Return to Ashes
A Gold Coast D&D Campaign
Ashes an Introduction
Welcome to Ashes, a dynamic campaign and creative project built, played and brought to life by a group of passionate nerds.
Ashes is an evolving story set in a fully original world, built from the ground up for both newcomers and seasoned adventurers alike.
This website serves as a central hub, bringing together updates, lore, player & non-player characters as well as ongoing discussion to support and expand the world we are creating.
At its heart the campaign will focus on three central characters played by the campaign's Lorekeepers. These characters will be serving as narrative anchors of the campaign's plot, helping to guide its direction while maintaining continuity across both story and gameplay.
Beyond their role at the table, the Dungeon Master and Lorekeepers are responsible for preserving the integrity of the world, ensuring that events, decisions and consequences remain consistent as the campaign evolves.
Ashes will also feature Guest Star appearances with players able to apply through the website to take part in the world. These appearances may take the form of one-off characters or returning roles, appearing on a regular or semi-regular basis as the story unfolds.
The ultimate goal of Ashes is about building a consistent world which evolves and is shaped by those who take part. To create a lasting story that we can all be proud to tell, and one we can be excited to share with the world.
Nature's Symphony
Nature's Symphony
A Retcon, But Why?
This is likely the first thing you're asking yourself, why would you want to do a
retcon? Especially considering we have had more then 20 sessions.
Firstly, there are a lot of characters, with a lot backstory, some of which I have only scratched the surface of. Additionally, in the chaos of writing for this campaign there is a good likelihood that I have missed or misunderstood parts of the backstories you have created.
Secondly,
power creep is rampant in this world. There are at least 4-6 legendary items floating around, and to me, that destroys the point of an item being legendary, it should be special. On top of that, with the god-level items and high level your characters are currently sitting at, most of the encounters I design end up feeling trivial and, in my opinion lack any meaningful stakes.
Thirdly, this was someone else's world! When I initially started the campaign, I very loosely based the world of off Critical Role, which is most noticeable when looking at the old continent map.
I have chosen to redesign the world map and locations to make them original, and better fit the
theme of hopelessness that I am looking to achieve.
I hope this explains at least in part, why I want to change everything up. At the end of the day, I will always cherish the sessions we've played and the good times we've already had.
This retcon is a refinement of the setting, a unification of the forgotten or missed lore, and more importantly something I hope we can all be proud of.
What About My Character?
As mentioned above, for many players the backstory they provided wasn't fully explored, or wasn't explored in a way that aligned to the vision they initially had.
Maybe there wasn't time to explore their hometown, or perhaps the characters backstory didn't fit the theme of the campaign. Or potentially, the King who they dreamed of overthrowing turned out to be an anthropomorphic hippo who would later join the team.
Regardless, this is an opportunity to
rewrite your backstory with clearer understanding of
the world,
theme and setting.
Additionally, if you found that you were no longer attached to your character, you are free to create an entirely new one.
Be sure to let me know how you would like to proceed when
submitting your application!
Don't forget to check the
Character Creation Rules prior to submission!
Nature's Symphony
NEW CONTINENT
NEW WORLD
My
Vision
For me, this is more then a campaign. I have been working on the idea for this world and setting for a long time now.
I love being able to share this with your all, but I want to take it further. I am inspired by worlds like Middle Earth from
the Lord of the Rings, and Hyrule from
the Legend of Zelda, and how lived in and realised they feel.
I want my world to feel the same, I am no legendary fiction writer, or billion dollar video game company, but I feel like there is something special here.
My plan is to create video content from the stories, lore, situations and memorable moments that we create together.
I will post these onto platforms such as
YouTube,
TikTok,
Instagram, and whatever the next big craze is.
I will use AI to help me create the art and the video's (and potentially voices of characters), but the stories and situations themselves will come organically, created from the minds and hearts of my friends and allies.
Because of this, there may be restrictions of situations and themes within the story to resist age.
If you find yourself involved in the campaign, either as a player character, lore keeper or anything else. You will have a right as a creator of the campaign(More info to Come)
