WARNING - ADVENTURER! YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE AND WE SALUTE YOU!

Mortis is a very different setting from what you're probably used to. This world is bleak and unrelenting and it undoubtedly doesn’t take much to end up dead. In fact, it’s painfully easy, specifically if you seek to construct characters you would ordinarily play in standard fantasy frameworks, where you’re a mighty hero who’s prepared to handle any challenge and smite evildoers by the dozens. In this game conflict is ever perilous. Know that many individuals will not pause to deceive you, take from you, or murder you, should they see fit. Use your head, be wary of what you say, and always look out for yourself, because no one else will. One final thought to keep in mind is that you are not supposed to beat every challenge placed in front of you. There is no ridicule in running away if it means you live to fight another day. Optional conflicts are frequently the hardest, so don’t run at the first chance to be viciously murdered.

This is a dark age, a time of civil war, societal decay, racism, xenophobia and dangerous magic. Ohr is a harsh and unforgiving world where life is cheap.

Magic is a liability. Magic in the Ohr setting is difficult to use and unpredictable. In order to learn new spells you'll also need to seek out lost tomes and forbidden knowledge. Casting spells in different parts of the world can also have differing effects, from causing more damage or less to having the spell fizzle out entirely or to cast the same spell twice in a row on the same turn. A number of spells have also been completely removed from the game or changed.

Witches are seen as dangerous and unpredictable. Even among members of your own factions witches are both a blessing and a curse. Small villages and towns will not react well to magic. You put yourself and your companions at risk when you use spells in public. Heretic, wytch, and darkling are words often used to describe magic users. Even among those who tolerate them.

The rule of law is no more. This is not a land meant for chivalrous knights, noble quests, or meek souls. Maintained roads have fallen into disrepair as the dangerous wilds once again reclaim what rightfully belongs to it. Cities have become bastions of cruelty and slavery. Noble houses that once ruled over provinces and commanded vast armies have withdrawn to rule from their broken city-states. An endless, silent struggle for dominance in a world where only the echoing laughter of the dark gods breeds progress.

Demi-human races are feared and hated. Humans will generally not trust you. Even among the Free Cities, non-human races are sometimes seen as lesser because of different cultural customs or a fear of the unknown

Setting Themes

Individualism - Rebellion against the natural order of the world. If someone has to rule, why shouldn’t it be you? Characters are adventurers, heroes, larger than life. At least they think they are. They should want to throw out the rules of society to make an ideal life for themselves.

Grimness and Realism - A grim, realistic setting, but with fantastic elements like monsters, magic, and gods. Monsters, truly dangerous foes, should be limited in their uses. There should be a focus on the darkness of humanity. A man can be just as deadly and cruel as any monster.

Hate & Violence - This is the nature of the world. Violence is a way of life in many places of the world and one should often apply dark anthropomorphism when dealing with monsters and obstacles that impede the character’s lives. These enemies should be enemies who hate, but must be hated in return.

Helplessness & Hopelessness - When facing the cosmic horrors and star-demons that have flooded into the world, every victory is always only ever going to be a minor setback to the enemy. Victories are temporary, and they will almost always pay a price for it.

Unanswered Questions & Sanity’s fragility - The reality of the world bends at the will of the King. Those who try to understand it will often go insane.

Guns & Sorcery - Muskets and flintlock pistols are a burgeoning technology on Ayotha. Magick is returning to the world and with it, warping reality and destroying anything it touches. Those few capable of controlling such devastating powers are feared. Magick is seen as horrific, dangerous and deadly. It is a sign of terrible things to come. Those who utilizes its powers foolishly will not live long.

"Like a tidal wave of blood and nightmares, the black age of death will leave nothing for your kings to rule over but bones and dust."

Style of Play

WHAT DOES OSR MEAN?

