Letters From Home

Curious Pastimes doesn’t have a downtime system or activities, so there is no way to take physical actions between games to further plotlines or gain mechanical benefits or items.

For players within the Teutonian Faction, Letters From Home (LFH) allows you to continue interacting with the game world, making it feel more like a living, breathing space rather than everything just pausing between warhost outings.

In the lead up to events, and over the winter break, one of the Faction Team will post a submissions link to the Faction Socials where you can send in any letters you wish to write to any NPCs before the next event.

So, let's start with the most important question:

What can you actually do with LFH?

You can write letters to NPCs, either existing ones or ones you have created for things like roleplay, diplomacy and information gathering. They don’t have to be someone grand and important; we get as many letters sent back to people’s families as we do to important plot NPCs.

If you are creating an NPC it would be useful if you included any useful information about them in the submission, for example mentioning any organisations they may be a part of, or where in your family tree they fall, anything that would help the team understand their personality better and how they might respond to you.

Did you enjoy interacting in-game with a specific NPC? Write them a letter following up on that conversation or inviting them to return for another chat in the future.

How about letting your dear old mum and dad know how you’ve been finding life in the Warhost? Send them an update on what you’ve been doing and ask if Little Timmy has gotten over his mage bane yet.

Want to gather some information on a particular plot? Think of a feasible NPC you could ask about it and send them a note.

Some other frequently asked questions that might be helpful:

What CAN’T I do with LFH?

You cannot physically make your character do anything. No writing stories about how you heroically travelled to that besieged village and fought off the raiders yourselves, or about how you did a ritual to enchant a sword.

Am I guaranteed a response?

No. While we do our very best to reply to as many letters as we can, we get A LOT of letters at every single event. This is great, and we’re genuinely happy so many of you write them, but we only have so much time in the run-up to events. While we understand it’s disappointing to receive no response, it can come down to any number of things. We might not have had the information needed to answer your questions, we might feel your letter would be better responded to in a different way, we might have had 100+ letters to get through and you were one of the later submissions, we might have had to have meetings about your letters to decide what the plot-appropriate response is, or maybe you wrote something like “please give me a breakdown of every aspect of your city, its trade, its soldiery and magical capability, its financial records and a detailed report on every major political player in the surrounding area”

We will happily answer that sort of thing, but don’t be surprised if you have to wait a bit longer for an answer on more complicated questions.

When will I get my response?

If a response has been written to you, a physical copy will be delivered through the Bag of Bacchus, a magical postbag that Liesl carries at events. We don’t send responses over social media. If you’re not at an event, your post will likely be delivered to somebody else in your group or redelivered at the next event.

Can I have some examples of NPCs created for LFH?

Absolutely! The examples below are all NPCs who have responded to letters in the last couple of years. Some of these are characters created by people who have written letters, some of them are characters created by us in response to letters, and some are NPCs who already existed that people decided to send letters to.

Also, if you can’t think of a name (or don’t know if there’s already an NPC in place) you can just address letters to people’s positions, such as the Head Librarian of Berlin University, who has received unrelated letters from over 10 members of the warhost now, not a single one containing his name.

We’re also more than happy to help you come up with NPCs if you get stuck, just ask one of the refs for help!

Kertyh Quickquill - Servant of the Church of Lorelei - Created by the ref team in response to a request by a character to the Church of Lorelei for information on the different breeds of magical otters found across Teutonia.

Terrence Farnhouser - Schwartzengel’s Undersecretary - Created by the ref team in response to a character harassing Schwartzengel by post in an extended campaign of petty disobedience that irritated the vampire lord enough that he had to hire somebody specifically sort his mail and deal with the “troublesome” parts of it.

Debris - A lich that was previously trapped in a sword and carried around by the warhost for a decade before being set free as a spirit - A long-standing and existing plot NPC who was previously a villain, he has, since acquiring his freedom, been a guest lecturer for the Mons College of Necromancy.

Mertin Kuunz - A ex-bandit and retired thug for hire - Created by a player with ties to criminals and smugglers who wrote to potentially hire them and secure their help in some political manoeuvring by acting as heavies to deal with potential bandits and crown troops around a city after a sudden change in leadership during the civil war.

Fatima - Member of a known gang and priestess of Bane - Created by a character who is part of the same gang as the NPC, she was sent a letter requesting that she spy on the Iron Flame. She was caught and killed by them in a rather gruesome manner.

Martha Denas - Head of Admissions at Solas University - Created by a character so they could send an application to join the University of Solas as an explanation for improving their crafting skills over winter. Other characters from the region also sent in letters of recommendation.

Acacius Merulus - Crimelord, fancy coat wearer and all-around entertaining boy - Originally created by players as a backstory NPC to be the leader of a gang that some characters already belonged to, he’s since left the pages of LFH and now travels with the Teutonian Warhost.

So, please, send us your letters! Help us fill in the blanks on this massive sandpit we’ve all got to play in, and create more interesting NPCs for us to write as. Roger especially enjoys writing as a parent. I think he’s about half the warhost’s mums now. Mum-Roger can be very reassuring and supportive.