Tirkfinder 4: Legend pitch [CUE TRUMPET SOUNDS AND CHEERING]

WARNING- The following pitch is an early (though probably very close to final) concept for a game that probably wont be played for a while and is thus subject to change at any time.
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Long, long ago, in the storied land of Tong-Nou, there lived an ancient civilization that had spent over a decade crafting a set of magic items more potent than anything seen before or after their creation. Interplanar historians deemed them the "7 Items of the Old Ones." In no time, these items brought about a breakthrough in strides towards progression in all fields; Technology, Magic, Religion, Philosophy, Art, the whole glut. As a result of their sheer magic power, each item held at least some degree of sentience, but they themselves couldn't make use of their power without being used by an actual wielder.

Unfortunately, this stretch of enlightenment couldn't last forever: Eventually these powerful items were pushed beyond their limits, and in revolt, they used their massive influence to spread lies and false philosophies with the intention of turning the civilization to disarray and paranoia. And succeed they did; in due time, a century of cultural breakthroughs was soon almost entirely demolished by mass warfare, madness, and anarchy.

At the very brink of the old civilization's extinction, now so far gone that even its name is no longer known to the settlers of Tong-Nou that followed them, the few sages that remained used the full extent of their magic energy to banish the powerful items to another dimension, so that no one else may fall under their corruption in the future.

 Eventually the items were discovered by an elite force of inter-dimensional heralds known as the Planeskeepers, a sort of dimensional police force that enforces strict codes of conduct and law among interplanal travelers, among other things. Upon looking into the history of the items and the world that crafted them, the Items of the Old Ones were sealed away to a maximum security chamber, due to just how abnormally potent they were.

A millennia or five had come to pass in the blink of an eye, but that was all that was required for disaster to strike yet again: Someone or something had broken into the chamber where the items lied dormant, and freed them all so that they may wreak havoc yet again. The Planeskeeping subdivision responsible for their containment was brought into a panic, and in response, offered a massive bounty of 50 Billion Unidimensional Credits for their retrieval. See, due to the incredibly strict rules that all Planeskeepers must abide by, they can't directly interfere with most "primitive" planes in any way, so their reach when it comes to tracking things down is incredibly limited.
This news of course catches the eye of our two "God tier" heroes, and so the two take up the call upon tracking the plane where the first item lies. This wasn't a terribly tough feat, as the item had been sending out a signal for planar travelers to read. Almost like it was a distress signal.
(ALTERNATIVELY, said item is, as you will know in just a moment, capable of stealing away "Precious Things." This precious thing can be anything the players want, like a loved one, a lost memory, a memento, YOUR SOUL, etc. If you think it'll add added motivation/depth to your character beyond just riches and junk, feel free to add in this bit--- Before hearing of the item's escape, you were caught off-guard by a meteor-like cosmic object going so fast, not even your amazing perception could scope it out. All you could tell was that object looked vaguely like a shimmering bronze eye, and was being held by a small blurred figure holding on for dear life. Once you regained your senses, you probably passed it off as just a strange mishap for a while. But you couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was...missing. As soon as you knew it, your precious thing was gone! As not even the most powerful cosmic dwellers are immune to the influence of the items.--- Or something similar to that. Then the above happens.)

Elsewhere, in an unnamed land where our two more "normal" heroes hail from, an air of uncertainty begins to permeate the air.  There had been rumors of a strange item, a giant bronze eye, wielded by a mysterious group that wanders around a small forest surrounding a ancient abandoned temple. Supposedly, this item is capable of granting any wish imaginable, so long as you can actually find it.
Unfortunately, the unknown group of individuals seem to be using the item for malicious intent. Across the region (completely separate from Tong-Nou, even whether or not it takes place in the same realm as Tong-Nou is up in the air), random people everywhere are having various "precious things" taken away from them. Innocent civilians would come back home forgetting their identities, having the life sucked out of them, their signature weapons stolen, you name it. For one reason or another, whether you want that wish, were one of those affected by this precious thievery, or just want to do the right thing, you put your life on the line to take up the call, and are tasked with exploring the forest temple with the intent to find the mysterious magic eye-tem and bring the group to a stop once and for all.


