Starter 26: A Rough Outline of Fathach

I intend to release something online. I want to create a game. It will start as a blog game as all things should. There was a challenge put forth of making 2026 the year of the starter set. See here. So I will make a series of blog posts that makes this starter box. First, the setting, as that is what is rattling in the dome for months. 

This but with thousands less dollars involved

The Giants 

These are the centre of my setting. all questions will at some point involve them. There are no dragons or wizards only giants. Once the giants figured out how to cast a spell, they used this power to wipe out all competition. There are 6 types of giants but there is only 1 to be concerned with in the starter box.. The Stone Giant. This Giant, like all giants, are large and their plans incomprehensible. The Giants are like eldritch horrors. most people don't deal with them unless they don't have a choice. There are stories of those who have made a pact with a giant and become cursed. One pact-maker became an ant hill. Another could only speak if the north wind was blowing. They have existed forever. Stone giants have an obsession with structures. any ruin in the land is most likely the result of a stone giant whacking and tapping away at it for a few hundred years until it was finished.  

The one in our hex crawl lives in a large tower so big all the compasses point to it. This is where our dungeon lies. Stone Giants are the most terrain warping creatures as valleys and rivers are often the result of a stone giant short of some clay. They also love history. They paint murals and blow glass windows that tell stories and memories from their lives. The Academy that the heroes start in, they want the PCs to go into the great tower, climb to the fifth floor and to see what history is waiting to be discovered. This particular Giant, Orlaith, is experimenting with sound and how it travels in a space. Although she isn't the only immortal in the hex flower. 

The Wizard 

There is only one. Their name is forgotten. The only thing left is their title. Wizard. When they left the Anaithnid, they knew what magic could do. So it took the Wizard 20 years to cast every spell they could. Unfortunately, once you cast a spell, it has to be cast that way every single time. Simple effects were a easy ritual like burning a ripe apple. Unfortunately, by the time the Wizard figured out more powerful effects, all the easy ways to cast spells were taken. So they turned to more complex and difficult ways to cast. When the Wizard wanted to see past the present they had to jump over their lover and kiss a specific species of frog on the first day of the year. They now are beyond trivial concepts like gender and survival.

Art Guillaume Bonnet from Rook and Crook by Taron Pounds

 (above image is the general vibe of the tower. To be replaced by something original hopefully by me.)

Their Tower is another Location the PCs will have to go to get information. 

The Game

This game isn't about combat or going from zero to hero. It is about helping your community in an environment surrounded by mystery. These characters will start in a Hogwarts type place. This is just an outline so mechanics will be later. I like lower stakes in my fantasy game so this is about helping your (academic) community learn new things. It's not exactly OSR as Combat is treated like a 5e skill check. It shows off some meta plot and gives a unified reason to stick together. The name of this game is Fathach, the Irish name for giant. Irish mythology is a big inspiration as I read a lot of the classic myths when I was small so I would like to revisit them now that I am older.  

Basically this but instead of being a coward, I make this the Game

 

Exploration is something I want to focus on but I didn't know where to start as a hexcrawl game needs a hex map and making one is hard. I like this 7 hex format so I will put some ideas up before making the hexcrawl then detailing the individual hexes. The next post will detail whatever mechanics are rattling around in my head at the time.

Clickables

Dungeon Mecha solves skills. 

I Cast Light makes a class with a bone to pick. 

Magnolia Keep fights the good fight against content.