Welcome to Verda Stello!

The great green ringed world

This fantastical land is filled with approximately human-sized plant and bug people (give or take some 2 foot tall fruits and giant vines) called the Greenfolk. The main source of life for Verda Stello is the Cascade, a massive waterfall that pours over the whole inner ring of the world.

Over time, the Cascade dried up, leaving all the Greenfolk scrambling for water. But the waterfall revealed the entire center of Verda Stello was a great salt sea, dotted with countless unknown islands, and a prophecy about an Infinite Lake that can save the world and a Salmon that grants your deepest desire.

This kicked off the Tide, a pirate era that has raged for 50 years. People are still searching for the lake and the salmon, and the Tide shows no sign of stopping now.

Think One Piece meets Redwall, with Plants Vs Zombies sprinkled in.

Characters | Changes to D&D | Skill Tree | RPS Ship Battle Mechanics | The Four Countries

Our characters’ classes and subclasses are all from Valda’s Spire of Secrets by Mage Hand Press.

Mage Hand have been kind enough to make the full guides to each of our characters’ classes available in full for free, which you can check out by clicking the thumbnails below!

Wizards of the Coast is not a good steward of the game Dungeons & Dragons. We have seen this from their extensive dragging of their feet to update the game with modern ideas and their focus on profit over what is best for players. The game D&D and the brand D&D are wholly different. We seek to make changes to the game so everyone can feel like they are welcome at a D&D game in 2023.

1. We are eliminating the word “race'' and instead using “species.” This has no bearing on the game mechanically, other than maybe how many limbs you have. All this denotes is if you are a produce Greenfolk, a leafy Greenfolk, a flora Greenfolk, or a bug Greenfolk!

We made this decision long before Wizards of the Coast made their decision to use “species” instead. We are taking this a step further by decoupling any mechanics from species, as to fully free ourselves from biological essentialism.

2. What gives us our initial bonuses are Traditions, which stem from what country your character is from. Think of this as how the attitudes and qualities of each country’s society has rubbed off on them. For example: how people who live in New York City walk fast, people from WI have a high tolerance of dairy products, French people have a history of revolution, etc.

3. We’re using classes and subclasses from the incredible supplement Valda’s Spire of Secrets by Mage Hand Press!

Follow along in our downtime episodes as the crew unlocks new bonuses on the Skill Tree!

These simplified ship battle mechanics keeps everyone involved by using the high-tension but the low-difficulty game of Rock Paper Scissors. This is a head-to-head battle between the PC’s ship and the enemies as a whole. In order to keep themselves alive on the high seas, players must act smart, work as a team, and deploy special moves at the perfect time!

These mechanics slot very well into a game of D&D or other big TTRPG game you’re running as a big campaign. Pull out the RPS cards (or hands) for your sea, space, modern, western, or steampunk fantasy vehicle battles.

This is a 1v1 fight: the crew of the players’ ship versus all of the enemies as a whole! This is why the crew has to man their stations and make decisions together; this is a storytelling device for the main characters.

TL;DR — Through a series of games of Rock Paper Scissors, players get a success, a mixed success, or a failure that benefits the enemies. In preparation, players must decide if they’re doing their job as a crewmember or going rogue, and drop their powerful special abilities.

Game Play

1. The DM lays down their Rock Paper Scissors card.

• We used (and made) RPS cards to keep the tension high and facilitate a game over the Internet. This step can be skipped if the GM keeps the ideas in their head, but a more exciting and low-fi change could just be writing down what RPS moves the GM will do next.

2. Players may activate their PC Special Abilities! If activated, resolve them now.

3. Each PC should “Man Your Station” or do something else.

• While in Ship Combat, a character’s job is to be a part of the ship’s crew and do their job. If a character does something other than “Man Your Station,” their job is not done and can leave the ship vulnerable.

• Remember: Special Abilities do not interfere with the Man Your Station action

4. The players who have chosen the “Man Your Station” action should decide, announce and narrate what they want the ship, and collective crew, to do.

5. Rock Paper Scissors! Pick someone to throw!

6. Whoever wins, the action they want to happen happens! If it is a tie, that is a mixed success — you do the thing but the DM chooses one consequence:

• You draw immediate attention.

• Your ship takes 1 harm

• Your opponent quickly recovers

• It has a problematic side effect

7. Repeat, and rotate who throws RPS each turn.

REMEMBER!

• Both ships have HP bars, styled like Monster of the Week boxes, ie [ ] [ ] [ ]. Every attack is baseline 1 Harm, but can be special-abilitied to more. Damage doesn’t go away when the fight is over; the crew needs to get the ship fixed.

• Enemies have moves too, both offensive and defensive.

• Smart narrative choices might power up RPS wins or mitigate losses!

• Upgrade your ship and NPC special moves at the Skill Tree at the Hold.

