Thorncroft

Campaign Setting of Thorncroft

The world is ordinary. Magic and monsters are the things of fairy tales - yet there are mysteries.

Outside the city walls are things that go bump in the night. Travelers go missing on major roads. Inside, a secret thieves guild competes against a cabal of merchants that doesn't exist for control of the city. The Church of St. Rose is rumored to conduct witch trials behind closed doors. Mercenary work is becoming popular, but mercenaries don't seem to live that long. Beware the Pariahs.

The frontier city of Throncroft is offering land to anyone who is willing work and has attracted a lot of mercenaries to explore the unknown, and to fight with barbarian tribes and strange beasts. 

The setting is exclusively human. Demi-humans such as Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings are to ordinary people as space aliens are to us.

There are only four basic classes: Fighter, Cleric, Thief, and Magic-User. Prestige classes may be earned by gaining reputation and status.

Fighters come in nearly infinite flavors: Man-at-Arms, Rangers, Barbarians, Bounty Hunters, Knights, Vikings, Soldiers, etc. They can use all weapons, armor, and shields, and they have the best hit die and attack bonus.

Clerics are not just village priests and nuns, they are extremely rare like saints. They have miraculous power. They follow a strict code of ethics. Fallen are Clerics who falter and they lose their miraculous power. Clerics must be ordained by the Church of St. Rose (a generic western religion). They observe all rituals and practices. Clerics use all armor and shields, but may only use weapons that do bludgeoning damage. They can pray for miracles in a manner that only a magic-user would describe as similar to spellcasting: Players describe the effect of the miracle the pray for, and the DM tells them what to roll if they need to roll. Roll low and you may not get your miracle; God is mysterious. Clerics can turn the undead by brandishing their Holy symbol and invoking the name of God.

Thieves can use skills, thieves tools, and can Backstab. They usually have many contacts; They are the guy who knows a guy. They can wear leather armor and use all weapons.

Magic-Users are so rare that ordinary people don't believe they exist. This gives them anonymity, but they have to use discretion when they cast spells or risk dying a witch. They keep their spells in books that may resemble a plain journal. Non-Magic-Users don't understand magic script and can only comprehend that they've found something terrifying and otherworldly. Spells must be memorized before they can be cast and are forgotten once cast. Staffs and knives are the only weapons and armor they can use. Magic-Users do not automatically learn new spells with experience. They must do their own magical research and investigate legends and lore.

The DM will be running a free-form, homebrew game system based heavily on Basic Fantasy RPG which is a free, rules lite retro-clone with some modern d20 mechanics. You can download the core rules in PDF form here: https://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads.html. You are encouraged to read the beginners essentials, but you don't need to know any of the rules in the beginning. Read the house-rules here: https://wetjunk.blogspot.com/2020/11/thorncroft-house-rules.html.