Broadly, OSR games encourage a tonal fidelity to Dungeons & Dragons as it was played in the first decade of the game's existence—less emphasis on linear adventure plots and overarching metaplots and a greater emphasis on player agency. Players are not super heroes, they do not have three page backstories or hold lofty titles. The general ethic of OSR-style play emphasizes spontaneous rulings from the referee, or Game Master, over set rules found in a book. The idea is for the players to engage with the fantasy as much as possible, and have the referee arbitrate the outcomes of their specific actions in real time. The idea of game balance is also de-emphasized in favor of a system which tests players skill and ingenuity in often strange or unfair situations. The players should expect to lose if they merely pit their numbers against the monsters, and should instead attempt to outwit or outmaneuver challenges placed in their way. Keeping maps comes highly recommended, especially if you don't want to get lost in a dungeon.

THE WORLD OF AYOTHA - SETTING FOR MORTIS

Mortis is a blend of the most modern fantasy tabletop roleplaying games ( D&D 5th Edition, 13th Age, Fantasy Age, Pathfinder, etc.) with trappings, rules and the play styles of OSR games (AD&D, Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy Roleplaying, Beyond the Wall, etc.) If your only involvement with tabletop roleplaying games is watching Matt Mercer on Critical Role or taking part in a few 5E games on Roll20 you need to know that this game is altogether different in comparison.

Rulings, not rules

With old-style gaming, you don't always use rules; you make a ruling. It's easy to understand that sentence, but it takes a flash of insight to really "get it." The players can describe any action, without needing to look at a character sheet to see if they "can" do it. The game master, in turn, uses common sense to decide what happens or if a roll of the die will be required to see just how well or if they're even able to complete the task they've set out to accomplish. Getting through obstacles is more "hands-on" than you're probably used to. Rules are a RESOURCE for game masters. Not the end all be all of what can or should happen in a game.

know when to run

Game masters aren't here to favor the party, or to favor the monsters. We're also not playing in a tournament against you, where we're restricted by rules or required to offer up well-gauged, well-balanced challenges. Instead, we're there to be an impartial referee for your characters adventures in a fantasy world. Even on the first level of a dungeon, there might be challenges too difficult for a first-level party of adventurers. Ask the one-armed guy in the tavern; he may know. If you didn't think of checking the tavern for one-armed men, consider it a comment on your skill as a player.

player skill, not character abilities

This is a game of skill and not just character sheets or numbers. You might have a high persuasion, intimidation, or deception skill but if you are unable to back that up with a sensible idea of how those things might function in the world or how you might be able to best apply those skills to the given situation there is no number that is going to save you. It is expected that you are asking questions, talking to non-player characters, exploring the town, doing what you need to do in order to create a sense of real exploration and roleplay in any given scene. You must (in-part) back up your rolls through roleplay and the choices you make, and the things you say while in-character.

heroic, not superhero

Mortis has a human-sized scale, not a super-powered scale. This is represented in our classes, the level of magic, and the rules as presented. At first level, adventurers are barely more capable than a regular person. They live by their wits. Even as characters rise to the heights of power, they aren't picking up superhero abilities or high ability scores. Truly high-level characters have precious items accumulated over a career of adventuring or crusading; they usually have some measure of political power, or at least a stronghold. They are deadly when facing normal opponents... but they aren't invincible. It's not about the guy who can start the game and take on ten club wielding peasants. It's got a real-world, gritty starting point and you're expected to fight tooth and nail to survive.

FORGET "GAME BALANCE"

Mortis is a fantasy world, with all its perils, contradictions, and surprises: it's not a "game setting" which somehow always produces challenges of just the right difficulty for the party's level of experience. The party or the players have no "right" only to encounter monsters they can defeat, no "right" only to encounter traps they can disarm, and no "right" to a die roll in every particular circumstance. This sort of a situation isn't a mistake in the rules (unless it is, which it can then be brought up at the end of a session!) Game balance just isn't terribly important in this style of game. It's not a tournament where the players are against the GMs. It's a story with dice: the players describe their actions, and the game master describes the results, and the story of the characters, epic or disastrous, grows out of the combined efforts of GMs and players. Rules aren't fragile, and the game doesn't collapse if someone makes a mistake or one character is temporarily more powerful than others, or an encounter is "too hard." Sometimes game masters will make a bad call. These aren't tragedies. Role-playing is just like the Internet - it doesn't break if you push the wrong buttons. Game balance just isn't a critical matter.