The World

Agora Core is designed to be a D&D 5th edition campaign that takes place in a fantasy realm. The players participate remotely using Skype and Roll20.  You will get to meet the players through the Agora Core Episodes, but I will also post Player Character Profiles over the following weeks.  But what of the world they will inhabit, what is it like?

DaNis Map:

DaNis is a spectre of the place it once was.  The fertile plains have long since been swallowed up by the Da; the mysterious and constantly shifting desert. The river Nis is the life-blood of the lands and whilst it runs the land on either side continues to sustain life.  There are two main towns in this area – the port town of Nis-Ton is an important supply line to other settlements and Mid-Nis is a hub for the many clans and settlers in the area.

DaNis is an annex of the Kingdom of Thoregar, which stretches east, past the Hussarian Mountains into the lush basin of the Dudron before meeting the rocky halls of Tratridra and Vatet.  To the west lies miles of wasteland where only those crazy or cold-blooded enough survive in the fiery Arlatla.  The south is nought but sea but merchant ships do occasionally sail in from distant, exotic shores of which only books and stories tell; they normally leave DaNis disappointed with what they find.  To the north (once the Nis turns around) the road is rocky and baron and only those belonging to the mysterious Mara Society go on willingly.

Map production by Jon Paget, created using Inkarnate (Inkarnate.com).

Welcome!

I started creating this roleplay back in late 2015 as I had developed a craving. This wasn’t a simple itch, it was deeper than that. I had run weekend roleplays before, collaborating with other Dungeon Masters (DM)/Games Masters (GM) within the friendship groups that shared the love of fantasy and storytelling along with my Brothers and myself. These could be very rewarding but also very frustrating because the amount of work didn’t amount to the gameplay length – this was especially true with collaboratively run roleplays where ideas could be sacrificed for a cohesive storyline or if players wanted to stick with certain groups.

So my deeper itch involved taking the time to create a new fantasy roleplay from scratch and finding players who were prepared to do it for the long haul – from Level 1 and up!

The other desire was to try and use the new 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. This was designed to be a lot simpler than the system I was used to – version 3.5 – and relied more on story-telling. I had also taken the time to develop a character creation system in excel, and wanted to put it to good use.

As I type, we are nearing the end of the players’ time as Level 2 characters. It has been very interesting seeing how the players have interacted with the storyline and with each other. This has affected my levels of preparation and style as a DM and it will continue to evolve along with the players as we learn about the roleplay system and about the world known as Agora Core.