Stonetop Introduction & Session Zero

The project, the setting, the characters

Introducing Stonetop

Our very first story here on PTFO will be told with Stonetop. If you’ve never checked out Stonetop, by Jeremy Strandberg, I strongly recommend it. It’s a well-designed, narrative-focused RPG with some really rich worldbuilding that leaves a lot of room for its players to tell fantastical, heartfelt stories about their characters and the community they’re a part of.

In this campaign, we’ll be following three such characters — Padrig, the Marshal, Vahid, the Seeker, and Anwen, the Would-Be Hero, as they live in, and fight for, a tiny, iron-age village named Stonetop. More about them, and the village, in just a moment.  

You’ll see new episodes every week, with occasional interludes or housekeeping notes added into the mix. Episodes will be organized into “sessions,” keeping to the form of a tabletop RPG, and each session will deal with a discrete leg on our heroes’ journey. Each episode will be a mixture of:

1. Story: Characters doing stuff, having adventures, talking to one another, etc. This will take a novel-like form, though there will definitely be differences in how it reads, owing to its TTRPG heritage.

2. Mechanical discussion: How the rules of the game are shaping what’s happening narratively, which will include some discussion of Stonetop’s rules of play. 

3. Narrative discussion: Why I’m roleplaying each character and NPC the way I am, talking through my thought process as both a gamemaster and a player.

4. Reader Polls: At critical moments, there’ll be opportunities for readers to make a decision on behalf of the characters, or even decisions about what threats or obstacles might confront our heroes.

I’ll use blockquotes like this one to mark when we’re stepping out of the narrative and talking about the rules or story/character notes. I also use footnotes for small rules notes or narrative asides.

Session Zero

For the rest of this note, we’ll get into some ‘Session Zero’ stuff. That’s when we find out who our characters are, and more about the village of Stonetop. Going through the full Session Zero process for all three characters would be a lot, so I’ll intersperse the character deep-dives with the other sessions to keep things moving. Credit for the foundational worldbuilding goes to Jeremy Strandberg -- the places, concepts, and the starting seed of many of the NPCs are his. 

Stonetop, our Home

Stonetop is an isolated village near the edge of the known world. It’s home to around 300 folks -- a tight-knit community, where people look out for one another. It is quite poor, not a trade hub or a cultural center. Food in the winter is often scarce.

It’s built around a massive standing stone of unknown origin, carved with faint, swirling runes. Lightning strikes the stone more often than is natural. Stonetop rests on ruins left behind by the Makers, who were ancient precursors, now long gone. It boasts a Maker-crafted cistern, which the villagers fill with rainwater and snowmelt every season to prepare for dry weather, and a crumbling Old Wall, which the villagers use to scavenge stone. It stands at the edge of the Great Wood, to the east. The Great Wood is dangerous, but brave villagers hunt and trap there. Per an old compact with the Forest Folk, the people of Stonetop never fell a living tree. 

Stonetop has a few full-time tradesfolk -- a tanner, a smith, a midwife, and a cobbler. There’s a granary that stores the villages’ foodstuff, which everyone contributes to, and everyone shares in. The public house is the largest building in the village, where people meet after sundown to drink and keep company. It has floor space for travelers and a small stable, which houses the village’s two workhorses. 

There are four gods revered in Stonetop: Tor, the Rain-Maker, Thunderhead, the Slayer-of-Beasts, Aratis, the Lawkeeper, Helior, the Daybringer, and Danu, the Earth Mother. Tor is the most respected, but each gets their due and has a shrine dedicated in the Pavillion of the Gods, near the center of town. 

Stonetop’s Neighbors

The Great Woods are home to horrid creatures called crinwin, twisted goblins that mimic human behaviors. The Forest Folk used to hunt them, but the Forest Folk haven’t been seen in a decade, and now the crinwin are growing bolder. 

Gordin’s Delve is a rough-and-tumble mining village a few days to the West.

The Hillfolk are nomads who live in the Steplands to the south and the Flats to the West. They feud with the Delvers, thanks in part to their taboos about digging deep in the earth and forging iron. 

Marshedge is a large town about ten days’ travel southeast. 

Barrier Pass is a few days north, in the mountains. The pass is guarded by mountain holdfasts, peopled by grim, unwelcoming sentinels. 