As you two eventually met up at the forest temple abode where the eye supposedly laid, by astonishing coincidence, the other two PCs manage to drop by. However, upon teleporting in near the temple, their planar travel powers begin to fizz out, so their entrance is less majestic, making the "drop by" statement far more literal than intended. Unfortunately, it turns out this place was a trap; A spectral force radiated from the temple, sucking out and stealing most of their awesome powers for the Eye to keep. While they're still quite a force to be reckoned with even when stripped (as after all, they're level 1 Legend characters), they'll have to work the hard way to return themselves to their former glory.

After you all meet up and head into the temple for the sake of their motivations  (one of which now being retrieving their damn powers for two of them), the culprits behind these events show themselves and their intentions.(You'll have to play the game to find these out!) The item itself, known as the Vision of Veris, offers to return everything and grant any wish so long as he's rescued from the grasp of these individuals, and his fellow items are freed from the dungeons in Tong-Nou where they were recently stored.(Though how long "recent" is may be a little distorted coming from such an ancient object.) Through a series of events that I won't particularly spoil, the PCs are left with their only choice being to take up the call to follow the item into its home realm: The land of Tong-Nou, over 5000 years later. Your character can of course chicken out of this for whatever reason, and but that means they can't really play the game, and that'd be no fun.

And thus you find yourself washed ashore to the edge of Tong-Nou, soon to brave the mysterious challenges that await....
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Tong-Nou is a land with a long and fabled history, stretching far, far further than even the details given here.  Sadly, most of it is lost to time due to incompetence and a lack of communication among its inhabitants. The ancient civilization is pretty much entirely forgotten about, with all the information about them coming to you beforehand by the Planeskeepers; if you try asking any of the people that live there nowadays about them, you'll just get strange looks. Hints of what used to be may still abound though...
Tong-Nou is a large and mysterious land, although at times one that feels too overshadowed by its past. It seems almost everything of importance has already happened, and the current generation isn't so much late for the party as much as they arrived a few hours after the party ended. This is why some of the land's more prolific individuals have taken a liking to these Items of the Old Ones, blissfully ignorant of their prior history, for they too can usher in their own age of enlightenment...though some (or really, most) may have some very different ideas for how to utilize them.
Due to how terribly Tong-Nou's people communicate with one another, very few maps of the place are reliable at all. Additionally, the terrain makes on-foot travel the only real viable method of transportation other than just flying.
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Now going full meta, Tirkfinder 4: Legend is a campaign that has gone through so many revisions and complications it's not funny. You may have remembered it back when it was called "Mario d20"/"Paleta Md20", and then again when it was repurposed to be a retelling of Tirkfinder 1. Of course since that ended up being far more sensitive of a subject that I expected, it's now become something entirely different. Nonetheless, even with all the development resets, the same outline and philosophies have remained the same since the beginning, with various things thrown in each time it's been repurposed. I can confidently say it's only gotten better and better with each revision, and hopefully it will be worth the weight.

As far as what to expect, TF4 is both somewhat a "return to form" for tirk-flavored tabletop games, as well as something entirely different. As you can tell, the main plot isn't terribly complex: That's because the focus of the game lies more in its sandboxy nature. TF4 is heavily exploration-based, something that's been attempted in previous games, but never to a degree that quite satisfied me. To emphasize that, if you're looking for a really deep and complex plot thrown in your face, you'll have to either provide one yourself or look elsewhere. Aside from the given excuse plot, you'll have to seek out most of the depth for yourself. The game and its world is intended to provide a heavy air of mystery and wonder. Perhaps even relaxation?

Staying true to this game's previous incarnations, along with TF1 in ways, TF4 is inherently a dungeon crawler, and a rather challenging one at that. Strangely enough, dungeons haven't had the biggest presence in our tabletop games, and when they have, they've been rather subpar at best. TF4 looks to redefine just what dungeons are all about, even if that just means making them exist in the first place. Even outside of the 7 main dungeons, some being far bigger than others, many miniature dungeons still scatter around the area if you're brave enough to handle them. The nature of these dungeons also provide many clues to Tong-Nou's forgotten lore if you're so interested.
Don't take this for a purely crunchy campaign though. If you think you'll get by by just hacking and slaying everything, well, you'll probably be unhappy. That's because TF4 will contain an excessive amount of *gasp* puzzles to conquer as well. Puzzles have too been cripplingly underused in these games, and what little do exist typically aren't very good. This campaign aims to fix that absence at last, and will hopefully test your character's wits just as much as their skills. But if one feels too darn tough, feel free to just roll an intelligence check to gain some insight.

