Bastion of Hope update & preview (Patreon)

I've been plugging away at Bastion of Hope alongside other projects, including commissioning art and hiring a friend to do layout & production for an initial PDF and eventual print edition.

This post includes the most recent text for the campaign frame and a bonus equipment card mockup designed by Andrew Bauman (creator of the forthcoming Out of Orbit) using a piece of art from Shaun Ellis (who you might know as the Lead Concept Artist for the Daggerheart core rulebook)!

My goal is to deliver the polished PDF to backers in the next month or so, but life has thrown a lot of curveballs recently, so I'm trying to stay flexible.

When it's done, all backers at $10 and up will receive the polished PDF of Bastion of Hope, but the PDF will also be available for sale separately. Backers at $3 and up will receive the final text in a post like this, but not the PDF.

If the reception to Bastion of Hope is strong enough, I have plans for adventures, custom adversaries & environments, additional setting material, and more. I could easily see a future where you can get the campaign frame on its own or you can get a larger campaign kit/guide (which includes the frame, one or more adventures, custom adversaries and environments, etc.)

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BASTION OF HOPE

Dragons and Necromancers rule the world with sorcery and spite. But in the newly-free country of Bastion, a defiant few stoke the flames of revolution.

Designed by Mike Underwood

COMPLEXITY RATING:  ⬤ ⬤

THE PITCH

Read this section to your players to introduce them to the Campaign.

The world is controlled by a handful of dragons and undead overlords. They rule bustling cities where precarity keeps workers hungry and desperate. Massive obelisks siphon people’s innate magic, rendering that power to the overlords. After centuries, one nation has shattered the towers and slain their draconic overlord. In a Bastion of Hope campaign, you’ll take up arms against the wealthy and face impossible odds to spread hope and end the age of tyrants.

TONE & FEEL
Defiant, Heroic, Tense, Uplifting

THEMES
Authoritarianism, Community, Isolation vs. Interdependence, Revolution

TOUCHSTONES
Dark Sun, Eberron, Final Fantasy, Exalted, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Midnight, Spire: the City Must Fall

OVERVIEW

If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.

A millennia ago, at the end of the second age, the gods departed from the mortal realm, swearing that they would no longer interfere in the affairs of mortals. All that remains of divine magic are relics and ancient blessings.

In the gods’ absence, dozens of dragons used the influence and wealth accumulated over generations to instigate a massive multi-front war. When the dust settled, the dragons mobilized their forces and took direct control in what they call the Great Acquisition.

Over time, some dragons abandoned settlements or were pushed out by powerful necromancers – liches, spectres, and wight-lords, enabled by the eternal labor of undead workers whose debts keep them working in perpetuity after their deaths.

Each domain reflects its overlord: a legalistic necromancer’s realm defined by contracts, a callous dragon’s domain defined by endless hustle. The overlords fight amongst themselves, playing out centuries-old grudges. From bustling cities to endless sharecropper-tilled fields, precarity keeps workers hungry and desperate for any opportunity.

Hundred-foot-tall obsidian towers dot the landscape, siphoning the magic contained within all mortals and delivering it to the overlords. They invest this magic into devices and artifacts that maintain their power, from magic-fueled appliances and watchtowers, magitech engineering, and more.

Three years ago, Chorae, goddess of justice and revolution, expended the majority of her power to break the pact of non-interference, leaving her just enough to imbue a small number of mortals with extraordinary power. These heroes–who came to be known as the Chainbreakers–succeeded in destroying the towers in the domain of the forest dragon Julakass. Aided by the people of that domain and their newly-returned magic, they mounted a revolution against its dragon-lord. Six months ago, they killed Julakass, and her domain was reborn as Bastion: the first truly free nation in centuries.

Though Bastion’s people once again have access to their inherent magic, the country is surrounded by enemies, and few of the original Chainbreakers survived the uprising. Mere weeks ago, Chorae was able to transfer the divine blessings of her fallen Chainbreakers to a handful of new champions (including the PCs), desperate to keep her dangerous gambit from being snuffed out like so many dreams before it.

The fledgeling nation is at risk of being annihilated by the nearby overlords. The Chainbreakers must protect Bastion, help people learn to use their magic before it can be taken away again, and foment rebellion in other domains to spread the fires of liberation.

