What Remains Beneath (BtW)

For as long as you can remember, the borders of your village have been the borders of your entire world...

Your village is your shelter, your village is your safety. It is home. As you and your friends have grown, you've heard word of great and terrible wars fought in the distant south. Traveling merchants tell tales of brutal giants and fearless barbarians in the far north, of cruel and capricious fae holding court in the deepest woods. Some of your elders scoff at such tales. Even if they were true, they say, what does it matter? Nothing like that has ever happened around here. There are fields to be plowed, crops to be harvested. Don't waste your time on such fanciful stories.

But you know that destiny lies just beyond the horizon, for you, and for your friends. The day will come when you've outgrown your humble origins. The day will come when bards will sing of your deeds. One day, you'll steal a dragon's hoard and live to tell the tale. One day, you'll defy demon lords, save kingdoms, cast down tyrants. One day, you'll be true heroes.

But for now? For now you're just the bravest and brightest of your tiny corner of the world. And when danger rears its head, you know there is nobody else coming to help. Your village has need of you.


So, first of all, what is BtW?

Beyond the Wall is an OSR-style game. It takes a lot of its rules from early editions of D&D, but updated here and there with some modern sensibilities. It's fairly low-power, low-magic and rules-light. The focus is more on allowing for player improvisation and the DM making on-the-fly rulings, rather than meticulous combat optimization or digging through the rulebook for that one rule that you're sure is in there, somewhere.

Thematically, it draws inspiration from works like those of Ursula K LeGuin and Lloyd Alexander. Players take on the role of a group of childhood friends, the callow youths of a small village. Not quite heroes yet, but full of potential and ready to defend their home when trouble arises.


The Scenario Pack that forms the basis for this game will be 'The Witch's Mistake'.

Many years ago, perhaps even generations, the witch made a terrible mistake involving a supernatural terror. Now that mistake has come back to haunt the village, and it is a powerful foe. Whether because of fear, uncertainty, or a magical geas, the witch is not able to act, and it is up to the characters to get to the bottom of just what happened and how to save the village from this returned evil.



Character & Village Creation

One of the neat things about BtW is how it handles character creation. Each player picks a 'character handbook' (essentially a predefined character concept, like The Would-Be Knight, The Witch's Prentice or The Goblin's Child. There are a lot of them to pick from), which gives the player their class (warrior, rogue or mage, or in some cases a combination of two classes) and their starting stats. Each playbook then comes with an assortment of 7 tables to roll on. These both modify the character's stats and starts to define their backstory.

So, for example, The Untested Thief might roll that their father is a local merchant (giving them +2 Cha, +1 to Int and Dex, and the Skill of Haggling), that they befriended the village's fishermen as they grew up (+2 Dex and +1 Wis), and that, after a theft gone wrong, they and another PC ended up taking the beating of a lifetime (+2 Con, Skill in Survival, and the other PC gains +1 to Con as well). In this way, each character starts the game with several connections to various people in the village, as well as a shared history with the other PC's.

As the players roll up their characters, the village also takes shape. Each player gets the chance to add a couple of locations and notable NPC's to the village during character creation, if they so choose. In addition, simply picking certain playbooks can alter the village. If a player selects The Nobleman's Wild Daughter, well, then that means there's a noble family living in close proximity to the village, including an estate of some kind. Elves, dwarves and halflings are generally considered strange, rarely seen creatures, but if a player picks something like The Elven Highborn or the Dwarven Rune Caster, well, then in this village they're clearly a little less rare.



Character Creation

While I personally have a preference for the more down-to-earth playbooks, it is only that: a preference. Ultimately I want players to be able to pick the character that appeals most to them. As such, all official Playbooks are allowed for this one-shot. The only restriction is the Elder Playbooks, where I tend to follow the rulebook's advice of limiting it to one Elder per group. If multiple players want to play an Elder, we can roll to see who gets it.

I also use the optional rule in Further Afield that gives all characters a secret True Name, rather than restricting it only to certain supernatural creatures. What this means for character creation is that all characters can start with a single Trait (a bit like Feats in D&D), and the player can also choose what their secret True Name is (in addition to what their regular everyday-use name is, of course).




Game Duration: This will be a single, one-shot adventure, so I imagine it should take a couple months to complete.


Posting Frequency: I'm aiming for about 4-5 posts per week. Obviously, real life kicks you in the teeth sometimes, and you can't always find the time for your online rpg hobby. If that happens, just try to drop me a quick line letting me know. We'll do our best to keep the flow going, with me piloting the missing player's character for a bit if it's necessary.


Player Experience: None required. It's a fairly simple system to learn, and I'm happy to teach anyone new to it. Having said that, most of the playbooks can be gotten for free from the official site, which I strongly recommend if you don't already know what playbook you want to use.


How to Apply: Just drop a line in the recruitment thread or send me a PM. Feel free to mention if you've played BtW before or if this is your first time. And if you already have your heart set on any specific playbook, let me know!


Content Warning: Beyond the Wall is a game with a lot of heart and hope, but there are touches of horror to it as well. Perhaps most obviously, given that it is an OSR game (famously pretty lethal, though BtW usually isn't quite that brutal) that also features young protagonists, violence against teenagers and young adults is pretty baked into the game. However, gratuitous, overwrought violence is not, nor will it be part of this game. Beyond that, the game can include things like kidnapping, injustice (feudal times and all), mild body horror and probably some other things that might come up during play. I employ Lines & Veils, as well as X-Cards in my irl games, and intend to do so here as well.


Marginalized Groups: This game is explicitly friendly to LGBT and any other minorities or marginalized groups.