SOTDL: Pitch
You remember the first time you died. And the second . . .
You remember because death fucking hurts, and the unavoidable process of coming back from the Dry Lands is a bastard's illegitimate bitch of a fuck.
With one foot in the land of the living and one in the dust of the lands beyond, you have seen what lies on the other side.
And you know what is coming should the ancient wards fail.
What to Expect from this Game
The segments below should give you a pretty good idea what I'm going for with this game and whether you might be interested in joining our passing circus.
So, What do the Characters Actually Do?
Premise
The age of magic has ended. The age of heroes has faded to myth. The few creatures of magic that remain in the world live in hiding, diminished beings far past the reach of their former power.
In the deep places, an ancient evil stirs, testing the waning strength of the crumbling wards set by heroes of another age to contain it for all time. The very knowledge of the great Ward Stones is lost to time, the means of their maintenance forever out of reach. Nothing but their small lingering power stands in the way of the darkness emerging into the world again.
There are some, however, whose blood still holds the memory of power. These are still able to walk the old paths. These can slip the grasp of death. They feel the welling evil, and can sense when it is near. They can also sense others of their kind, not all of whom are noble of purpose or free of the darkness' taint.
Power Level
Though there are unseen epic elements brewing in the background, our stories will mostly consist of street level heroics.
Theme
With the passing of magic, the world has become a dim shadow of a place to live. Folk who can, take advantage of folk who can't, and there is little recourse and few places for the disenfranchised and dispossessed to turn.
In random places, the ancient evil slips its bonds, with no real power to oppose its spreading miasma.
Where it rises. folk suffer.
Into this world, new and untested heroes - with nothing to guide them but faded legend - step into the breech to burn away the dark with whatever light the lingering magic in their blood can muster.
Tone
Heroic: While the setting is a backdrop of general toil and misery and affliction, light can still be found in these dark places, from simple folk to heroes alike.
Put simply, this is not meant to be a grimdark slough. The heroes are meant to prevail; they are meant to effect change, and even when they are overwhelmed and forced to regroup, their efforts will almost certainly make things better on some level for someone.