COMMUNITIES

All communities are available, but some have unique aspects within a Bastion of Hope Campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players and choose one or more of the questions to ask them during your session zero.

Wildborne, Ridgeborne, and Orderborne communities are most prevalent in the nation of Bastion, but people have flocked to Bastion from across the region, so characters may come from any community.

Orderborne

Most population centers are dominated by Orderborne communities, each reflecting the dictates and norms of their overlord. Some communities develop a mix of tenets in line with their overlord and tenets that reflect how people have learned to live under the rule of these immortal tyrants.

• What tenets do you still hold from your youth under the tyrants’ rule, and what tenets have you changed or replaced since you turned against them?

• Where do you see a need for order in the nascent country of Bastion? What impulse toward freedom acts in opposition to that order?

Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne

These communities are among the most common for characters that did not grow up under the direct rule of an overlord – representing rural towns, subterranean settlements, isolated villages, and groups that do their best to escape the watchful eyes of the overlords. Every part of the world is officially claimed by one overlord (often more than one, in a territory dispute lasting generations).

While the overlords have largely subsumed the diverse cultures in their domains into a monolithic national identity, minority cultural groups have been able to survive on the margins, including religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. Fringe and rural communities outside the city centers are home to most of these groups, where identities that exist in opposition to the overlords have more room to breathe and propagate.

• What identities and/or traditions do you belong to that defy the overlords’ monolithic nationalism? How do people within the group communicate these identities to one another without drawing the overlords’ ire?

• What stance did your community take with regards to the uprising against Julakass? Did they support the rebels, remain neutral, or work with the overlords’ forces to protect their own position?

ANCESTRIES

All ancestries are available, but some have unique aspects within a Bastion of Hope campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players. 

Clank

While automata have been in use for over a century, the creation of sapient constructs (Clanks) is a recent innovation, emerging from the nascent magitechnological revolution in the more domains like Vel Frazzek’s Laboratory. Clanks are largely made of metal and wood, with souls generated from a magical process to create more versatile workers. The overlords found that free will was required in order to create intelligent workers instead of mindless drones.

• Where were you created and how did you break away from the purpose-job you were made for?

• Do you consider the “mindless” automata to be your cousins? Peers yet to be awakened? How does seeing them toil make you feel?

Drakona

Drakona are the descendants of the draconic overlords from their liaisons with humanoid subjects. The dragons sire children rarely, so most Drakona in the world are several if not many generations removed from this pairing. Some overlords keep their descendants close as favored agents or lieutenants; others want nothing to do with their offspring.

• Did you grow up in the domain of your draconic ancestor, and if so, how did it impact your life?

• What do people assume about Drakona in your community? Do you enjoy a special status or are you treated like anyone else?
  
  

CLASSES

All classes are available, but some have unique aspects within a Bastion of Hope campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players. 

Guardian and Warrior

In Daggerheart core, these classes do not use magic, their subclasses do not have a spellcast trait, and the domains of Blade, Bone, and Valor do not contain any spells. For this campaign setting, you are encouraged to re-flavor some or all of these non-magical abilities to have a magical element.

• How do your martial abilities manifest your innate magic?

• If your innate magic is separate, what form does it take?

Seraph

Due to the divine pact of non-interference, traditional Seraphs that serve a god are very rare. A Seraph character could be a chosen of Chorae with a special relationship to the goddess, or they could be an agent of one of the overlords (Draconic or Necromantic). Seraphs empowered by the overlords might use that power against their former liege or to undermine their liege’s enemies.

• For Seraphs of Chorae, what do you think made the goddess chose you to be singular among her champions? What fear do you have about your ability to fulfil your oath?

• For Seraphs of other powers, how can you tell when the being that granted you this power would disapprove of how you’re using it? What would it take for this power to be rescinded?

Sorcerer

Sorcerer is the most straightforward class option to represent a character focused on connecting with and using their inborn magic. With Chorae’s blessing, Sorcerer PCs retain their magic even when within range of active obelisks. Struggling with your power and maintaining control is a major theme Sorcerer characters can tap into, and Sorcerer is a good choice for a player interested in engaging with the idea that every person can innately utilize magic as well as the world’s history of stolen magic.

• What happened when your magic returned, crashing back into you all at once? What side-effects or collateral damage colored your relationship to this power?

• How do other people of Bastion relate to you in terms of understanding and working with their own innate magic?

PLAYER PRINCIPLES

If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.

