Welcome to the Dig. This is a shared community for players and GMs who are interested in our attempt to create Daggerheart play opportunities in our geographical area.
We have set up a few things in a Proto Session Zero that are meant to kickstart the process of this being an organically evolving backdrop for our collectively told stories. What follows below is the summary of that first meeting between around 10 of us. Those who were there will initially take the roles of Players, GMs, World Builders and Site Admins. But everyone's input is valued and vital to the health of the community, so feel free to engage in brainstorming on the Discord Server, or take time after a game session to chat with others and get your stamp on this world as well.
GMing by new people, once they've gotten the hang of this system, will be vital to the ongoing health of the community, so if you're so inclined, let's get that started as well. We may write up some documents to help guide that process, but for now, our founding document, if you will, is what you see below.
I. Genres & Setting
- Medium Fantasy Setting.
- Not too grim, not too happy, middle of bell curve
- Action/Adventure Interludes
- Detective and Espionage Genres also available to slot in.
- Mystery
- Intrigue
- Uncovering/Thwarting Plots
- Magic
- Exists nearly everywhere, no global bans
- Works fairly normally as a whole, there might be local exceptions that affect one GM’s subdungeon locations or situations
- Locale: An archaeological Dig Site / Aeor-like (possible ancient civilization or lost city)
II. Structural Design
- Levels: Each GM project has its own level which may progress at its own pace.
- If player joins into that project, they get to start either at L1 (new to DH) or a bit higher if more experienced, but less than those who are regular in it. But they progress more quickly, maybe 2:1 or so, until they catch up then keep pace with the veteran PCs.
- Attempt to maintain Internal Consistency across GM-led adventures
- Dungeon crawls welcome. But also some potential for intrigue, skullduggery, pitched battles, etc. at surface base camp or similar, depending on GM & Players du jour preference
III. Inspirations & Genre Touchstones
- Indiana Jones (exploration, relics, pulp adventure)
- Oceans 11 (heist-style teamwork or intrigue)
- Hogwarts
- Magical academy or arcane institutions, but here maybe in the form of different colleges or universities sponsoring part of the research.
- Maybe each has political connections to far away places that are rivals (cf. the Exandria equiv: Krynn Dynasty vs. Cerberus Assembly.)
- The Mummy (ancient curses, tombs, undead)
IV. Themes
- Monetary incentives vs. academic research purposes — selling artifacts to highest bidder or unsavory parties
- Honoring religious customs of long-gone cultures vs. getting juicier recovered data, etc.
- Understanding the present through the lens of the past
- Graverobbing and cultural appropriation: when is lawbreaking the moral choice?
V. Gameplay Elements we typically embrace:
- Traps
- Intrigue around Prominent Guests (NPC or otherwise)
- Curses as vehicle for the DaggerHeart Transformational features (character or world-altering outcomes)
- Time Travel (It's a given that time travel might exist in this world, if we're to believe that a PC could travel to Umbra in one adventure, and the Motherboard frame in another. But how does it work? That's up to individual GM's at least for now.)
VI. Worldbuilding Concepts:
- “Four Corners Effect" A foot in multiple states simultaneously
- Wither Wild (Colorado)
- Beast Feast (New Mexico)
- Age of Umbra? (Utah)
- Mother Board? (Arizona)
- The IKEA showroom path vs. the shortcut behind the wall hanging
- Once a room’s traps have been sprung, there's a good chance it won't reset or may take days to do so, at the creator's discretion. At the very least, other PCs who come the same route again later may have foreknowledge of it and be able to run the room much faster, knowing the tricks. (As ever, good/bad dice rolls might alter this.)
- The shared world mechanics
- allow previously explored areas to be fair game for other GMs to reuse with either new PCs or the returning ones, but they should know which is which.
- Persistence of significant developments.
- Encourage some collaboration-friendly tags in our shared world document(s) for certain rooms or areas. Include coding for “open for all” and “please keep out, reserved for now by its creator.” Others to follow
