No.
Role-playing is not using a funny voice or inflicting your OC on the rest of the table. That’s play-acting.
Role-playing is accepting the shared fiction of the game world and finding an appropriate place into which to insert your figure.
You can still do the funny voice and chew the scenery, but in order to actually play, you must first accept the premise and play a role with it that advances the shared fiction.
Cyfandil is pretty close to vanilla d&d. The tweaks are minor. But in this sociopolitical climate, “vanilla d&d” as the greybeards know it is fraught with potential misunderstanding, hurt feelings, and ideas that some folks won’t be ready for.
Take a look to see what potentially-controversial topics we will cover.
1. There are three human cultures; rough analogs of White Europeans; rough analogs of North African nomad types; and rough analogs of East Asians.
They are not meant to be real world peoples. The cultures, names, places are a pastiche. I do this to better resemble the real world (but in miniature.)
The land we will start in and perhaps spend most of our time in is the Europe of the world. Very few nonwhites.
However anyone can decide to play any of the human cultural traditions without penalty.
2. There are elves, dwarves and hobbits. Elves and dwarves are not unheard-of but neither are they common in the realm of men.
Thematically, adventuring is a particularly human pursuit. Other races join men, but only rarely. Elves don’t like to slum it with people; Hobbits consider adventuring scandalous.
Therefore I will enforce a strict limit of 40% or less of the main characters being non human. Just how you divide that up is up to the players.
3. There will be off-screen romance. Nothing acted or role played, but a character might pick up a spouse or paramour.
If someone wants to opt out of this part of the game, they may do so. The reason I have it at all is twofold: it presents the prospect of having children and starting a dynasty; and marriages can be politically or economically valuable.
In any case, there are no half-elf, half-dwarf or half-hobbit babies. They are not biologically possible in this world.
4. Characters, including those played by players, will die. Perhaps frequently and perhaps not, depending on how aggressive the several players are in the game world.
But these deaths are not a defeat for the players. They are a part of the story. Character death is a learning experience, and it often makes for a good tale in the later telling.
Consider the Mario Bros. franchise. Mario dies all the time and for many reasons, whether by player mistake or bad luck. But he always comes back and the player can continue playing.
It’s the same concept here, except that the character won’t be like the immortal Mario, but instead a different character every time.
In some ways this is better, because everyone gets to try out different kinds of characters.
5. The realm of Aluvia is Christian. Not Christian-analog, but Christian. The good guy clerics are delegates of God, like from the Bible. The bad guy clerics get their powers from the Devil and other related evil beings.
5a. There are other religious traditions. While it is not a pluralist culture, we will not discriminate if you want a Buddhist or a disciple of Odin.
5b. I will not be preaching. At all. I do not run my game as a tool for evangelism, nor conversely one for social commentary. The church is just one power center in a world of many power centers, and there happen to be holy men who go adventuring.
6. Finally, players will be responsible for playing their own character, but also assisting in the maintenance of the world.
Time passes. Events happen. The characters and others change the world in many ways. These gallant paper men eventually grow old and retire or die.
When the several characters are exploring the unknown, then among the characters, someone has to track their limited supplies. Someone has to navigate. Someone has to map. Someone has to manage the treasure they collect. Someone has to chronicle the tales for posterity.
Therefore, each of the players will take on these administrative roles on behalf of their characters.
There are two reasons for this: one is to take some of the burden from the referee, who has a lot going on; and two is to reinforce the concept that this is a shared world and shared experience that we are building and maintaining together.
In old school play, it’s very important to introduce henchmen early on. In a game where character progression and personalization requires equipment rather than skills and feats, henchmen are a great colorful way to grow.
It gives the player an instant replacement if and when his guy dies. It gives the party some leverage and wiggle room when the push too far. It builds for them a core team of trusted assistants for when they reach Name level. It’s an important way to grow a character’s personal power in the sociopolitical as well as martial spheres. Finally it provides for RP opportunities.
It is important to introduce this idea during Session Zero. (More on that in a future post.) Then, during sessions 1+, you might use some of the following methods to get the PCs to pick up the entourage they should have.
The first is to put the cost of hirelings right next to the cost of horses and boats. This gets the players to begin to consider them as equipment rather than a hassle or resource drain.
The second is to introduce them to another party which has a large entourage. Perhaps the other party ridicules the PCs for being so poor or stupid as to not hire help. In character, they can explain the costs and benefits.
The third way is to have an in-game bulletin board or bill post with adventure hooks and men begging for work.
The fourth way is to put the henchman front and center and frame the hire as an act of charity.
Consider the following: a lowly medium foot: chain, shield, helm, spear, approaches the party and asks to serve them.
He says he has five children to feed and he needs work. He knows this lot finds gold sometimes. He’s willing to bear weight, bear shield, or even fight on a front line. But he needs to feed his kids.
The next day, they will find he brings his grown son and his pre-teen son and daughter who will accompany him. He says that if they are paid properly they will serve as well. One medium foot and two linkboys/porters/shield maidens.
A family of adventurer’s assistants changes the concept from cannon fodder to an interesting RP, and even tactical, situation. Do they protect the kids? Do they throw the whole family in front of danger? Should they make sure the young man has more than a a helm, shield, and clothing before they have him enter the unknown?
Maybe one of the kids takes a shine to the wizard. Maybe the kid could be an apprentice. Many possibilities there.