Build Up Your Home

The Chainbreakers’ success will be Bastion’s success. Address Bastion’s lacks and its crises in order to protect your home base and ensure that the dream of freedom is not snuffed out while you’re plotting the downfall of the overlords. A quest to procure medicine or building materials may be just as critical as sowing dissent among the ranks of an overlord’s military.

Fight Smart, Not Fair

Overthrowing a domain is a massive feat, even a full party of Chainbreakers. You must act with subtlety, building alliances, solving problems to gain support among the peoples of a domain. When the time is right, strike decisively and light the fire of revolution. You will find victory when you are the tip of the spear and not the entire weapon, when your actions inspire others to act by the hundreds and thousands.

Light the Way for Others

Your actions will reverberate across the world. You cannot be everywhere at once, but word of your deeds will spread, and symbolic actions can have as big an impact down the road as those that are less flashy but more immediate. Remove the obstacles that prevent people from acting and the cause’s numbers will multiply.

GM PRINCIPLES

Keep the following guidance in mind while you GM this campaign. 

Push Them to the Brink of Annihilation

The PCs are underdogs in this campaign and at times, victory should feel nearly impossible. Bastion is one nation against an entire world. As the heroes rack up successes, the other powers will (mostly) put aside their squabbles to wipe Bastion off of the map. The overlords may be rivals, but they are all invested in the system of authoritarian domains retaining ultimate power. But the more the idea of self-determination spreads, the harder it will be for the overlords to retain control.

Show How Cruelty Becomes Hubris

For centuries, the overlords have been largely unchallenged in their own domains, only facing threats from rival tyrants. Their individual worldviews have warped their domains to ruthless ends. However, that ruthlessness is the tinder that can be lit into the fires of revolution as people reach their breaking points. The weaknesses of the overlords should be easy to spot but much harder to exploit.

Use Precarity to Undermine Solidarity

The overlords have built their domains to be inescapable and inevitable. Something keeps people from leaving and keeps them in line, whether it is isolation, precarity, debt, or something else. With inborn magic stolen by the towers, people’s ability to fight back is limited. Use the overlords’ reputation and the weight of history to show the pressures that keep people from committing to a revolutionary effort. Show how people act out of fear to protect themselves and those they love rather than taking a bigger risk to protect their entire community by fighting back.

DISTINCTIONS

Use this information to prepare your campaign. You can also share it with your players as needed.

Buried Histories

Dragons and Necromancers have hidden traces/records of earlier eras to reinforce their dominance. There are wonders and histories to be uncovered of cultures long-buried. Throughout the land, there are hidden temples, ancient cities concealed by powerful magic, and other traces of the first and second age awaiting re-discovery by mortals eager to reclaim their history and gather the knowledge, magic, and artifacts that will let them chart their own destiny. 

Many of the ancient sites have already been ransacked, but others are used as secret hordes, repositories of magic, or strongholds. Chorae and her Chainbreakers have located some of these sites–including ancient temples to Chorae herself–but have yet to explore them or claim their treasures.

The Chainbreakers

Three years ago, Chorae sent a vision to her followers that they should destroy one of the obelisks in the domain of the forest dragon Julakass. Once they did, she was able to imbue thirty mortals with a majority of her power, naming them Chainbreakers. The Chainbreakers started sharing the secret revealed to them by Chorae – everyone has magic, and it is being stolen. As their supporters grew in number, the Chainbreakers destroyed three more obelisks, robbing Julakass of much of her power. With the populace able to access magic, the Chainbreakers helped people use their power and together, the revolution killed Julakass and renamed the nation as Bastion.

Many of the original Chainbreakers died in the revolution, but some remain, taking on leadership positions domestically and in Bastion’s liberatory efforts abroad. These senior Chainbreakers make great patrons and questgivers for the party, as each is focused on their own approach to helping Bastion survive and thrive.

• Cherry – Magical infrastructure inside and outside of Bastion, especially for travel.

• Eckhard – National defense & the armed forces.

• Francit – Researching new and better ways to destroy obelisks.

• Hanlen – Agricultural efforts, clean water, and medicine

• Janda –- Magical/physical barriers vs. scrying/war magic.

• Kukuyu – Propaganda and international communications.

• Lumasthi – Developing the magical capabilities of the populace.

• Orin – Protecting settlements from monsters and ecological dangers.

