When to set your homebrew campaign in the Cosmere RPG

Building your own campaign for the Cosmere RPG? Your first step will be determining which book you want your story to start from. Your players may want to be among the first in this age to swear the oaths of the Knights Radiant. Perhaps they'd instead start as squires on the front lines of the war with Odium. You may have an excellent idea for some intrigue set in the War Camps. Which book you choose to set your story in will establish the backdrop of your campaign and set the stage for the significant world events across Roshar and beyond.

Always choose fun

Before we get too carried away with the details, it's important to note that the beauty of RPGs is that you and your players are only limited by your imagination. If you and your party can dream it, you can build a world or craft a story around it. Remember that fun is the most critical part of any role-playing game, so slightly bending the rules and storylines is okay if it serves everyone's enjoyment. 

That being said, your idea of fun might be a lore-accurate campaign. Choosing a book as the starter backdrop for your campaign is a great way to establish world events, plots to explore, and the progression of players. Keeping within the margins of the books will ensure that your story doesn't veer in a direction that breaks the established canon. It would make little sense for a Windrunner of the fourth ideal to fly around during bridge runs. Straying too far from the established lore may alter the canon timeline in ways you didn’t expect within your campaign.

It comes down to figuring out what your players want to experience through your campaign. 

In this article, we will explore the major themes and events in each book and give examples of the types of adventures that would be best suited to start during the given period of time.

Resources

Before we dive into the details, I wanted to highlight a few resources to help my fellow game masters plan their campaigns around the established lore.

Coppermind:  If you’re unfamiliar with the Coppermind, I’m sorry for ruining the next few days of your life. The Coppermind is a wiki with in-depth lore covering the entire Cosmere. This is a great place to gather details about the locations and events on which you want to base your storylines. I will also highlight a particularly helpful feature: the Time Machine. Using this feature, you can roll back the Wiki to a date in the past, hiding spoilers found from books that take place in the future. This can be useful when studying a particular time in the books and understanding the context of what information was presented or known at that time.

Map of Roshar: The Map of Roshar by the 17th Shard is an interactive map of Roshar and Shademar. The map features a timeline of key events, allowing you to filter by book and highlight critical events for given characters. This can be helpful if you’re trying to find exciting times to start a campaign, between events or as they occur. In particular, I find the ability to overlay events going on around the same time in the world over one another, saving you the trouble of tracking down and cross-referencing dates.

On to the books.

The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings covers about six years, from late 1167 with Gavilar’s assassination to the Battle of The Tower in 1173, where Kaladin saves Dalinar from Sadeas’ trap. A lot is packed into those six years: the book focuses on the war with the Parshendi on the Shatter Plains and the intrigue of the War Camps, but there’s more going on throughout Roshar. The Diagram is being created in Kharbranth, Rysn is traveling the world with Vstim, and Szeth is on his killing spree. A good part of those initial years is the lead-up to Kaladin and Shallan’s storylines, giving an exciting background for your party to meet some of the main characters.

Here are some considerations for starting your campaign during the Way of Kings:

• Knowledge of the Knights Radiants is limited to a very few select groups. Very few individuals, including the players, will know about bonding spren or the implications of the Knights Radiant returning. Players looking to swear oaths early and often will need a guide. 
• The world is gripped by fear over Szeth. Pretty much every nation will be in some state of turmoil either because they fear Szeth assassinating their leaders or because Szeth has already visited them.
• Innovation in fabrials. Throughout the Stromlight Archive, we see an explosion of technology with fabrial science, and many of the ideas that led towards these innovations were started during this time period. It won’t be out of place for an aspiring artifabrian to generate some cool tools, though not quite to the levels we see by the end of Rythm of War.

Here are some ideas to get an adventuring party going:

• A group of mercenaries heading to the Shattered Plains to sign up with whatever Brightlord will pay the highest.
• Debt collectors from a rival Veden household have heard Shallan Devar is in Kharbranth and have sent you to investigate.
• You are a member of a Highprince’s household and have finally arrived at the Shattered Plains to make a name for yourselves.
• You overhear your master talking about membership to a secret organization called the Diagram, and it looks like you’re being recruited.

The most important concept here is the low to no general knowledge of the Knights Radiant. Campaigns that start during the Way of Kings will likely see a longer period of time with players sitting at or working toward the first ideal. If that works for your story, it can be a fantastic backdrop filled with war and intrigue, before things start taking off worldwide.

Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance covers a much smaller period than the Way of Kings, spanning just a few months from the end of 1173 to the beginning of 1174. What Words lacks in length, it more than makes up for in world events: tensions are high in the War Camps, the Battle of Narak, the Everstorm, and the discovery of Urithiru. There is a lot of meat on the bone for game masters looking to set up a game that starts on the Shattered Plains, but there is more going on around Roshar. The conflict in Vadenar comes to a head, Gawx becomes the ruler of Azir, and Eshonai is just starting to adopt Stormform. No matter where you set your campaign, introducing the Everstorm is a great way to bring drama and excitement into your setting, and the call to seek out Urithiru is one that your Radiants might have a hard time ignoring.

