Hello friends, in today's newsletter I will cover some homebrew rules, important lore for the campaign and some thoughts on downtime activities and solo sessions.

AoD 2025 Newsletter #2- Lodgings, Amenities and Private Propriety // 14/2/2025

Lodgings, Amenities and Private Propriety

As most of you know I have been working on a Homebrew system to add some flavor and decision-making to long rests. My goal was to keep it as simple as possible while fleshing out a part of a game I believe was lacking. I think I achieved that with this system, it is very simple and non-intrusive but adds some much-needed depth to character decisions both while traveling and while seeking lodgings. Before, whether to get a fancy room or a shitty one came down exclusively to role-play, now you will receive tangible benefits for investing in your character's comfort.

The above article also touches on private propriety, another topic I am passionate about introducing in our main campaign.

The Free City of Vynn

I have been working extensively on the lore of The Free City of Vynn, where our campaign takes place. I encourage you to make characters from here, or the resource outposts nearby. If not, remember that traveling in this world is a big deal, especially between cities, most people will never do so in their lives, so ensure you have a good reason.

Writing a city for my setting has been challenging . The vast majority of people live in these cities, so this is also where the vast majority of conflict happens. There's also fewer cities meaning each one has to be interesting and unique on their own. In a way, The Free Cities are analogous to kingdoms in a traditional setting, and should provide just as much diversity and intrigue. For this I am creating an intricate political system, many different factions as well as plenty of hopefully interesting buildings and locations.

With that said, the main article is still a few days away, and it includes a lot of details that might not be entirely relevant to you or your character. Since you are working on your backstories right now, it is best I give you a brief overview of the lore that might be useful in writing your character. Because I don't want to bore you too much, or to take too much of your time, I'd rather you use that time to make your character, I will keep the overview short and topical, if something catches your interest and you want to involve your character with it then DM me on discord for more information.

Origin, Mythology & Religion

The city is said to have been founded by a mythological hero called Tiran, seen by some as a deity. The biggest religious sects in the city worship Tiran, he is considered the patron deity of Vynn . Tiran's winged horse companion, Alarond, can be seen on the city heraldry.

Economy

Historically, the city's main source of income has been trade. This has resulted in a very rich and ambitious merchant class.

Politics

The city is ruled by a king. When the king dies he is replaced by his appointed successor, the crown prince. Despite having absolute power the king relies on several institutions to rule in his name. The most important of these intitutions are: The Royal Inquisition (judicial power), The Tribunal (judicial power), The High Table (executive power) and the council (legislative power).

Society

There is a very well defined social hierarchy, with the nobles on top as the ruling class and everyone else beneath them, unable to participate in government.

Geography and Layout

The city is located on top of the estuary of a river called Tiran's River . Which flows into a large sea. It is encircled by many concentric ringwalls increasing in elevation splitting the city into well defined tiers and districts.

Before The Great War water from Tiran's River was pumped through a beautiful and functional network of canals. It is no longer affordable to do so, and the vast majority of canals have dried up. The ditches and the waterway infrastructure (labyrinthine tunnels, pipes and service stations built underground) left over have been repurposed by the population becoming home to many activities, not all legal.

The outer most ring of the city is completely shattered still and serves as home to the wretches of society.

Downtime

One of my priorities in this campaign, as I've mentioned many times before, is to make you feel as though your character is an individual with their own personal goals and ambitions, and not a mindless drone slave to the party at large.

One of the main ways to achieve this is still having you create a rich backstory with strong hooks and well defined objectives. Another way I seek to achieve this is by making solo sessions a common occurrence and intertwine them with the main campaign party adventures. I could make a whole article ranting about this because I really want to open your mind to the possibilities and implications of this style of play.

Thankfully, I don't have to because Matthew Colville (my favorite D&D youtuber) has already made an excellent video talking about this exact topic, which I urge you to watch and have attached below.