Hi!
If you’re searching for a low-commitment, player-driven game, The Oasis might be a game for you. Oasis is a West Marches format game, so you can play in one game per month, or you can play in five if you have the time and there are available GM spots. It’s all up to you and how active you want to be. Players schedule expeditions into the unknown island of Oasis, located somewhere between Wildemount and Tal’Dorei, where danger and loot await. There’s no limit of players in general, but we want to maintain a steady number around 50, to keep the game comfortable for both us and you.
Time/Place
We currently have 4 GMs (2 in the US and 2 in Europe) who host games, so a variety of time zones are covered. The game is and will remain free for players and is run on Foundry/Forge, a VTT that takes care of most things for us.
Oasis starts mid-June 2024.
Modified 5e
We’re playing a modified version of d&d 5e, bringing our experience from the first iteration of Oasis (180+ sessions, 15 months, thousands of hours of work) to the game. The biggest changes are: implementing ‘gritty realism’ rules for rests, modifying some core 5e spells and features (fixing broken elements), and using a travel system to expedite exploration while making it interesting and exciting. Generally speaking, we’ve made the system more engaging and demanding, so each session feels like a real, enclosed adventure. All rules and changes are packed into a neat document called the Primer, it’s linked at the bottom of this post.
Difficulty
Make no mistake, this is not your average epic fantasy campaign where heroes always have the upper hand. In West Marches, the world is not bent in your favor, but it also doesn’t favor the GMs. It is relentless but fair. The first iteration of the campaign saw blood, tears, and real emotions, with characters falling from grace and climbing to level 20. The game is perfect for forever DMs, but we also had complete beginners join.
Story
There’s no overarching story in Oasis. Players drive the narrative with their decisions during sessions. There’s space for in-character interaction via text in the game as well as out-of-character banter.
The Story So Far
It had all been going so well.
With a golden grip well established - thanks to a purse rivaling some of the Clovis Concord’s most affluent mercantile cities - Orien’s Exploratorium Carta was reaping the benefits of its semi-professional soldiery picking Oasis’s eastern territories clean of treasure, artefacts, and long-hidden secrets. “Why look for the needles in a haystack when you can just buy the haystack?” regional director Thadeus Blackthorn had been heard to say. The absorption of the island’s nascent adventurer’s guild drove its ambitious, talented, but largely disorganised members either far, far away, or into the waiting arms of the OEC itself; just cogs in the mechanism of capital-driven expansion.
And then without warning it was gone. The treasury’s vast resources just vanished, as if into thin air. Theft? Divine intervention? Nobody knew - or at least none of the higher-ups acknowledged it publicly.
Without the coin to back up the mercenary contracts, they were worth as much as the parchment upon which they were written. It didn’t take long for empty coin purses to call their owners elsewhere. Ships wouldn’t sail, investment dried up, and new rival guilds sprung up in the yawning power vacuum that opened up. Chaos spread west, as disparate bands headed into the wilderness off their own back, seeking the island’s treasures for themselves.
The Tale Yet Unwritten
“Solstice.” The word is inherently a conundrum; two different things at once. It conjures images of the brightness and hope of summer, when the daylight seems to last forever - but in the same breath, it evokes the very depths of winter, when the sun seems to beat a hasty retreat almost as soon as dawn has broken.
And so it is with the settlement that carries that same name. Barely more than an encampment on the northern shore of Oasis, Solstice stands almost unprotected against the crashing waves of the Lucidian Ocean, nor the dangers of the frigid tundra outside its wooden barricades. It is cold, dangerous, and incredibly uninviting.
However, it has a shining, resplendent heart; an artifact of power that holds back the cold, the waves, and the wolves: the Celestial Chronograph, an elaborate brass sundial that stands on a promontory overlooking the sea. Enchanted by the OEC’s finest and transported to Solstice at great cost, it repels the swirling winds outside an almost imperceptible barrier, leaving the town’s inhabitants comfortable and safe. Concurrently, it delivers an agonizing burst of radiance to any foe - man or beast - who approaches with ill intent.
Those who are beginning to call it home - craftspeople, adventurers, and merchants alike - are few in number, but each seeks to tame the wilds to the west for reasons as varied as the myriad faiths, creeds, and factions they represent. These folk will rise and fall as the town’s namesake, their stories reaching high and far - or falling into darkness, snuffed out like the winter sun.
But why are you here, traveller? What brings you this far west? The flash of arcane light from the teleportation circle fades, and the people of Solstice - heads turned to you and the other new arrivals - come into focus. What mark will you make in this unforgiving land?
How to Join
To join the game, you’ll need to find us in the “looking for a game” discord channel in the Exandria server. A link is posted at the bottom of this page, alongside a video that shows you how/where to navigate.
Setting: Exandria + homebrew
Type: Online - Discord + Foundry VTT (free Forge account needed)
Game Style: We’re trying to stick to rules as written and base our games on the three pillars of D&D - exploration, social encounters, and combat.
FIND US IN THE LOOKING FOR A GAME CHANNEL HERE
Still not sure how it works? You can watch a short video here.
If you want to see the rules that we’re using before, please see the primer document linked in the Google Drive link here
Because this game is quite different from your regular D&D campaign, please check the primer (Google link above) before you join to see if the game is down your alley.