Korth'an Disenchantment: Player Principles and Mechanics

This page is a Work In Progress. It will have blatant placeholders and things that will change far more rapidly than other pages on the site. It's being made visible in order to solicit feedback!

  This page covers the Player Principles for this campaign frame, any unique mechanics, as well as any other player-specific information.  

This page includes materials from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 1.0, © Critical Role, LLC. under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming (DPCGL) License. More information can be found at www.daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others.

 

Player Principles

Players in this campaign frame should consider these guiding principles when creating characters and existing within the Korth'an Conclave. If you are reading this as a game master, prompt your players to think about these during character creation.  

Respect the Fae

Even though the fae have retreated into The Fae Realm and there are whispers that they are acting with hostility, any being that has been brought up around life in the Korth'an Forest has been taught that the Fae are to always be treated with respect and a level of careful formality. The Southern Fae are traditionally more interactive with mortals than their Northern and Western kin, but they still expect respect and respond in kind.  

Embrace Diversity

One of the principles of the Korth'an Conclave is that it is a peaceful confluence of several species living within a common region. While each species tends to have a homeland within the region, there is a lot of interaction between them and the relations are generally comfortable. While specific species might be a little more tentative around others (especially Lizardfolk and Fungifolk) even these more isolated communities have come to learn the importance of working with others. Battle groups of Korth'an Wardens, for instance, will often intentionally include members of several species in order to have as flexible of an approach to potential problems. Looking to others to support your weaknesses with their strengths is one of the core priciples of life in the Conclave.  

Revere the Forest

Lasair is a world without deities, but that does not mean that there is not spirituality or a reverence for unseen things. The Humans created The Virtues, Dwarfs consider their histories to be a sacred keeping, and practically every community that exists near to the Korth'an Forest treats the forest as a hugely important part of life. It's a source of life, of refuge, of resources. While the events of a thousand years ago are not kept within the histories of the beings here, the forest returning to life after that cataclysm provided a home to the survivors of those days. As life properly returned to the region along with the forest, it became central to the beliefs and practices of most of the settlements that grew from it.  

Campaign Mechanics

The following mechanics are unique to this campaign.  

The Malaise

Any character that had previously been touched with Fae magic is suffering from the Malaise as they feel the effects of that enchantment being withdrawn from them. If your character, in their past, had made any sort of agreement with the fae, they are now debilitated with the loss of what you received from them.   During character creation (if making a new character for this campaign) or whenever the game master decides the Inciting Incident occurs (if moving into this frame from an ongoing campaign), add a Scar to your character following the rules for Scars. Work out what effects you may be suffering with the GM. Add a "Past Dealings with the Fae" Experience at +2 to your character sheet. The scar will be immediately cleared if the campaign successfully ends the Malaise; the Experience will remain. The Scar cannot be cleared through other means.  

Elemental Corruption

The black stones scattered across the forest are remnants of an long-ago cataclysm and carry traces of ancient elemental magics. This magic has permeated parts of the forest and many of the creatures within. With the darkness falling over the forest, these creatures are becoming more active and the magic from the stones is reaching out and finding resonance.   The first time the party defeats a combat encounter containing a creature corrupted with these elemental forces, the GM should begin a countdown. Each subsequent time such an encounter is defeated (or if the party performs another "appropriate" interaction with similarly corrupted objects, including one of the stones), reduce the countdown by 1. As the countdown proceeds, the GM should describe the forest becoming more and more hostile.   When the countdown reaches zero, the GM should initiate a major encounter themed around elements and chaos. This could take the form of a combat, an environmental challenge, other interesting encounter. If defeated, this challenge should reward the party with a significant upgrade (whether in the form of items, leveling up, or other as appropriate). The countdown's length should be set according to the enormity of challenge/reward the GM desires to present to their players.   If a player character is killed as part of this final encounter, that player should be given the opportunity to create a character using the Viceborn species, representing an elementally-corrupted version of their character.  

GM: for such enemies think creatures with "elemental", "chaos", or "demon" in their names, but definitely feel free to just add appropriate abilities to other creatures!

 

Session Zero Questions

When discussing the world with the GM, talk with them about these questions to help build your backgrounds or expand the world and to give the GM interesting topics to add into the story. GMs: feel free to add your own questions to this list!  

Does your character have any superstitions or family history to do with the Korth'an Forest?

As a child, your character once encountered a Fae being within the forest. While you didn't interact with them beyond polite greetings, how did that encounter affect your attitude towards the fae or to the forest?

Is your character a member of the Korth'an Wardens? If so, what were your reasons for joining? How does your experience with the group affect your outlook on the forest and the rest of the organization? If not, what do you think of them? Are they a worthwhile group, are they a distraction, or do they cause harm?

Is there a type of creature that you encountered in the forest that your character finds particularly beautiful, interesting, or memorable? How might that creature be affected by the elemental changes created by the stones?

Your character comes from a community that is not directly alongside the forest - such as the Lizardfolk that live in the swamp to the north, or at sea with the Gleaming Fleet. What do you think about the forest, or the malaise? You've been asked to help the Wardens with this task, how do you feel about helping those outside of your immediate community?