This is a recap of a session from my “Goldcrest” 5th Edition D&D Campaign. The artwork for the main image is from Long-Pham.

Campaign Recaps

To set these up a bit, as this is the first one, I have been writing a paragraph or three describing what happened during the session. These do not cover every detail since they are written for the players. That said, I may follow these descriptions with more details from time to time. This session is called Session 0 because it largely focused on creating characters and working on the intro to the campaign. Here are the players…

Ezrakai – Halfling Ranger
Thokk – Half-Orc Barbarian
Alistare – Half-Elf Sorcerer
Dareth – Human Rogue

Goldcrest

Session Date: September 24th, 2017

Session Recap:

When a popular Inn Keeper was killed in the middle of the night, the party gathered to investigate. It appeared as though the toy-maker Massone (Mass-own) may have been kidnapped, and Inn Keeper Dergin of the Split Creek Inn may have tried to stop it, resulting in his death. In the toy-maker’s workshop Dareth discovered Red Fir branches and needles, plant life only found in the North West area. This, as well as the discovery that Massone knows of a cabin owned by Dergin in that same area, in a town called High Pass (they made fishing trips there together), is leading the players to head in that direction.

Ezrakai had been employed off and on by a man building an adventurer’s guild of sorts. Goldcrest is growing quickly and in need of people willing to help “here and there” and this man, Nogand, approached Ezrakai about the death of Dergin as he was a well known figure in town… There was bound to be a nice reward after all. Ezrakai had worked with Thokk in the past, so he came along. Alistare also knew “Ez” helping him locate a magical creature in the past and brought Dareth, an acquaintance with connections to the darker elements of Goldcrest. This was how it was (as they determined) that they came to be together in this moment.

– Ezrakai did some initial investigating but had to leave
– Alistare, Thokk, and Dareth spoke to Dergin’s Daughter, local carpenters, and the church following up on leads/ideas
– Dareth broke into the “Order of Dawn” church at night to further investigate Dergin’s body

NEXT STEPS: Sounds like the players are going to head North West to High Pass to investigate Dergin’s Cabin.

Notes About the Session

This session was largely about the players creating their characters and working out what they were doing here. This campaign is loosely based around the idea of a more open world style of play, similar to “Western Marches”. That said, I had a bit of a story in mind to get them started that may also turn into a larger arch/theme that could carry through sessions – something they touch on from time to time.

I love to improv in my games, and really discover the campaign along with my players planning as little as possible so as to leave room to be surprised. The map consists (as of this session) of only what you see below. Goldcrest is a growing frontier town with “The Kingdom” to the South of it (not fleshed out at all as it is not the focus of this “frontier style” campaign)…

I drew this on hex paper (it’s pretty big, I’m just zoomed on their current area) and told the players that what they saw there was all I was going to draw. If they wanted to update it beyond this, they would need to do it. There is nothing mapped at all beyond what you see there, and they only have names of a few points of interest out there… locations described as “North and East of High Pass” for example.

Let’s Chat!

Hit me up on Twitter (@theweem) to chat about this campaign, or anything really!

Next Session: Session 2: “High Pass”