Stonetop’s Protectors: Our Heroes

Stonetop characters use “playbooks” that define their abilities and help you flesh out their personalities and histories. They have stats that were inspired by Dungeons & Dragons’ stat system -- Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma. Each of these stats has a bonus associated with it, and nearly everything in the game involves rolling 2d6 and adding a bonus (between -1 and +3) to it. On a 10+ result, called a Hit, the character succeeds and the action proceeds. On a 7-9, they get a Weak Hit, and succeed with a narrative complication. On a 6 or less, they Miss, and things turn against them. 

We’ve got three player characters whose viewpoints we’ll be following:

Padrig, the Marshal: Padrig was born in Stonetop, grew up there, and then went wandering. Naturally talented with a bow, and trained by his father, he fell into a life of violence, first as a hired caravan guard, then as a mercenary in feuds against the Hillfolk, and finally, as a bandit with a crew called The Claws under a warlord named Brennan in Gordin’s Delve. When the Delvers chased The Claws out of town, Brennan ordered the crew to scatter and regroup in Marshedge. Padrig led his part of the crew back to Stonetop, hoping for a safe place to winter. Now some of them are starting to feel at home. 

The Marshal playbook is focused on leadership in battle, and Padrig starts the game in command of a crew of a half-dozen warriors. These are the bandits he brought to the village, who are pretending to be a band of honorable mercenaries called “The Companions.” They’ve managed to keep their secret so far. Padrig is sharply observant (+2 Wisdom) and has an easy way with the men he commands (+1 Charisma), and a pretty good shot with the bow (+1 Dexterity). He is not very learned (-1 Intelligence).

In the course of this campaign, I want to see if Padrig can somehow find a way to keep his crew safe and find some peace in Stonetop. We don’t want to make it too easy for him — it’ll be hard getting the villagers to accept his past if it comes to light, and it’ll be hard to get a bunch of bandits to accept a peaceful life.

Anwen, the Would-Be Hero: Anwen was born in Stonetop. Her mother was a refugee from Marshedge, who was given hospitality in a local family’s household. Anwen was raised on tales of her absent father’s heroism. According to Anwen’s mother, he was a brave warrior who died protecting the people of Marshedge from the abominations that lurk in Ferrier’s Fen. When Anwen was 11, her mother left the village abruptly, telling Anwen she had dreamt of her father still alive and in danger, and she needed to find him. She was left in the care of her foster family, whom she quarreled with until she too was cast out. She dreams of being a hero like the stories of her father. 

The Would-Be Hero playbook is designed to evoke the classic hero-in-training — it starts out weaker than other playbooks, and grows stronger by taking risks. Anwen is tough (+1 Constitution) and not especially thoughtful or observant (-1 Wisdom), and has +0s in the rest of her stats, but whenever she succeeds with a 10+ roll, she gets to add one to her stats permanently (which is quite powerful!). When making a Would-Be Hero, you choose their Fear and their Anger. Their Anger is what drives them to heroism, and their fear is what they must overcome. Anwen burns with anger at the sight of oppression, and at threats to her adopted family in Stonetop. She is afraid of the monsters of The Great Wood, and of not being taken seriously by the other villagers. During play, we’ll probably see her anger get her into trouble, but also help her overcome her fears.

Anwen’s story is all about proving herself. Her mother is absent, her father is a bit of a question mark, and she has some powerful people in Stonetop who either want her to calm down and live a ‘normal’ life or just leave entirely.

Vahid, the Seeker: Vahid is an antiquarian and traveler from Lygos, a great city-state far to the south of Stonetop. He has come to Stonetop in search of secret knowledge about The Makers and the other ancient precursors that once ruled the world. He is the bearer of an artifact known as the Azure Hand, a heavy staff that gives him limited command over elemental energy, and he has unlocked the mysteries of a Maker-crafted Key which has given him the power to perceive the thoughts and auras of sentient creatures with a mystical third eye. The Stonetop community isn’t quite sure what to make of him, though he has made himself useful as a scribe and an engineer, trades he learned at the great Lycaeum of Lygos. He is keenly interested in the Maker ruins on which the village was built. 

The Seeker is the most outwardly magical of all the playbooks, and it begins play with access to magical artifacts: one Major Arcana (the Azure Hand, in Vahid’s case) and one Minor Arcana (The Key), as well as some information on two other Minor Arcana, which we’ll learn about later. Vahid is very learned (+2 Intelligence) and tough from his travels, (+1 Constitution), and he is as cosmopolitan as it is possible to be in the early Iron Age (+1 Charisma, speaks lots of languages). He is not very physically powerful (-1 strength).