Tong-Nou may not be anywhere near the bustling region it once was, but that doesn't mean there aren't some civilized settlements to chill in. They're kinda small, but there's still more than enough characters of varying eccentricity to fool around with, some of which provide little subquests of their own if you poke around enough.

This all may come as familiar for fans of TF1, and in many ways, it's very much a more polished successor to that, up to including ultra-refined literal mapping technology. Yes just as Mario d20 was intended, almost every explorable location in the game is literal mapped out, stuffed to the gills with NPCs, encounters, and Easter eggs. This time it's all set in stone though, so don't think that you can create a random encounter by just perception checking this time.

Just how does this work exactly? Well much like Md20, each explorable location is split up into set "strata."  A stratum is basically an entire map to go through; Exploring a hex on the world map is a single stratum (not counting interior locations like dungeons), while one of the 7 main dungeons consist of 6 consecutive strata.  Vision blocking layers and Fog of War is in full effect here too, so you won't even be able to see the whole map screen. This should give you a better idea of what your character should be seeing at all times without needing to consult the GM, and should hopefully speed things up a bit.

However, very much unlike TF1, this game intends to be pretty challenging. While it probably won't be Warlord-level brutal, it's still gonna be quite the task. Don't let the fact that Tong-Nou is sort of a has-been region fool you, for there are some extremely powerful individuals and entities lying about, some of which even being a challenge for the god-tiers at their full power. Even besides them, the land is still fraught with danger, which may or may contribute to the place's infamous communication failures. Helpful items are very limited for those unwilling to explore. The enemies and bosses are relentless and devilishly tricky, (but mostly fair) and will test you to your absolute limits. Sticking together is absolutely vital.

If this all seems a little unfair, you can take some solace in the fact that the death rules are made significantly more forgiving to compensate for this. Outside of very special conditions, you can't really die as an individual. Be you mauled in half by a t-rex or get stabbed repeatedly through the chest, the worst that happens is that you require a special item or treatment to be revived back to consciousness upon reaching negative HP. This is considered the "fallen" state. And once your teammates carry you out of the stratum, you're instantly revived the next scene with 1 HP left. Of course, NPCs don't have this kind of luxury, so you might want to look out for them.

HOWEVER! If every player in the party present during the scene is fallen, it's game over man, game over! This situation is called a TPK, or a total party kill. There are two kinds of TPKs: In a situation where you can reasonably survive and be dragged off to the nearest safe zone, the only things lost will be some money, items, and a good deal of your pride. But in most cases, these TPKs will result in your death, meaning if you wanna continue, you'll have to restart from the nearest autosave point. Typically these save points are sprinkled around dungeons, often before a boss, and the game autosaves when you enter and exit a level. All items, money, and EXP gained since the last point will be lost, as well as any story progress. While you can always just try and reclaim whatever loot you lost before by just replaying the section, the same can't be said for any plot-related events that go down the drain. When the story progress gets reset, replayed events have the potential to occur in an entirely different fashion, changing the course of what exists of the story entirely, for better or for worse.
If you're stuck on a particularly difficult boss or challenge, there's a few SNK style anti-frustration features you can choose to trigger each time you rechallenge them; however this will decrease their EXP value and some rewards.

Basically all that waxing and shameless md20 pitch copypasta should tell you what to expect with this campaign, at the very least. Which to say isn't really that much different from most of my other non-recent campaigns, but hopefully this will be far more refined and less of a mess. Oh, and obviously everything here is subject to change as well.
And somehow it also took until the very end of this pitch to mention that this game is run in Rule of Cool Gaming's Legend, another fantasy d20 game that's both more over the top yet significantly more sane than D&D and its ilk. Best of all it's totally free.
http://www.ruleofcool.com/
For your character, you're free to use any tracks available in the book, as well as any homebrew tracks in the homebrew forum.
http://www.ruleofcool.com/smf/index.php/board,9.0.html