Era: Lyres

Lyres, a storytelling game. Adventuring is dangerous, not to mention messy and cold.

Instead stay in the cities. Tell tales of your "adventures" for coin but careful not to get caught out.

All the perks of adventuring with none of the risks.

“Adventuring... Are you kidding me? That sounds dangerous... not to mention plain unsanitary!” – Anonymous

In this game, you are Bards, Rogues, Barbarians and Warriors who need to make a living, just like everyone else... but you aren’t dumb enough to go fighting Skeletons and Zombies in crypts or to tangle with Vampires... (Well, more likely, you’d never make it as adventurers, not that you’ll admit that!).

Instead, you stay in the cities, hanging around the bars and brothels to entertain people with your stories of adventure (which happen to be completely untrue!) and earning money from their patronage. Whether this is just in the form of appreciation for an entertaining evening or a display of gratitude for slaying a troublesome Dragon is completely up to you and your group.

Of course, you’re spending your life lying, and if you’re discovered, the result will most likely be unpleasant, as you are not quite as skilled in combat as you claim to be! There are monsters out there... probably. Either way, people are afraid enough of the possibility to be manipulated. Thus, the “Lyres” were born.

The city of Yarnolth is the ideal place for you to weave your tales: an abundance of taverns, free speech and enough merchants with Gold clinking in their pockets to make it worth your while. The stories you tell can take any form you like – in most cases, the more outlandish the better!

Of course, there are a few things that practitioners of Lyres’ arts have to avoid:

• Looking less than adventurers. Dirty and unshaven are fine if you’ve just returned from the Death Marshes but ragged clothes are another matter.

• Claiming to use magic. People may believe in the occasional divine intervention but everyone knows there’s no such thing as throwing fireballs!

• Ending up in too many bar fights. This will only lead people to believe that you are pathological liars who can’t keep their mouths shut.

• Getting caught stealing from citizens of Yarnolth – the penalties are severe!

• Being seen murdering a citizen of Yarnolth – a good brawl is one thing but killing someone? That gets you executed.