Curiosity is central to Vahid’s story. He wants to learn more about the Makers and use that knowledge to help others, but isn’t always aware of the danger he puts himself and others in by meddling with powerful arcane forces.

Other Notable Villagers

In the course of character creation, a few necessary NPCs arose, who all have connections to the player characters. They’ll almost certainly show up in the first adventure we go on. 

Garet: He fulfills two roles in the village: One, he is the Publican, the keeper of the Public House, and is the face of the village to travelers. He is also the local priest of Aratis, the Lawkeeper, and when disputes between villagers cannot be resolved among the parties involved, they come to him. He is also responsible for recording the Chronicle of Stonetop, which preceding judges have also kept (some more rigorously than others).

Garet is giving both Vahid and Anwen hospitality in the Public House. He has asked Vahid to help record the inventory for the granary and the cistern and to study the Chronicle. He is fond of Anwen, and has high hopes for her. He’s glad Padrig is back and hopes he can find a way to call Stonetop home again. 

Garet’s role here is a friendly mentor figure to the player characters, and a strong tie to the village, even for Vahid, who has no kin here. If something bad were to happen to him, it would put the player characters in a tough spot. 

Cerys: Cerys is the Priestess of Danu in the village, is the most knowledgeable about the care of the village’s crops, and is the matriarch of one of Stonetop’s largest family groups.

Her son, Owain, was the leader of the militia before Padrig returned and put that in doubt. She has bad blood with Padrig, for that and other, more serious offenses that we’ll learn about later. Her family was the one who took Anwen in, until she came into conflict with Owain as well, and was cast out. Cerys likes Anwen but wants her to cease her unruly ways. She doesn’t trust Vahid at all -- he is an ungodly sorcerer and could bring ruin on the village. 

Cerys is intended to be an internal threat to the player characters, and one that can’t just be murdered. She’ll be tricky to deal with, I hope. 

Owain: Middle son of Cerys. He’s a bully and likes hurting people, but he cloaks it in self-righteousness. He pulls his weight hard for the village, tending the fields, drilling with the militia, and beating up malingerers. He hates Padrig for putting his command of the militia in doubt, and he hates Anwen for standing up to his bullying. He doesn’t care for Vahid because he’s a bookworm and his mother says he’s wicked.

Owain is likewise an internal threat, but more of an overt one. He could end up dead at one of the PC’s hands. Or maybe they’ll find a way to straighten him out? We’ll play to find out. 

Blodwen: Blodwen is a young woman of the village. She was born with the Forest Eyes -- vivid, bright green eyes that the villagers believe link her to the now-missing Forest Folk. Vahid has studied the Chronicle — he knows that villagers with the Forest Eyes have been associated with all manner of strange happenings in the village, and he carefully watches Blodwen to learn more. 

Blodwen is a bit of an outlier -- Vahid needed another NPC to tie him to the village and its story, and so marking one of the villagers with some sort of magical mystery seemed like a natural way to do that. I’m not totally sure where we’ll take her part of the story, but she could make for a useful hook for the main characters. 

GM Prep for Session One

A key part of the GM prep for the first true session and the party’s first adventure together is posing some questions that we’ll answer through play. Based on what we established with our three heroes, here are the questions I’ve got: 

I wonder…

• How long will Padrig be able to keep his bandit past under wraps? 

• How long will Anwen tolerate Owain’s bullying? 

• Who will take Anwen in, after she quarrelled with her foster family?

• Can Padrig find a place in Stonetop again?

• Can Padrig convince the rest of his crew to stay in Stonetop? Does he want them to? 

• What will Vahid’s next discovery about Stonetop be? 

• How will Vahid win over the more superstitious villagers?

To get the first session started, we use the “Spring Bursts Forth Upon the Land” move, which you can see below. “Moves” are how Stonetop defines the abilities of our characters and their community. They have a trigger (bolded below) and a set of outcomes associated with a Hit, a Weak Hit, and a Miss. When we come to a pivotal move in the story, I’ll excerpt it from the rulebook and discuss it a bit before resolving it. Here’s our first move of the game:

Which of the characters is most hopeful? It’s probably Anwen. Sure, Cerys just expelled her from her home, and she’s sleeping on the floor of the Public House. But her initiation is coming up, and she feels strong and proud of herself for standing up to Owain’s bullying. 

Stonetop’s Fortunes (which represent the village’s overall luck, momentum, morale, etc.) start at a +1, so we roll 2d6+1. 

We get a 6, which is a miss. We’re going to start off with a bang, as multiple threats advance. We’ll see what happens on Friday. Til next time!