PbP Interest Check: The Ward set in the fantasy noir world of Eberron (If this sort of post should be elsewhere,…

PbP Interest Check: The Ward set in the fantasy noir world of Eberron (If this sort of post should be elsewhere, feel free to let me know).

“Docter, there’s an ugly lycanthropic infection in C18, planar delusions fueled by an alleged sorcerous geas in G6, that noble Cyran refugee in B23 demanding a second opinion that avoids amputating his warforged-shattered leg, and the director wants to see you; something about A9’s progressive petrification being beholder-borne, not medusa like you diagnosed. The victim’s adventuring party is justifiably irate, it seems, and apparently under some cosmic time crunch.

Meanwhile, an insistent Korranburg journalist delivered a bottle of your favorite Zil whiskey, no doubt tempting you to bend your exclusivity deal with Morgrave University.

Oh, and you missed a sending from your spouse. Apparently, if you can’t manage to, quote: ‘drag your self-absorbed hide to your own offspring’s Shadow Carnival try-out tonight, then you can find your precious magecraft wand collection at the bottom of the Dagger River, and don’t even bother looking for your family because they’re moving to Wroat to live with your in-laws,’ end quote. Shall we start with the amputation?”

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Interest post: I’d like to know how much interest there might be in a game with a somewhat unusual premise. Would this be something of interest to you fine people?

What: I’m interested in running The Ward: Acute Care Edition (a recently released medical drama game Powered by the Apocalypse), but rather than set in modern day, I want to set it in the fantasy noir world of Eberron. We would explore the dramatic and messy everyday lives of healing professionals within a strictly hierarchical Jorasco-run healing ward, most likely in Sharn, the City of Towers. Gameplay mechanics focus less on success vs failure and more on hard choices, natural consequences, and player-to-player drama regarding reputation/rivalry/romance/etc., while characters juggle the professional, personal, and social theaters of their lives.

When/How: Played via play-by-post (PbP), likely on rpol.net. Negotiable expected posting pace of 1 post per day or two. Expected game length would be the equivalent of a live 4-6 session arc. Depending on interest, possibly starting late August or September. The game would be set shortly after the end of the Last War and the terrible Day of Mourning.

Who: You play the specialists, interns, nurses, and resident healing experts that do the heavy lifting within the strict but relationally messy hierarchy. While the Jorasco halflings command from the top, player characters can be any race filling any of the roles, all with respected expertise in both medical and non-medical pursuits, and all serving one addiction or another (blatant or otherwise). Players should enjoy embracing the relational drama inherent in the high-stakes, high-stress environment of a fantastical, medical-magical healing station.

Why: I love Eberron as a world, especially the economic power of the Dragonmarked Houses. I’m eager to explore a fantastical and dramatic slice-of-life of the Eberron’s inhabitants rather than the epic exploits of just its adventurers and world-savers. If this game works out, the system could readily adapt to explore the non-medical exploits of teams of experts serving any of the other Dragonmarked Houses.

I would love to explore a larger “Eberron Experts” series or anthology of loosely connected short-form story arcs featuring each Dragonmarked House: Orien couriers/train-hoppers, Sivis notaries, Kundarak bankers, Deneith bodyguards, Vadalis magebreeders, Medani inquisitives, Phiarlan performer-spies, Ghallanda hostellers, etc.

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Additional World/Historical Context

Despite the unaccountable losses that the Last War wrung from Khorvaire, there is one thing it provided in abundance: demand. Demand for healing services, desperate adaptation, and ethically flexible innovation.

While House Cannith’s profits soared through non-partisan sale of warforged and other arms, and both Houses of the Shadow-marked illicitly boomed on furious espionage under the guise of promoting cultural exchange and morale, we thrived on suffering, whether we liked it or not. Every delivery of a bloody wound or messy new member of the Five Nations’ arms race dropped in our laps lucrative new frontiers of an uncontested monopoly.

After the Day of Mourning, the war has officially ended, but we all know that Khorvaire’s suffering has only just begun.

House Jorasco’s coffers overflow at an all time high, while the overworked, under-equipped practitioners burn out faster than an elemental airship with a cracked Khyber-shard. Hundreds of halflings with Marks of Healing only go so far—and charge exorbitantly for their famous services—so it falls to us to stand in the gap and bring some brief moments of relief before the whole continent sinks once more into War. We take it one all-nighter at a time, so wash up, prepare your spells, put on your game face, and stick a bloody hand in.