Beast-Riders

The Beast-Riders campaign is very similar to the Barbarians and Berserkers campaign. But there are significant differences in the player-characters' goals and motivations.

In the Beast-Riders campaign, it's the tribe's association with its totem animal that provides much of the flavor of the campaign. The villains and threats of the campaign don't just menace the humans; they also endanger the animals on whom the tribe is so dependent.

For example, in such a campaign, an evil wizard deeper in the wilderness has allied himself with an animal that is a natural (or unnatural) enemy of the tribe's totem. Now, he's sending his own warriors after the tribe's animals, trying to destroy them and conquer the tribe. If the player-character tribesmen ride dire wolves, the sorcerer's minions, fewer in number than the tribesmen, will be ogres riding smilodons (sabre-tooth tigers). If the PCs ride pegasi, the more-numerous enemies might be goblins riding giant bats.

Perhaps this evil sorcerer wants the tribe's land; perhaps he wants the tribe's princess; perhaps his god is an enemy of the god representing the tribe's animal totem. Whatever the cause, he's evil and must be dealt with.

In the early stages of the campaign, the ordinarily-happy tribesmen suddenly begin suffering attacks at the hands of these enemies. They must defend their village from the first, murderous assault, then set up patrols and reconnaissance missions to probe into enemy territory and find out what's going on. Ultimately, they will have to assemble a crack team of tribesmen (the player-characters and their immediate friends) to penetrate enemy territory, sneak into the citadel of the enemy, and destroy him.

Additionally, all the campaign types appropriate for the Barbarians and Berserkers campaign work just as well with the Beast-Riders campaign.

In this sort of campaign, since everyone has the same Warrior Kit and might seem very similar, each warrior should choose a very different Personality in order to distinguish himself from his fellows.

This campaign may have no interaction at all with the world's civilized nations; or, the tribe's enemy might be a powerful lord from the civilized lands, and the heroes' mission to destroy him will be doubly perilous because they don't know what they'll be facing in those strange lands.

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