• Rhys – Organizing miners/laborers toward a rebellion in Vel Xivar.

• Tanyah – Plundering the dragon/necromancer tombs (heroic thievery)

• Wrenne – Publicly-owned creation and distribution of magical technology

• Yuli –- Mutual aid work in Vel Frazzek, mostly focused on food and caretaker labor.

One Free Nation Surrounded by Infighting Tyrants

Bastion was formerly Vel Julakass (or Veljul), the domain of the capricious forest dragon Julakass. It comprises a largely wooded region tucked into a wide valley between two mountain ranges with an exposed flank running from the east to the southwest. After centuries of border skirmishes, that open flank holds most of the nation’s fortifications. Veljul’s economy was largely based on lumber and medicinal components harvested from the country’s deep woods.

The nation’s capital and largest settlement is Chorae’s Stand (formerly Julakass’ Perch). The city is located deep within a magical forest filled with dangerous flora and fauna, buildings scaling up and inside massive trees older than the dragons. The newest construction has emerged and builds atop the canopy, with rope bridges, gliders, and magical platforms connecting different parts of the city.

After Julakass’ defeat, many in the domain called for a Chainbreaker to become the new ruler. Instead, the Chainbreakers worked with elders and leaders among the nation’s communities to form a representative republic with elected leaders from all parts of the nation coming together to write and implement the new nation’s laws.

Domains of Scale and Bone

Dragons and necromancers rule their fiefdoms according to their whims and desires – hoarding artifacts, debts, and knowledge. Each overlord’s worldview is manifest in their domain, with industry and ideology focused on the dragon’s interests. The necromancers have raised the countless dead from war and beyond, their workforces growing forever as debt-saddled workers sign contracts that grant their labor in perpetuity beyond death.

Previous national and ethnic identities have been suppressed by the overlords, instead focusing on nationalist loyalty to their individual ruler. However, outsider and minority cultural groups still exist in small pockets within the larger settlements as well as in the domains’ margins.

Thanks to having centuries for grudges and antipathies to grow and fester, nearly all domains are embroiled in some level of cold war antagonism with one another, sometimes escalating to open raids and occasional wars.

The lands outside direct control of the overlords have been intentionally left to grow wild and dangerous, with powerful monsters driven into these border zones or intentionally seeded to prevent subjects from escaping their obligations.

Vel Frazzek (aka The Laboratory)

Ruler: Frazzek (Loreborne lightning dragon, he/him)
Theme: Hustle Culture

On a peninsula overlooking a tumultuous bay, the frenetic lightning dragon Frazzek “bestows” magic on factory workers to let them help create his wonders. Breakthroughs in magical engineering and enchantment have enabled rapid growth of the domain’s capital and drawn in refugees able to escape other realms. 

Those that work long hours and perform at the highest levels are rewarded with better accommodations, workplace perks, and more. Housing is limited in the highly-dense city, as Vel Frazzek is built on the edge of a small peninsula. There’s “nowhere to build” because the dragon has to “preserve the natural beauty of the countryside”, which just happens to include the personal orchards and ranches of the city’s wealthy.

Frazzek hires mercenary companies as deniable assets to harry Bastion as well as sending spies to subvert it from within. Since Vel Frazzek is a small territory, he’s eager to claim Bastion and gain strategic depth as well as natural resources. He’s especially nervous about aggression from Xivar, who is an old rival (they used to be lovers and had a big falling out).

Vel Xivar (aka the Red Towers)

Ruler: Xivar (Ridgeborne volcanic dragon, he/him)
Theme: Hard Labor

In a mountainous region with fertile valleys, Xivar the brutal volcanic dragon rules over a series of mining settlements and the valleys between them. Most that live in Vel Xivar work in materials extraction or supporting those efforts in refinement or shipping to other domains. With few other local industries and little chance of escape over the mountains, most laborers have little choice but to accept dangerous working conditions.

Vel Xivar has a great deal of farmland in addition to its mountains, making the volcanic dragon’s domain especially resilient in a crisis, but the country’s reserves are seldom distributed by the callous overlord. But the communities that store these bounties are especially primed for radicalization against Xivar, since they know that there is enough to go around.

