1) Sign up and download the playtest at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDNext.aspx 2) Generate a 3rd-level character: 2.0a) On Espernet, the bot is d20 and channel is #mael_d&d5e 2.1) Use the IRC bot to generate attributes ("!qroll chargens; =PB 5e > 15" in channel) 2.1.1) Reroll anything with a total 5e point-buy equivalent less than 15 d&d points. (not pathfinder) (The "=PB 5e > 15" bit does that for you in the command) 2.1.2) Or you can use 30 point buy. Just tell me (ccooke) the stats you picked. Be aware that 5th edition uses the Pathfinder point scores, but starts attributes at 8 instead of 10 - this means that 30 points in d&d 5e is equivalen to 18 points in Pathfinder. 2.2) Your character has been hired by a contact working for a neutral-aligned Thieves Guild. Take that into account - or not - as you like 3) The setting: This is a light setting I've been using for a few 5e playtests. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The game takes place with the City. The City is huge and dense - think the area of Spain and France combined (or about 1/8th the surface area of the USA) in one huge city, filling up all the land between the Western coast and a large, continent-dividing desert to the East. There is no central government in the City - there are legends that two or three times a single person was able to rule the whole area, but never for more than a couple of decades. It's simply too big and complex, the chains of trust and dependency too long to be managed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Districts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The City is divided into districts - each a walled-off area within the city with its own personality and culture. Some districts are held together under a single authority as a fiefdom, while others are completely independant. Each district has its own law, which applies only within the walls - although districts that are part of the same or allied fiefs may recognise the legal authority of each other, or even share legal codes. There are thousands of districts in the city. Most characters growing up in the City will only know the local fiefs and districts they live near, along with news of a few of the larger and more famous ones from further away. Feel free to invent any districts you like that you grew up in or near. There are plenty to go around. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Fill -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The city is old, and districts sometimes fall apart due to war, disease or disaster. Some of the old districts are sealed off for various reasons, while some are ruined. In others, the authority of the district has broken down completely. These areas are known as "The Fill", roughly a quarter to a third of the area of the city which consists of slums and shanty towns in the remnants of districts past. Every now and then, an area of the fill is able to organise itself under some authority and found a new domain. There are areas of the fill so ruined that small, dense forests have grown up in them. There are areas large enough for entire lost tribes of Elves (and others), although not a huge number of them. However, wilderness-based characters are viable - just assume that at least some of the wilderness you deal with is urban decay. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guilds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, there are a number of guilds and organisations that provide basic infrastructure to the whole city. There groups are a law unto themselves - within their own competence they have absolute power, recognising no district or fief as superior. Each guild takes a tax of some sort from the districts and other people who use their services. They mostly recruit from the Fill, where they can have more control of education and upbringing (most of the guilds have their own schools, which are often better than anything available in the surrounding districts. So long as you like indoctrination) The most prominent of these Guilds: The Knights of the Road: Build and maintain the superstructure of main trade routes and roads between districts. These roads cut through the Fill, or ceded (and sometimes conquered) regions of other districts. They do not build any roads inside districts, only the major arteries that link them together. They also police their roads ruthlessly. Mechanically, think lawful neutral paladins walking the roads. The Undercarriers: As above, so below. Sewer and aquaduct builders. Again, they build the major routes that link to districts. It's up to the district itself to build the rest within the district. The Stonecrafters: Wall builders. They repair and manage the walls that encircle districts. Creepy. Wear hooded robes, generally don't speak. The walls themselves are made from ancient bricks which are obviously magical in nature, and practically impossible to damage. The Guild know the secrets of assembling the loose bricks into a perfectly smooth sided wall - and are the only ones who are known to be able to dismantle such a wall without using siege weaponry. The Consortium: Merchants. Many smaller guilds gathered together for Politics and protection. Or protectionism. They manage most of the city's food production (which makes heavy use of rituals; the staple diet is a starchy long, thin mushroom force-grown using a simple ritual. When boiled, it looks a lot like spaghetti. Tastes quite nutty. Makes absolutely terrible beer, which is considered traditional in most of the cheaper places) and distribution. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Actual Information you Need to know Character Setting Stuff -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The game starts in a district named Storwall, which is somewhere in the South-Eastern reaches of the City. It's a pretty prosperous district, the centre of a fiefdom of five areas which recognise the Duke of Storwall's authority. The Guild your characters will work for is the second-largest in the fief, and quite interested in becoming the largest (but there are lines the guild will not cross officially). The current Guild leadership is solidly Neutral with a very small bias towards Good. Your character may have come from Storwall, or from any district within a few miles. There is a large area of Fill which has gone compltely wild to the South, while to the North and West there are many more allied, semi-allied and largely-hostile Districts that are not a part of the Storwall Fief.