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Greatness From Small Beginnings: Level 0Click to magnify
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Greatness From Small Beginnings: Level 0

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Suggested Price $3.99

Sometimes the greatest heroes have the most humble origins.

Greatness From Small Beginnings is a comprehensive guide on running a 5th edition campaign of pre-adventuring characters.  Watch your characters grow from children to adventurers as they become the heroes the world needs.

Greatness From Small Beginnings Contains:

  • A step-by-step process for creating a level 0 adventuring party.
  • The Novus: A new class for level 0 characters.
  • Snowpeak: A pre-made town designed to function as the centerpiece for the parties' first adventures.
  • Mentor Characters: A list of 13 pre-made NPCs that can act as mentors to the PCs.
  • Adversaries: A list of 10 pre-made adversaries designed to challenge (but not kill) a level 0 adventuring party.

Creator's Note

This was a bit of a spontaneous project, but I'm very happy with how it turned out.  If there any questions regarding how certain systems work, feel free to ask me here or on Twitter.  I'd love to refine this guide so that it's comprehendable by everyone.  As always, I appreciate feedback.  Thank you for reading!

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Reviews (1)
Discussions (5)
Customer avatar
Maia W September 09, 2023 10:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I have always loved this idea and I am definitely going to implement this into my campaign. I have 3 settings that I am going to present to the players and one of them is a Cyberpunk-esque setting for 5E. Do you have any thoughts on how this level 0 framework could work in a more futuristic setting?

Also, I want to have the players as young people separate from each other by the time they reach level 1, and maybe meet up again 5 years later. When they meet again, I want them to slowly reveal the class they chose. What do you think of this idea? Could this work?
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Terry T August 23, 2021 1:29 am UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of adding Artificer to the list?
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Andrew G November 02, 2020 1:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Dear Sleeping D

I bought this and love it for so many things. It codified much of what I do and have done for years. The idea of the Novus class is great. So well done.

That said I don't understand why this should produce potentially more powerful 1st level PCs with those extra hit points. We start with 4 +con and then i'd expect them to increase to the max and no higher. So a fighter would gain 6 over the four stages of development.

Not sure I agree with the limited weapons at the start but how would you handle the elven traits where they get bows and swords from the start? Shouldn't all the longer lived races have something like that? Similarly what about the backgrounds like soldier shouldn't they add weapons?

Finally we've always started with an 8 in each stat and then rolled 1d3+1 six times over the course of the stages to increase stats. This is then mitigated by balancing the various Pcs using point buy. Overall I prefer your approach for consistency,...See more
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Caleb W May 29, 2020 5:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
You forgot to fill in the +HP column for Rogues (though I assume it would be the same for them as it is for the other d8 classes).
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Sleeping D May 30, 2020 7:24 am UTC
CREATOR
Uhh... whoops. Thanks for the heads up. You are right though, +2 HP per level same as the other d8 classes. I'm releasing an update next Saturday that should address most of the typos.
Customer avatar
Michael S May 27, 2020 2:11 am UTC
PURCHASER
Overall, I think this is pretty good. One thing I would have taken a different tack on is Ability scores, which were hardly addressed at all.

Unless the characters are already starting out as young adults, I'd have them initially create their scores as if they were 1st Level, but then reduce each of those scores by 4 to begin the process. Each stage of their 0th Level development would add 1 point back to each of the scores.

Admittedly, that doesn't take into account the varied rates that the different races take to grow to adulthood, and perhaps that is why you decided not to address the issue, since it definitely complicates the pacing. One size definitely does not fit all.

Perhaps all races that grow to adulthood at the same rate as humans (or more quickly) could reduce their Ability scores as proposed above, while slower-growing races such as elves and dwarves would only reduce their ability scores by 1. That way they could all advance to their young-adult Ability scores...See more
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Customer avatar
Sleeping D May 27, 2020 3:42 am UTC
CREATOR
I actually really like your idea for Ability Scores. My I was concerned with coming off as too stingy with how certain rules should be implemented, but I'll certainly take that into consideration.
Aging was tricky as well. Since if you want to be really noodly aarakocra reach adulthood at age 3, which can complicate things. I didn't want to clutter the first few pages with too many tables, but if it's something people are interested in then I'll happily see if I can include something like that in a future update.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm really happy you enjoyed it!
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File Last Updated:
June 25, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on May 26, 2020.