Emily's Monday Campaign Pitch

Basic Pitch

You were a legend once. Tales were told of your deeds. You were someone of greatness, be you a warrior, a ruler, an inventor, a priest, a scholar. Your name has been passed among the people, so that most who live now know your name. But Death comes for us all, even the legends of history. Violence took you, whether the throes of battle or a dishonorable assassination, and your world faded into darkness.
You awaken. Darkness is all that surrounds you. Darkness, the smell of soil, the feeling of pressure as some amount of earth presses down on you from above, trapping you without air. You feel weakened, feel the results of laying a thousand years beneath the ground. You claw at the dirt, digging your way through in a panic... and you break the surface.
You will play as one of a number of soon-to-be adventurers who have just found themselves to be alive after an unknowable number of years. You will explore this unfamiliar land - even if you were born here, time has passed. You will engage in heroism; you were brought back for a reason, even if your resurrector isn't there to answer all of your questions.
If you want to know more specifics about what you'll know at campaign start, let me know; otherwise, I'll keep it a surprise.
Politics: Medium  
Tactics: Medium-High
Roleplay: Medium-High
This game will include a large, macro-level conflict that provides the center of the campaign's narrative as well as a large amount of freedom. Other than the large struggle, it will focus more on local to city-level threats and dangers.
This campaign will take place in a setting inspired in a religious, architectural, and societal sense by historical Japan. It isn't an anime campaign, but it does take inspiration from some.
Inspirations: Princess Mononoke, Rurouni Kenshin, Demon Slayer, Dororo, Dark Souls, various historical events and themes, the desire to run a non-Western Europe-themed campaign
Expect elements of occasional horror and substantial, possibly cruel violence (including against NPCs; I can abbreviate any detail that makes players uncomfortable) as well as some difficult choices. I will avoid themes of sexual assault, but brothels (mixed-gender) are intended to exist within the setting (with no strong prejudices against the workers). Their presence is negotiable if it makes players uncomfortable, but I feel like having healthy representation of the occupation is a positive thing and fitting for the setting (there will not be details of anything that happens within these places, however).
If there are specific themes that make you uncomfortable, please bring them up to me before game begins so that I can ensure that this campaign will be accommodating to you.

Character Creation

• Characters will start at level 1. They may have been at a higher level in the past, but dying and rotting takes a while to recover from (shouldn't take long to get to level 2).
• Characters will roll 4d6 drop the lowest for each stat (you can rearrange) and then discard their highest score. In place of this score, you will receive a 20 with a raised cap of 22 in one stat.
• Characters will receive expertise in one skill of their choice; you don't have to be proficient in this.
• Characters will receive either a feat or a Fateful Moment of their choice that fits with their character, from any setting (ours or official ones).
• Characters will begin without starting equipment - including items from Fateful Moments. You will have a chance to equip yourselves before anything significant happens (likely within the first 5-10 minutes).
• Characters can be from your choice of cultural region (not listed; you can make it up~), as long as it's understood to exist within this same world. Knowledge of the particular land and culture in which the characters find themselves interacting with is not necessary at campaign start.
• Human characters (feel free to use the custom lineage feature from Tasha's or discuss a custom lineage with me) are the norm in this setting, though variant human is probably not the best idea with the free feat you're already getting. You can play a non-human, but understand that you're more likely to stick out (and you may not want to). Reflavoring a non-human race or playing a human with some blood of another race makes sense too. Humans are not the only races in the setting, though; others do exist, just are effectively myth in this area.