What The Lands Unbound is About
The Lands unbound is not vastly different from the Forgotten Realms. There will be many things in common, but by reading and by playing you will realize there's also many things that separate it. The few key changes that will most frequently affect gameplay are as follows:
1. Death is significantly more final. Reviving is incredibly rare, incredibly expensive, and generally treated as impossble. As such, the world is much more dangerous. Spells in 5th edition that revive the dead, or extend their time before their souls move on are nearly impossible to cast. Most people in the world don't even believe it can happen, as they have never seen it happen. Death will be treated as the end. Undead will actually become slightly more common, often in place of revivification.
2. Magic, in the same vein, is much more rare. Sorcerers are treated as mutants, outsiders, and not to be trusted. You can picture sorcerers beign treated the way mutants are in the Marvel Universe. Not very well. Sometimes they are experimented on, tortured, or outright murdered. Similarly, warlocks are considered to be dangerous outlaws, and regardless of their patients, are treated as cultists who made deals with demons and devils. Wizards, Artificers, Paladins, and Clerics, though uncommon, are not treated as poorly. As many of these spellcasting paths are taught in some manner, and not inherent or bargained for, many people of these classes are taught by the state, and run by the state, throughout much of the world, with few exceptions. Magic of this manner must be Government controlled, and the laws are set by the Government. Most Governments treat breaches in this law to be punishable by prison or death. In addition to the societal implications, for each individual spellcaster type, there comes a slew of potential problems. Magic in general comes with a level of corruption, depending on the type. This will be covered more in natural laws for each individual classes. Finally, magical healing and healing potions is also significantly weakened. While it will prevent death, it does not revert injuries back to their original state, instead just scarring them over and preventing further damage. Someone healed magically will never be the same.
3. Short resting and Long resting will be significantly and noticeably weaker. Short rests, from a healing perspective, will do little to actually heal the player. At all levels, you may use no more than half your hit dice to heal, and a short rest
cannot bring you above half hp. Long resting requires the players make some effort to treat injuries before they can gain the full benefits. For example, a player who was mauled to three out of fifty hit points by a band of goblins must find a way to staunch the bleeding, stitch, or magically heal the wounds before you can actually regain the hit points. Details on the rules for this can be found in the natural laws section.
4. Constitution will have greatly increased use, causing characters to gain a number of useful abilities in combat, and rewarding characters with high constitution stats. This will be reflected as very high mental fortitude, and willpower. The details for this will be listed in the natural laws section. In short, consitution can be used to temporarily power through death for a few rounds, lessen damage taken and endure status effects with reduced severity. All of these though, will come at an intense physical cost. This will enable front line, tough characters to make more cinematic and interesting actions, and allow them to remain in the front line longer.
5. Thematically, the world is much darker than the high-fantasy world of the forgotten realms. Picture Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Berserk, and similarly dark fantasy narratives. The world is crumbling, societies are warring or falling, and every day evils begin to rise and spread throughout the lands. In many cases, the heroes job is to slow this decay down, save people, and in rare cases save the world. That being said, this world also offers a place for morally ambiguous, and on occasion, evil characters. Within reason, this world could well suit an evil character looking to commit selfish, devious acts, as long as it does not greatly interfere with the other players fun. With this in mind, the goal of this world is to have each campaign run in it be "cannon" and therefore any and every act will be record, and a part of the story of the world. After one campaign ends, any character in that campaign is now open to be an NPC in another campaign. This could very well mean that your evil character will later be confronted by a good character in the next campaign, and killed. The idea is that this creates a level of life within the world, and every accomplishment will be earned. Always have a second character(or third,(or fourth)) prepared. saving the world and stopping the decay and chaos will be almost as hard as saving planet earth from climate change. Doable, but not without a lot of hard work and risk. And it woud everybody's world. Good luck:)
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