragonlance fantasy novels, written by authors Weiss & Hickman. This setting has its roots based on the d20 Dragonlance campaign where 3 moons influence the tides of magic. Magic is an uncommon art in this world and mages are respected and sometimes feared, even as clerics are.

1.5 Special Rulings

Some special general roleplaying rules that are not in the book are described below,

Right of Secrecy: characters are allowed to hide their class and details of their character to others. You are allowed to not tell, for example, that you are a ranger. They should find out in game. This promotes roleplaying. If people ask ‘what you are’, rather tell that you are an explorer, or a traveller, etc. It’s normal to tell your job or profession but not your class.

NPC role:: it is possible in agreement with the storyteller for a player to play a non-player character, also called a 'NPC'. This is normally a character that is played by the storyteller. For example, a tradesman, a town's guard captain, an orc leader, and so on. Reason a player character could do this is if he doesn't have much time to play a continuous story, if he would like to do something alltogether different for a change, etc. It can be fun to play an NPC, but of course your player character is not awarded any points for that.

1.6 Character Advancement

Character advancement: there are 5 important aspects in the game which allow your character to gain points from the storyteller in order to learn new skills, become better with weapons, learn new magical spells and so on. These are,

• Roleplaying - acting out your character and interact with others and in new situations, what would your character do, how would he behave in specific circumstances?
• Adventure - wandering through the countries, encountering new people, monsters, together with the rest of the group
• Quests - discovering plots, solving quests, riddles
• Combat - fighting opponents
• Responsibilities - Being a fair, honorable and responsible player

Depending on these items, experience points are awarded to the party so that characters will become more exprienced

Milestone based experience award - Another approach is a milestone based with a party breaking point. The storyteller or game master then lets the PCs gain levels on crucial moments, for example when they completed a quest or defended a town.

Responsibilities - being a responsible player is,

• Acting what your character would do, which is not necessarily what *you* would do.

• Talk 'in character' when needed, not always out of character. A personal thing outside of the game or a few jokes are nice, but don't overdo it

• Not immedeately assuming you know-it-all, and act on what others know. For example your fellow player Jake was shortly ago told that the mayor has a secret appointment with one noble for a very important and not so legal trade deal. You, being another player, immedeately ask your fellow players about the noble, or worse, you immedeately visit the mayor

• Not powerplaying by creating a character with certain rules combination that is extremely strong and unbalanced. For example a character with a really high armour class which is unhittable by about anyone.

• Not taking over the game by for example, talking way more than everyone else or making funny remarks all the time. The game should stay fun for everyone.

• No 'rules lawering' through mentioning all the rules of the book every time to 'outwit' fellow players or the storyteller. Eventhough people with a lot of knowledge about the rules are often right, it doesn't mean they should direct the game to this. Of course it is really appreciated to have people in the group that are very skilled with the rules and will warn if something deviates from the rules, but even if they are right, it doesn't say the storyteller or any other player, will use that rule

• Maintaining your character sheet and regularly updating it. If a character sheet is not updated, things can sometimes get fuzzy. If a player for example gets hit and says, 'No, I have this and that skill that allows me to dodge' and it is hardly readable on the sheet or is left out at all, it is frustrating and discussions can easily arise

• 'We against the world' menatlity. This means the members of the party think it is them against all the outside world and nobody should be trusted. Whatever the game master lets the player encounter, non-player characters (NPCs), monsters, citizens, travelers, etc. is all separate of the party. It doesn't work like this in my campaigns, non player characters can be friends with one player, but can be severely disliking another player character. It's part of the fun and also promotes party interaction and plots.

Also note that with this I do not mean the party should split up during adventuring, which can cause difficulties with keeping attention.

This campaign looks more with regards to the vibe to 'The A-Team', or some similar series.

You will also not see much overpowered superhero style of game where there is something fantastic behind every corner, for example that every town or city a character visits, has incredible powerful dragons, unicorns, wizards, warriors and other beings. Such beings usually live in very secluded areas. My campaigns usually have a average to low amount of magic and fantasy elements. Hence, you will not see such beings often.

1.8 Character Creation Procedure

How to create and start thinking about a character? Of course you can take the roleplaying game rulebook and go through the steps. Important is to take in mind,

1) Develop a character idea - think about a global image of the type of character you want to be; write some global ideas down
2) Character details - Work out your character in details, his personality, strengths, weaknesses, and so on
3) Create a background story for your character - create a storyline for your character, how he grew up, why he wants to go on an adventure, what his motivations and goals are, what he wants to get out of it, etc.
4) Character Statistics - assign statistics or roll for them according to the D&D player's handbook
5) Skills & Feats - work out details by assigning skills, feats, powers, etc to your character as described in the player’s handbook
6) Equipment - buy some items with your starting gold, look for some fitting items for your character, also storyline wise

The better the storyline and personality of your character, the more likely you will get a bonus (or penalty) depending on how creative your storyline is.

Do not make over powered characters with perfect statistics and abilities for their character class. The Game Master aims to punish power players and reward serious roleplayers.