Here's a small selection of the 800+ images I've prepared for my freshly started Symbaroum campaign. I've used Krea 2 and a couple of self-trained LoRAs to try and capture the vibe, with Claude Code as prompt writer and LoRA trainer. It was fun to make something different from the normal AI art styles. :)
Hi guys! So, I just had my first session of Symbaroum with the wife and teens. :)
I wanted to ground the characters in the world, and rather than having them be native Ambrians, I used the Barony of Sarli in Adventure Pack 4 as their home. So my 19-year-old son plays the 20-year-old heir to the barony, my 17-year-old daughter plays his older bastard half-brother, and my wife plays the 36-year-old seneschal entreated by the dying baron to get his son safely over the Titans and see the House restored.
Character-wise, the baron is a Theurge but with a Strong Gift for Brimstone Cascade (who was hastily moved on to the monastery after the fire in 14). The bastard half-brother is the master-at-arms with a pike and various tanky abilities, while the Seneschal is the persuasive face - who can be very discreet with her stiletto-like hair pins if needed.
The first session was spent on burial rites and goodbyes, as well as gathering their caravan. Because of the 22 souls still alive in Sarli, only seven would remain; the rest are going with the three characters, hoping for a new life on new soil in a new land. Only one of the NPCs are properly combat trained, and two-three more can help in a fight if needed, at the risk of endangerment and death.
I'm thinking it will play out a bit like Red Dead Redemption 2 - by having a wagon train and 12 depedents between the ages of 65 and 4, the 3 player characters will have someone to protect and care about as they move into Ambria, and will probably set up camps outside the various city centers that they can use as bases for various adventures - at least until they make their way to Thistle Hold. Then we'll see if we can get them some more permanent lodgings.
I'm taking them up to the Cliffs of Korinda next session; there'll be some encounters on the way to give them some memories of dying Alberetor, and then we head into a spring-thaw version of The Promised Land.
I've only planned up to Prios' Pass, though, and after that I'd like to leave things up to the players, rather than railroading them straight to Thistle Hold. I assume they'll go to Yndaros first, to ask for some land (and be turned down), but they might visit the Baron's maternal granfather, the head of House Vereo, on the way.
I intend for them to be recommended to seek their fortunes in Thistle Hold after that. I've made Master Vernam the former tutor of the young baron, with a former romantic entanglement with the Seneschal, so at least they'll have a familiar face waiting for them at the forest's edge.
Still - are there any particular things they ought to do or see or experience in Yndaros before they continue?
Could it make sense to abandon the wagons for a river boat and try to make a new life in the city of eternal euphoria, Agrella, instead? Or should I just get them to Thistle Hold ASAP to start the various adventures there?
Have any of you run an Alberian refugee campaign, and if so, how did you go? Any particular things you did that worked well?