The Marrow Plains

Ruler: The Marrow Queen (Underborne wight, she/they)
Theme: Debt

South of Bastion is a wasteland created by a border war between Frazzek and the greater wight known as the Marrow Queen. Vast swathes of the Marrow Plains are home only to the dead, playing out behavioral loops as a result of the interactions between the Marrow Queen’s necromancy and Frazzek’s experimental magitech.

Life continues in small pockets, with the Marrow Plains’ primary industry being sharecropper farming and fishing. The domain includes a couple of larger towns/small cities (including the Marrow Queen’s fortress), but no large central metropolis

The Marrow Queen’s realm runs on contracts. She owns every inch of land, so you pay for your water, for your food, you rent the land even if you built your own house, etc. Most people are coerced into afterlife labor contracts, giving the Marrow Queen an ever-growing workforce. And in the long, sleepless nights, the Marrow Queen gazes northwards and plots revenge on Frazzek.

The Five Roads (aka Vel Barrikess)

Ruler: Barrikess (Wanderborne wind dragon, she/her)
Theme: Convenience as a Trap

A crossroads/trade nation ruled by the wind dragon Barikess. Her domain maintains shipping contracts with other nations, using her writs of safe passage across the region. She ferociously protects her caravans/vessels, going so far as to have agents destroy merchant caravans or ships that do not sign exclusive contracts with her.

The Necropoli

Ruler: Jevin the Wrathful (Highborne lich, he/him)
Theme: Precarity

The Necropoli is a realm of bone-and-stone cities. The primary necropolis was built out from a fortress conquered generations ago by a spellsword named Jevin. In life, Jevin was a renowned spellsword and servant of Karzan the ice dragon, granted privileges and status within the realm. It was not enough for Jevin, so he betrayed his liege and helped Xivar kill Karzan in exchange for half of Karzan’s territory.

Jevin was a well-traveled man, and in the unlife granted him by the siphoned magic, he has built a cosmopolitan city. The most privileged mortals are granted unlife for their service to the overlord, and others scramble to stay solvent while the undead aristocracy enjoys forever. Jevin’s domain extends beyond the city to ranching and farming settlements, but the living are not allowed to pass beyond the border into other domains. Jevin keeps his subjects on the edge of destitution through control of jobs, prices, and more.

Emergent Magitech

The more innovation-focused domains like The Laboratory and the Necropolis are entering a magic industrial revolution, developing powerful devices that can be produced at scale and operate without needing magically-endowed operators. Between trade and espionage, the blueprints and formulae to produce some of these key inventions has spread across the region, though Vel Frazzek and the Necropolis still lead the way in their application of these innovations.

The armies of several domains are shifting towards large-scale use of magitech weaponry from rod-rifle corps to heavy infantry with magical shield technology that can repel powerful spells and siege weaponry alike.

The necromantic realms have also begun deploying magically-powered airships to challenge the draconic overlords’ historical air superiority. Mere months ago, a Necropolis airship managed to seriously injure one of Xivar’s offspring and drive him from the field, blunting an invasion attempt into the northern end of Jevin’s domain.

Innate Power Stolen by Magic-Siphoning Obelisks

The gods created mortals with inherent magic, giving them the ability to tap into the raw power of the universe. Most mortals manifest useful but relatively limited magical talents, enough to make life easier but not often enough to be extremely dangerous. A person’s magic reflects their interests and inclinations, with scouts and gardeners and others attuned to nature manifesting the Sage domain, studious and regimented thinkers developing magic from the Codex domain, and so on.

A thousand years ago, the earth dragon Egriktor created a method of creating enchanted obelisks to drain the innate magic of those in its vicinity. Overlords built these obelisks across the populated world, each siphoning the magic of mortals in a 50-mile radius. The magic they steal protects the overlords’ castles, infuses their shock troopers, infuses their technology, and supports their massive rituals. Over time, the overlord’s propaganda won out, and so most mortals believe that the obelisks are a manifestation of the overlords’ protection from the uniformly cruel and malicious gods, who the dragons overthrew to liberate the world.

Some are born with an exceptionally strong connection to magic due to the vagaries of chance. Before the Great Acquisition, they would tend to become priests, shamans, and mediums, putting their power to use for the common good. In the past centuries, overlords have tapped these people to be their agents, granting them tokens and blessings that protect them from the obelisks’ siphoning effects so that they may use their magic.

