D&D 5E The Fifth City (OOC)

KirayaTiDrekan

Adventurer
Recruiting is now closed.

Not so long ago, about two hundred years, in fact, we humans had barely explored the waters around our own islands. We knew nothing of other islands...entire empires of other races out there in the great ocean and we were ignorant of them all. The tieflings came first and taught us to sail the open seas. We took to the oceans with zeal, expanding and colonizing, making friends among the other races...and a few enemies.

The first were the goblinoids. They had gone mad with conquest, killing entire populations in order to make room for themselves. We led our allies to glorious victory over them, not realizing that the goblins' home island was about to be destroyed by the volcano at its heart. The goblins are all but extinct now, just a few stragglers working as mercenaries and raiders.

The second of our enemies were the elves. Ten years ago, we made first contact with them. We'd heard of them from the tieflings and other races - reclusive, insular, generally not interested in trade...and old, almost as old as the mysterious First Ones, who we dismissed as rumor and myth anyway. We were headstrong and arrogant after our victory over the goblins and didn't heed the warnings. We approached their islands and one of their ships met us. Our ships attacked first...the admiral assumed they were taking an aggressive stance...it was a terrible, terrible mistake. We drew first blood but they swiftly overwhelmed us. Their magic and advanced ships were more than we could handle...more than we could even imagine. In just under a year, their armada had surrounded our capital island. We were on the verge of annihilation. And then...they surrendered. With no explanation and no reason that we could fathom, they surrendered.

In the ten years since the Elf/Human War, the elves have become allies if not friends and together with the dragonborn and the tieflings, we have created an artificial city, The Fifth City. We call it the Fifth because the first four attempts were either destroyed or lost. The first and second cities suffered from design flaws that caused them to sink before they were finished. The third was destroyed by sabotage from those who could not tolerate peace. The fourth simply vanished. The Fifth City is a five mile long island, created by magic and the labor of countless craftspeople.

It is the dawn of the Third Age, ten years after the Elf/Human War. The Fifth City was a dream given form. It's goal: to prevent another war by providing a place where humans, elves, dragonborn, tieflings, and a myriad of other races could work out their differences peacefully. Its a port of call; a home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. A five mile long artificial island housing humanoids of every sort. It can be a dangerous place, but...it is our last, best hope for peace.


Welcome to my latest attempt to translate Babylon 5 in to a fantasy campaign, using D&D 5th Edition. Familiarity with Babylon 5 is not required and, in fact, the less you know about it the better.

You can find a plethora of setting material here to help you get started creating a character. In a nutshell, half-elves do not exist in the setting, mage type characters have special considerations, dragonborn cannot be mage type characters, and there are two new backgrounds to choose from. Humans may opt to use the standard or variant racial traits. Please use the variant point-buy system to determine ability scores and either starting gear listed for class and background or the average roll if you want to buy gear individually. Because this is a island/ocean setting with lots of seafaring swashbuckling action, characters of any background may swap a skill or tool proficiency for proficiency with Navigation Tools or Water Vehicles.

The more personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds tie into the setting, the better.

Average Starting Gold by Class

Barbarian - 50
Bard - 125
Cleric - 125
Druid - 50
Fighter - 125
Monk - 12 gp, 5 sp
Paladin - 125
Ranger - 125
Rogue - 100
Sorcerer - 75
Warlock - 100
Wizard - 100

There are certain special roles in the story available for specific character types. Players from my previous attempt at this campaign have first dibs.

Human Corps of Magi background special role
Human or Elven Monk special role
Human Noble, Soldier, or Sailor background special role (2 available)

If you are interested in one of the special roles, let me know and I will PM you the details.

The campaign will be structured episodically, with each episode building upon the events in previous episodes. Episodes will be relatively short and level advancement will be slow. The first tier (levels 1-4) will encompass approximately the first 10 episodes. From there, the second tier (levels 5-10) will cover about 50 episodes. Third tier (levels 11-16) will have about 40 episodes. And, fourth tier (levels 17-20) will cover the "endgame" final episodes, of which there are about 15. Rather than reward XP for monsters defeated, level advancement will occur at relevant points in the story.

Lady Ivarra gazed out at the open ocean from the north bridge of the promenade circling the Blue District. The Deva Ambassador was due to arrive in two days and everyone in the city was whispering about it. No one but the elves had ever seen a Deva in person. Ivarra hadn't even heard of them until a month ago. And now, one was coming here to join the City's advisory council.

"Just another day in The Fifth City." she muttered as she left to triple check the preparations for the ambassador's arrival.
 
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Hannerdyn

Explorer
Very interested! I never watched Babylon 5 when it was on, but always wanted to explore that story. I'll post a concept tonight.
 

Queenie

Queen of Everything
Fenris and I are in! I'm sticking with sorcerer and he's staying with barbarian. We're working now on updating our characters. :)
 





pathfinderq1

First Post
I would definitely be interested in joining up with this, if any spots are available for new people. I am just getting back into gaming after a fairly lengthy hiatus, and this would be my first 5e game. I post a concept (or possibly several) after reading through the background stuff more thoroughly. For what it is worth, I have almost no Babylon 5 knowledge- just a very cursory level from friends who are fans.
 


Fenris

Adventurer
Just went back and re-read the first three pages of the original thread. The interaction between Korgon, Amisi and Marcus was hysterical. And helped bring them to life so well.
 

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