Welcome to the Theotosian Age!
For some weeks now, I have been preparing to GM a tabletop RPG one-shot session for a few friends using Critical Role’s new Daggerheart game system. For this, I came up with a campaign frame for the game based somewhat on the same influences as Matt Mercer’s Age of Umbra campaign frame from the core rulebook. In Daggerheart, a campaign frame is a setting with special rules that players can use in their games to flavour their adventures. Anything you can imagine, from a specific type of fantasy world to science-fiction or cyberpunk, is possible here.
I called my setting the Theotosian Age. Like Matt’s, it is a dark fantasy world heavily influenced by Elden Ring, Dark Souls and Berserk. It’s meant to be a gritty and very deadly post-apocalyptic place that forces players to embrace the lethality of their characters.
Map of the Deathless Lands, the geographic setting for the Theotosian Age campaign frame
I am very excited to dive into my first Daggerheart adventure. The system seems to be right down my alley, dropping a lot of the nitty-gritty math and accounting I dislike in D&D and substituting it with a bigger focus on telling amazing stories. From my reading of the rules and from what I’ve seen of Critical Role’s Age of Umbra miniseries, it fits much better with my GM style and the kind of things I want to encourage in my players than D&D does. It seems to do away with all the things I find tedious, making more space for epic storytelling at the table. Diving into this new system got me very excited and inspired my to create the Theotosian Age setting in the first place.
If you want to have a look at my setting, and maybe even try it out for yourself, you can download a PDF that lays out the lore and special rules using the link below. Feel free to set your own adventures in this world. And if you do, please let me know about them! It would make me very happy to see how other GMs and players use this to tell their own stories. Please also get in touch with me if you have any feedback or want to suggest improvements. I’d be happy to consider your ideas.
Download: The Theotosian Age Campaign Frame v. 1.1