My name is Ben Marshall, and I have been running Dungeons and Dragons games since I was a college student in 2012. I immediately began writing my own setting, and after two years I threw it out and started over. I have been writing the current setting I use since 2014, and I would love to share my world with you!
I have always been bothered by how many plot holes and how vague so many settings are, and I decided to write a custom fantasy setting (also called a homebrew setting) that made sense within it's own rules. Along the way I picked up my co-author Steven Oyler who shared my vision. Together, we created Kiris Anon, an epic fantasy world with tens of thousands of years of history, dozens of legendary entities with distinct goals and personalities, multiple competing empires, and a complete metaphysical explanation for magic and the afterlife. We have also researched 250 years of historical price, income, and inflation data to produce a period realistic price list for goods, services, and income.
My philosophy of dungeon mastering can be summarized as I create the world, but you create the story. Players can expect to explore a fully developed world, either stumbling into interesting scenarios or creating ones for themselves! If you decide that you want to establish a city, build a global monopoly, hire yourself out as a mercenary, save the world, or become the salesmen of Hell itself, I will narrate your quest for glory!
However, Kiris Anon is a living setting, so while you are off saving the Imperial city of Chardof, the Plutocratic city of Minsisfad may be planning an invasion of it's neighbors, or that strange group you decided to ignore may have completed it's occultic ritual, or the guard you saved may have reformed the corrupt guard out of spite. Just becuase something is off screen doesn't mean it is frozen in time!
If you don't know where to start or just find yourself having a slow day, I am always willing to just 'make something happen'. More often than not, when players can't decide what to do I fall back on my sense of humor and let something hilarious happen to the players. Who can ever forget the day that the juvenile dragon kidnapped the party to keep as his pets? Or when the ghost of a deceased party member returned to instruct the players to forge the legendary Sandwich of the Gods?
Finally, if you decide to start a new campaign, any and all decisions you made with your last party become a part of the setting, allowing you to shape the history of the world and leave a lasting impact!
To give you a taste of what to expect, here are a few especially good stories one group of players have made in their playthrough of my setting. Please keep in mind that every group starts with a blank slate of Kiris Anon, so you don't have to share your story with other groups.
The Legendary Butter Merchants, who in their quest for financial gain declared war on a devil backed drug cartel, destroyed a forest protected by druids, rebuilt an ancient fortress, built the third largest city in the world, won a war against their neighboring city state, befriended the third and fourth most powerful beings in creation, established alliances with the nearly extinct Nectar Ants, the isolationist sci-fi Apexi, and the dread liches of the necropolis, saved the world twice, and accidentally assisted the ascension of Tiamat as the ruler of the Nine Hells during their siege on the Nine Hells.
The Infamous Hells' Salesmen, who in the shadow of Butter Merchants' accomplishments signed up as mercenaries in the distant lands of the southern coast, lost four of their seven party members traveling through the warzone, fled the riots they started through their impropriety, survived The Day the Sun Went Nova, rescued ten million kobolds from the ghoul and illithid alliance, damned 70 million kobolds by convincing them to 'lease' their souls to the newly ascendant Tiamat, united the surviving forces of evil into the United Races Federation, befriended the Demon Lord of Cockroaches, and sacked the capital of the second Giant Empire.
The Butter Merchants were supposed to explore the setting and save the world. Instead, they established an international monopoly on cheap foodstuffs and become the greatest heroes of their timeline.
Hells' Salesmen were intended to choose either the Giant Empire or the Goblin Empire to back. Instead, they chose to unite the failing nations of Tucker's Kobolds and The Tarnosian Empire through an unholy union with the Nine Hells of Tiamat.
Every group of players starts with their own timeline.
What will you do with your timeline of Kiris Anon?
Copyright © 2021 Ben Marshall, Professional Dungeon Master - All Rights Reserved.
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