How Does This Campaign Setting Sit With You?

[Big J Money]

This is an idea for a Campaign Setting I had, but I want to make sure it doesn't give people bad vibes before presenting it to the players like this.

The PCs are refugees from the various Realms they come from, which were subjugated by the Overlord. They are rescued to take refuge in a giant bazaar city called Lakk_Szatz'i (The Well of Worlds), which rests in the center of an unending but hidden desert Realm. Here they take an oath to become indentured Treasure Hunters to begin a new life. The Well serves as a secret trade hub in time and space, connected to other Realms via portals; through which the PCs will explore and conduct treasure recovery expeditions [via dungeons and other adventures] back into The Well for their Patrons and themselves.

(Think D&D meets Sliders or Dr. Who)

One additional part I want to get feedback on is that the PCs (called Gari, which means servant) have a list of covenants as part of their oath. Things like "Gari shalt endeavor deaily to repay their Life-Debt to the Realm and the Kumpali [King]". There are three in particular that I want to find out if people think this adds flavor to the role of the Gari, or is going too far into uncomfortable themes:

• Gari shalt not cover their Covenant Mark whilst in the Realm
• Gari shalt not forge close relations with a Venzi [natives of the Well]
• Gari shalt not speak with Szatz'Dinni [local citizens] unless spoken to, without first uttering the standard trade opening, 'I wish to conduct a most-favorable transaction'

I should state that the purpose for setting up this arrangement is to give PCs a built in motive to always be looking for treasure and opportunity so they can pay off their Life-Debt as soon as possible and be able to lose their mark and become an official citizen of The Well. Outside of the Gari Covenants, they have no master telling them what to do or how to do it. They have a Patron who takes a portion of their profits, and expects them to work (they can sell their patronage to another patron if they are unhappy) but they have no rights over the Gari beyond the right to be repaid. They are allowed to keep personal wealth as long as their Patron is paid. However it is complicated by the fact that they aren't allowed to own property inside The Well (but they can own property in any other Realm where the opportunity arises). I hope the feel is more akin to being an indentured Gladiator than a regular indentured servant.

Also a reminder that the assumption behind the setting is that these refugees agreed to take these Oaths in order to be allowed to operate in The Well, but it's of course true to say they didn't have much choice because their home Realm was being subjugated by the Overlord.

There's a lot more to this setting, but I'm just hitting on the parts I think might be contentious for some people (subject of an indentured servitude class) to see what the general feeling on EnWorld is.

Edit for Clarity: "The Overlord" is in no way related to The Well. He's a being that possesses his own way to discover and travel to other Realms in order to subjugate them and increase his power. The Well of Worlds is an ancient Realm that remains hidden from him by the Kumpali's own power.

 

[Big J Money]

This is perhaps one more fact that is relevant: This will be an OSR style campaign. Characters are extremely quick to make, many aspects of a character are randomized (except their skills), and the adventures are lethal. It's more meant to be a game when the party guages each encounter with dangerous creatures and decides how to confront them (battle, parley, retreat, trickery, etc) in order to avoid an early death. I expect characters will still likely die often, but the expedition will live on and the Patrons will make their money. So it has a rather dark streak through it, but I still plan to take it casually and light-heartedly. When a PC dies, no big deal, make a new one. Hopefully this will be the one who lives on to fame and glory and has the opportunity to become a true hero (or whatever they want to become). It's not impossible, just challenging.

 

[Fenris-77]

I don't have an issue with it, it sounds cool. Just make sure everyone gets a clear picture of the above in your campaign pitch and in session zero and you should be fine.

 

[el-remmen]

Yeah. Sounds like it could be cool - but needs player buy-in and be open to suggestions for changes or leaving open the possibility that at higher levels PCs may try to mess with the system of servitude rather than directly re-pay their debts.

 

[Big J Money]

[...] and be open to suggestions for changes or leaving open the possibility that at higher levels PCs may try to mess with the system of servitude rather than directly re-pay their debts.

:finger to mouth and shifty glance: Shhhhh....

 

[Big J Money]

Speaking of higher level, with this campaign I'm going to try something different with regards to resurrection magic in an OSR game.

At great cost, the PCs' Patrons can gain access to powerful and restricted healing magic that can restore limbs and potentially even life. Normally when a Gari loses a limb or is killed in the service of their Patron, this sacrifice pays off some of their debt. A limb repays 200,000 (or whatever it ends up being) and a life repays the entire debt.

However, a Gari can request that their Patron attempt to heal them using this magic. The cost is essentially the above mentioned prices, plus some interest. The chance of success increases and the interest cost decreases per PC level. At a certain high level the chance is 100%, assuming of course that the PC or their body can be returned to The Well intact.

I will likely also add a chance for a stat decrease on resurrection or successive resurrections. Or maybe a more OSR style random table where the most likely result is a bad or no outcome but there's a slim chance of a very good outcome.

 

[Deset Gled]

As long as the players are told (almost) everything you told us ahead of time, I don't see any problems.

 

[Big J Money]

I'm actually looking into the idea of creating an Interactive Fiction Choose Your Own Adventure style web app to demonstrate these concepts in order to introduce prospective players to the game. Since there is a fair amount of information here, I think it might be helpful if the process of presenting the information were more fun than just a long spiel.

Then I can tell folks, "I want to run a Fantasy RPG called The Well of Worlds. If you think you might interested, here's a link to a very short choose your own adventure game that will introduce you to the campaign".

 

[DammitVictor]

This is a hard nope from me, and you might get some static online-- but I don't see anything wrong with it as a setting you and publish and play in.

 

[Big J Money]

When you say it's a nope, do you mean that it just doesn't sound fun, or specifically that the indentured treasure hunter aspect to the theme is the part you find distasteful?