Introduction
This is the setting of my West Marches-style, up to 12 players, tabletop roleplaying game.
It will be run using my own homebrew gaming system, HEXQUESTER: an amalgamation of Pathfinder, Forbidden Lands, D&D 5e, and some OSR titles such as DCC and 5TD.
The system is d20-based but uses simplified math, fewer modifiers, impactful decisions, and lethal zoned combat.
Setting
At the very westernmost edge of human society lies the city of
Sundown. It is known to traders and generals alike as the final beacon of civilization on the Old West Road. A remnant of a distant past. Now, no sane person would voluntarily come here. Let alone travel the dusty dirt road beyond. It is a vast wilderness, once tamed yet reclaimed by bands of marauding savages, evildoers, and vile beasts. No royal banners have blown in the unclean winds of the place for generations, and why would they? In the human heartlands, "to go West" means as much as to "wither away". Once, however, it was deemed a fool's errand. The more adventurous types would head West in droves, in search of fortune and glory. Few returned, fewer still with what they went to seek.
Yet treasure is to be had! Opportunities abound. Though lost to all but legend, these lands once prospered. A few brave souls make their home here, in the small villages that lie at least a week's travel west from Sundown. Now, rumors of wealth, adventure, glory, and power draw new blood into the region. Over his lifetime, a tough-as-nails farmer by the name of Faldor has weathered bandit raids, attacks by monsters, and even the tax collector! Faldor's Farmstead has grown into
Faldor's Holdfast or simply
The Holdfast. It is a day's ride northwest of the only town with a population of over 200 people. This would be
Last Light, a bustling community in these otherwise untamed lands. There you can find a regular market, a general store, a temple and several smaller shrines, a blacksmith, craftsmen, a small boatyard on
Shimmer Lake, a constabulary, and of course, a famous inn.
Though these lands in the West were once claimed by the greater human military machine that drove the non-human races to the fringes of society, their departure provides opportunities for dwarves, elves, and halflings. The prospect of peaceful farming drew the great-grandparents of many halflings to these lands, and now their offspring stubbornly still farm the lands of their ancestors. It is said that dwarves thrive underneath
Twilight Ridge. The fact that more and more dwarves seemingly pop in and out of Last Light seems to confirm this hypothesis. And of course the vast woodland wildernesses in the north and south house many fey creatures, elves notably amongst them. However, these normally reclusive folk also started to migrate to town in ever-increasing numbers despite the prejudice they faced. Something has been driving them from their habitats.