The people of Bastion are still adjusting to having access to their magic now that the domain’s obelisks have been destroyed. But even so, these powers have proven massively useful in the country’s efforts to rebuild after the revolution and in forging a new path forward. Bastion’s gardeners and ranchers speak directly to their crops and livestock, the nation’s spies slip through shadows and pick locks with ease, and the healers tap into the power of life to heal wounds and battle sicknesses.

Magic in Bastion is more chaotic, rougher, but also more personal, and most importantly, it is self-directed, with people putting their abilities to use based on their individual and community needs and not the dictates of the overlords.

THE INCITING INCIDENT

You can use the prompt below to start your campaign, or create your own. An inciting incident for Bastion of Hope should involve the PCs facing an oncoming front of danger that threatens to overwhelm the fledgling nation.

At the edge of Bastion’s territory, the small fortress on the foothills of Shadowpeak has gone silent, failing to send reports and providing no answer to magical correspondence. The fort had been complaining of undead attacks, so Bastion leadership has dispatched a group of new Chainbreakers to investigate the situation.

Fort Shadowpeak is not only important to Bastion’s defense as the stronghold protecting the northeastern-most border, it is also built out as a trade hub, the nexus through which lumber and medicine was shipped to Vel Frazzek and where the oath-bonded couriers of Vel Barrikess would deliver their packages on behalf of nations across the region.

Bastion has been attempting to normalize trade relations with Barrikess’ domain of Five Roads to be able to pay for imports second-hand, using the trade nation as an agent. Barrikess is known to be more loyal to coin than kin, but if Bastion cannot guarantee safety for the couriers, the fledgling nation will be entirely cut off from the region’s economy.

The fort is a day-and-a-half’s ride from Chorae’s Stand, and the couriers are due in two days at dawn, carrying a powerful artifact that Bastion leaders believe will help strengthen the country. The PCs will need to race through the dangerous forest, break any siege or oust any occupying forces, relieve whatever troops remain, and ensure that Barrikess’ couriers arrive unscathed, finally holding the fort until reinforcements arrive. 

Additionally, Bastion leadership is very invested in the country making a good impression on these couriers to lay the groundwork for developing a larger trade alliance between Bastion and Five Roads. Therefore, the PCs may want to prevent the couriers from learning that Bastion lost control of Fort Shadowpeak at all.

CAMPAIGN MECHANICS

The following mechanics are unique to this campaign.

Chainbreaker Boons

Each PC in a Bastion of Hope campaign has been chosen by Chorae to be one of her Chainbreakers. These heroes are invested with a portion of her power, manifesting exceptional abilities that grow with the character. Each player will choose the heroic virtue that Chorae recognizes in their character. The corresponding boon magnifies that virtue, gaining new features as they advance in power.

When the party reaches Tier 2, the GM should frame a scene where Chorae appears to the PCs and bestows their boons. Each player picks and tells the group which heroic boon the goddess recognizes in them. They then note the corresponding boon and gain its feature for Tier 2. At levels  5 and 8, the character gains access to their boon’s feature for that new tier.

As a result of these boons, PCs in a Bastion of Hope campaign are a bit more powerful at Tiers 2-4, and the GM may decide to adjust the challenges to match them. For example, a GM using the Battle Points system might add +1 or +2 to their standard Battle Point Budget if they find the normal calculation falls short of challenging the party.

Tier 2

Bravery: When you make a reaction roll, once per session, you can re-roll your Hope die and take the new result.

Camaraderie: When you assist an ally, you can mark a Stress instead of spending a Hope and grant them a d8 advantage die.

Fortitude: Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your Major damage threshold and a +2 permanent bonus to your Severe damage threshold.

Insight: After you make an action roll to gain information, you can spend a Hope to add a d4 to the roll.

Righteousness: When you defeat a non-Minion adversary of your tier or higher, once per rest, you can clear 2 Stress or gain 2 Hope.

Tier 3

Bravery: If you have no Hope, once per long rest, gain 2 Hope.

Camaraderie: When you take the Prepare downtime action with another PC, once per session, you each gain an additional Hope.

Fortitude: When you take Minor damage, you may mark a Stress to take no damage.

Insight: When you take a minute or more to observe a person, place, or thing, you may spend 2 Hope to gain information as if you’d rolled a success with Hope (but do not gain a Hope).

Righteousness: When you deal 2 or more HP to an adversary, you can mark 2 Stress to clear an Armor Slot.