SPECIAL MOVES and NPCs

Here are the examples of moves I made for my players and NPCs. Harold’s power is defensive and passive, like a backstop, while Havana isn’t seasoned enough (even as an NPC) to really do anything. At the same time, the players get to Do Stuff and roll their dice. Use this as a template for your own crew’s moves.

Harold - The Big Green

• If the opposition wins on a rock, Harold can block the win and RPS is thrown again. Players can only do this once per combat. If the opponents win on a supercharged move, Harold will not be at his post.

Troy - Sharpshooter

• Make a super-long ranged attack (disadvantaged). If you hit, the opposition cannot play scissors this turn

Umbi - Double Down

• If you use this move, you must play paper on this turn. If you win, you impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition OR create an opportunity for your allies

Cammie - Tasseography

• Roll a d20. If you get 10 or above, the DM will tell you what card they will play next. If you get a 19 or higher, the DM will tell you truthfully.

Havana - Uhhhhhhhh???

• He’s working on it… still getting his sea legs.

Hothouse

The official Hothouse Flag was designed by the first Builder, Appleton the Original. The triangle represents the hothouse, as you might have guessed, but the doubled triangle is a symbol of so many values that Hothousers hold dear.  Appleton was known for his patience and care when erecting and planning the major monuments of the Hothouse capital, so scholars and politicians say the doubled triangle meant, “measure twice, cut once.” But it can be interpreted as broadly as “quality over quantity” or “do it right the first time,” as double-paneling the triangle is stronger than many triangles in a line. What is most intriguing is the intersection of the symbolic hothouse and the sun itself, putting them in concert, or at least as two parts of the whole. The construct is not subservient to the sun. In fact, they are relatively the same, as a sibling or partner encouraging the other to be better than they could have been alone.

Overstalk

The historians of Overstalk delight in explaining the symbology of their flag to others, as the metaphor of each color and symbol were, if you will pardon the pun, dyed right into it when the Fourth Congress of the Representatives commissioned local textile artist Cablin Pogostemon to create it. On the left side, the yellow represents the warmth and energy of the sun (but modern philosophers would argue that the top band is ascribed to the mercantile success of the region). The cream is the color of a yellowing page of a book, representing study, while the gray is the smoke of incense, representing spiritualism. As the cream and the gray interest each other and the yellow, you cannot forget the mind for the spirit or vice versa, and they are both integral to day-to-day living (or for modern interpretation, business dealings). The right side is the vertical expansion of Overstalk, as high as the stars themselves. 

This is the only flag in Verda Stello to use green, which some suppose signifies Overstalk’s high view of themselves as compared to the other countries.

Maybe Cablin knew this when they designed the flag, as it came with explicit instructions to never be hung up-and-down, with the stars at the top. It is considered a deep political insult to hang the flag in this way… but it has been accidentally turned during some particularly prickly international visits.

Kingdom of the Crags

The modern version of the Crags flag (say that five times fast) was established over six hundred years ago, at the signing of the Brevi Pax. Short for “brevi pax pugnantibus,” or “short peace between combatants” in middle Folkish, it was supposed to be a document that finally codified the system of governance in the Crags and illustrated all rights for Craggish citizens regardless of ruler. At the time of its signing, it was just Pax Pugnantibus, but the Brevi was added after Queen Opaline V was slain by her three sisters only ten days after the document was signed.

Although the peace did not remain, the rights of citizens stayed, as well as a specific agreed-upon design for the Craggish flag, The purple emphasizes the strength of the ruling families, while the white V and the black background stands in for the hard landscape where the people make their homes. There’s an interesting optical trick too; the sprout is in the dead center, but the crag makes it seem lower; what appears worse to others is exactly where the Crags knows is best.

Many of the sigils of the houses in the Crags use inversions or additions of this flag to bolster their claims for royal legitimacy, but they do not risk changing too much as would alienate themselves from the existence of the state. They are not above the kingdom and the Rocky Seat, as there would be nothing to rule.

Open Fields

Unfortunately, there is no definitive account of how the Open Fields’ flag came to be. Many leaders have invoked various legends and parables, usually involving a poor potato farmer, resistance of temptation, and then divine inspiration. One version of the story says the pattern appeared in a bowl of mashed potatoes, when the butter and the mash was swirled together in the bowl. Another version supposes the farmer tried to harvest one of his crop but could not, and only through the collective strength of the entire farmer’s family and friends did they put the largest tuber ever recorded, with the design outlined in the eyes of the potato. The only record of the creation and adoption of the current design comes from the journal of a monk known as Saying-Thank-You-Meaningfully-For-an-Unexpected-Gift-No-Matter-What-It-Is. It seems that Saying’s closest friend at the monastery made woodcuts as a hobby, and created the sun-on-top, shovel-on-bottom image. That night, Saying wrote in their journal, “Saw an interesting image today. Must be the divine.” The colors–especially the deep red, unique in the flags of Verda Stello–and how it became the symbol of the entire country, remains unknown.