Loxshire Gothic

Introduction

Greetings, and well met, curious adventurer, many blessings upon you for having chosen the Loxshire Gothic as the start of your grand adventure. Here there be many ways a man may make his name, whether he fights the dogs who threaten our precious monarchy, or the ancient and vile demons that claw their way into our world.

Whatever be your quest, I have no doubts that it is a glorious one, you and your party shall require the Fantasy Age core rulebook in order to continue, at least one copy for the group. Once procured and discussed amongst the group you shall be ready to get started in the county proper, begin by reading the section labelled Playing the Loxshire Gothic below and, if playing the role of Storyteller, also the section labelled Running the Loxshire Gothic.

Fortune favour you and your kin, and much nobility come from your deeds.

Loxshire and Surrounding Counties

Playing the Loxshire Gothic

It may appear intimidating at first reading through the contents of the setting, it should be noted, however, that you are not required to have every detail and page committed to memory, and in fact, in universe it's unlikely that a character would have any full knowledge outside of one or two areas of expertise. A player should only have jot down notes about their home county, town, profession and class, as well as any knowledge they might have picked up.

Getting into the mindset of the Loxshire Gothic is perhaps the hardest, as it is inspired by the culture of 1700's Britain many of the elements we consider important to contemporary society are either forgotten or in their infancy, it should be noted here, many of the prejudices that we have fought against in our world are still in full swing in Loxshire, Racism, Misogyny and Homophobia are institutionalised and actively enforced. This has been done in mind of building a setting that shares the same feeling of oppression and degradation of the era it emulates, and not as a comment against those groups, anyone wishing to play from the perspective of one of these oppressed persons is welcomed but ought to embrace the challenge and drama that it invites.

In order to get in to the spirit properly you ought to forget about Social Mobility, Equality and Information, those born a peasant are likely to remain a peasant, only going so far as to become perhaps an industrialist, those with power and wealth will do what they can to prevent others from climbing up the ladder, those part of a minority group or easily discriminated against are likely to invite that discrimination unwillingly and the freedom to seek out information is harshly controlled by those who own it, not that those amongst the general population possess the ability to read it.

This section lists the creative inspirations that have gone into creating the Loxshire Gothic, and should be examine by a player in the process of character creation, as it will provide some idea of the creative boundaries and expectations of the setting. It's not essential that you must have consumed all those listed, having simply a passing knowledge of most is enough to shape your expectation, and a good rule of thumb is that if your character would fit into any two of these sources without causing too much of an anachronism then they ought to fit easily enough into the Loxshire Gothic.

Character creation follows much the same process as in the Fantasy Age core rulebook, with the exception that Race is exchanged for county, and career is changed for either parish or organisation, regarding which; a player can choose which of the two they wish to select their career from, though a character should always have a parish that they originate from for the purposes of backstory, but an organisation is not required.

There are no changes to class and specialisation, but the player should be aware of how their class selection interacts with the parish and organisation selections they have made, details of which are included on the parish and organisation pages themselves. There are a few additional specialisations made unique to the Loxshire Gothic that increase the options available to a character.

Running the Loxshire Gothic

Loxshire, and the world that surrounds it, is in constant peril, of demonic entities springing forth to destroy all that lay before them, or corrupted members of the nobility or authority who look only to fill their coffers or sadistically abuse those less fortunate, but despite all this there are heroes, who selflessly risk their lives and their comfort in aid of preventing vile forces from winning their ways. A successful Loxshire Gothic campaign will have the players struggle against oppression, facing enemies who may seem impossibly dangerous, having sacrifices made and allies lost, before victory is secured when all seems darkest.

The Loxshire Gothic comes with several pre-built adventures, relevant to specific parishes and organisations of Loxshire, as well as a selection of longer, potentially world changing, campaigns that can be spaced out over a period of several sessions. The adventures and campaigns run on a Node Based System, meaning there is plenty of opportunity to cater towards all manner of play-styles.