 Tier 4

Bravery: When you roll with Fear, once per rest, you can mark a Stress to change it into a roll with Hope instead.

Camaraderie: When you assist an ally and they critically succeed, they gain an additional Hope and you gain a Hope.

Fortitude: When you Risk it All, once per session, you can re-roll your Hope die and take the new result.

Insight: When you roll with Hope on an action roll against an adversary or environment, clear a Stress.

Righteousness: When you roll a critical success, once per long rest, you can clear all Stress.

Innate Magic

All PCs can use magic weapons regardless of whether they have a Spellcast Trait. Each PC that lacks all of the following features may choose one and add it as a class feature.

Minor Illusion: Make an Instinct (10) roll. On a success, you can create a minor visual illusion no larger than yourself within Close range. This illusion is convincing to anyone at Close range or farther.

Prestidigitation: You can perform harmless, subtle magical effects at will. Change an object’s color, create a smell, light a candle, cause a tiny object to float, illuminate a room, or repair a small object.

Wildtouch: You can perform harmless, subtle effects that involve nature-such as causing a flower to rapidly grow, summoning a small gust of wind, or starting a campfire-at will.

Magic-Stealing Obelisks

Obelisks are built approximately every fifty miles throughout the land controlled by the overlords to siphon the innate magic of sapient beings to suppress resistance and empower the overlords. Within that fifty-mile range, a character’s use of magic only possible under certain circumstances:

1)       They have the blessing of a god (like the PCs being blessed by Chorae).

2)       They are using a magical item.

3)       They have been granted power by one of the overlords.

Destroying an obelisk is very difficult, requiring a Progress Countdown in most circumstances. How the PCs destroy or disable them is flexible: you might find the hidden entrance into the obelisk’s interior and destroy the enchantment that siphons magic, you might dig under the obelisk to make it collapse like sappers in a siege, etc.

Magitech

Magically-infused technology is available in several domains, pushing the world’s technological development forward as the tyrants seek to gain an edge on their rivals. As a result, a few additional weapons are available in a Bastion of Hope campaign. This is a small sample of what you might decide to make. Advanced magitech serves as a possible source of loot and an alternative to the PCs delving into secret and forgotten fortresses to reclaim ancient artifacts from the first age.

While these are magic weapons, characters of any class may use them due to Chorae’s power.

Primary Weapons

Wand Pistol (Finesse, Far) - One-handed - Linked: When you succeed on an attack, mark a stress to add 1d4 to your damage pool.

Tier 1: d6+1 mag
Tier 2: d6+4 mag
Tier 3: d6+7 mag
Tier 4: d6+10 mag

Rod Rifle (Agility, Very Far) - Two-handed - Brutal: When you roll the maximum value on a damage die, roll an additional damage die.

Tier 1: d8+1 mag
Tier 2: d8+4 mag
Tier 3: d8+7 mag
Tier 4: d8+10 mag

Secondary Weapons

Warded Shield (Strength, Melee) - One-handed - Runic Ward: +1 to armor score; once per scene, you can mark 2 Stress to clear an armor slot.

Tier 1: d4 mag
Tier 2: d4+2 mag
Tier 3: d4+4 mag
Tier 4: d4+6 mag

Small Wand Pistol (Finesse, Far) - One-handed - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Far range

Tier 1: d6+1 mag
Tier 2: d6+3 mag
Tier 3: d6+5 mag
Tier 4: d6+7 mag

SESSION ZERO QUESTIONS

Ask any of these questions to your players, or make your own.

• What role did you play during the uprising? If you arrived after the uprising, what made you rally to Bastion’s flag?

• What heroic act of yours first garnered Chorae’s attention?

• How personal is your connection to Chorae? Does she speak to you directly, send her wishes through evocative dreams, or something else?

• When did the group all start working together, and why?

• Which of you saw a Chainbreaker die? What about that moment sticks with you?

• How much with the campaign focus on magitech vs. recovering the wonders of the past?

• Will our game focus more on protecting Bastion or on liberating other nations?

• What lines will our PCs absolutely not cross in their fight for freedom?

CREDITS
Concept, Game Design, and Writing by Mike Underwood
Art by Shaun Ellis
Layout & Production by Andrew Bauman

Darrington Press Community Gaming License:
This product includes materials from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 1.0, © Critical Role, LLC. under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming (DPCGL) License. More information can be found at https://www.daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others.