Here are some considerations for starting your campaign during Words of Radiance:

• Vadenar’s civil war will severely affect the surrounding regions: campaigns that start or come through Vadenar have a lot of storytelling potential.
• Refounding of the Knights Radiant: word spreads worldwide that the Knights Radiant have been refounded on the Shattered Plains.
• War breads fabrial innovation: Led by Navani, fabrial science takes a few big leaps during Words of Radiance. 

Here are some ideas to get an adventuring party going:

• Your squad was just nearly wiped out in that last attack. Those who remain have determined they need to flee Vadenar and leave this storming war in the past.
• A strange man with hawkish features appears from the Unclaimed Hills with a lighteyed woman. He has hired you to escort the woman to the Shattered Plains.
• The Everstorm blows from the wrong direction - anywhere on Roshar will have exciting stories to tell.
• You and your fellow scholars have been assigned to travel with Navani Kholin to operate her new tent fabrials on Dalinar’s expedition. 

Words of Radiance strikes the perfect balance between the Knights Radiant being something your players can openly explore while still being new and fresh to the world. It has all the best parts of The Way of Kings’ intrigue and war, with a brand new storm and ancient city to mix things up. This is likely where I’ll start my homebrew campaign.

Oathbringer

Oathbringer takes over about a month: from 1174.1, when Kaladin goes on his mission to Hearthstone, to 1174.2, when Jasnah is crowned queen of Alethkar. While not covering a particularly long time in the book, quite a bit happens. Revelations about the history of the Knights Radiant, the infiltration of Kholinar, and the Battle of Thaylen field are just a few of the big moments from the book. This feels like a great book to start a campaign that will thrust the party in line with the big events of the books.

Here are some considerations for starting your campaign during Words of Radiance:

• Challenges for the Radiants: While the orders establish themselves in Urithiru, a big reveal of their past comes to light. This can be a good time for the Radiants to grow in their powers and an opportunity to challenge their oaths.
• The world opens up: During this book, we start to see the full use of the Oathgates, so travel around the world becomes significantly more accessible, both to and from Urithiru. This is a great opportunity to expand your campaign setting.
• Lean into the significant events: As a starting point, there is a lot of opportunity for your party to come across some prominent characters, whether that’s running into Kaladin on the walls of Kholinar, spotting Shallan in Shadesmar, or fighting on the fields of Thaylen field, you have no shortage of epic settings to choose from.

Here are some ideas to get an adventuring party going:

• Your squad has been assigned to guard Dalinar during his visit to Thaylen City.
• The merchant caravan you’ve been guarding for the past few days has finally been cleared to travel to Urithiru via Oathgate. Maybe now you can get some answers about this spren that has been following you around.
• You are confident that you just saw Prince Adolin Kholin sneak into the tailor across the street from the workshop where you and your crew have been posted to take guard. I wonder if the Prince needs your help?

If you’re picking Oathbringer as your starting point, you can’t pass up the opportunity to incorporate one of the more significant set-piece events that made the book so captivating. If your campaign starts elsewhere on Roshar, be prepared for light details about the state of the world. We don’t see much from the main cast’s point of view, but on the other hand, that opens the door for a lot of creative freedom. Use it well! 

Rhythm of War

Finally, we reach Rhythm of War (when this article was written, Wind and Truth was not out yet). RoW starts in 1175.2 during Shallan’s mission to infiltrate the Sons of Honor and ends around 1175.4 as Dalinar makes his arrangement with Odium for the contest of champions. This is a challenging book to handle as a game master until we collectively get our hands on Wind and Truth. It covers a broader timeline than most other books but focuses on the invasion of Urithiru and the expedition in Shadesmar. On the other hand, you have some cool fabrial tech with the Fourth Bridge, a war in Emul, and teams of Radiants doing missions or fighting skirmishes throughout Roshar.

Here are some considerations for starting your campaign during Words of Radiance:

• Fabrials are getting really cool: with Urithiru as the center of innovation, the world is formulating new ideas and concepts for fabrials.
• Radiants are powerful. Each Order begins to form independently, command structures are being developed, and membership is rapidly growing. Their powers are put to good use as they fight on the battlefields and support the war effort across Roshar.
• Endings are uncertain: until Wind and Truth come out, we won’t know what’s coming next. This can limit your campaign or inspire you to take it further.

Rhythm of War seems like an excellent setting for the middle-to-end game of a campaign. Brand-new Radiants will be able to learn under more experienced Knights, but the timeline would be better used for players at a higher level. This is an excellent opportunity to send your party out into the world to accomplish big things in new and exciting settings throughout Roshar.

Your journey

No matter which book you choose, building a homebrew campaign within Roshar is unlimited. It is an epic setting in an epic story, leaving plenty of stones unturned for a game master with an ambitious imagination.  

It's also important to note that nothing says you can’t start your campaign in the distant past. Maybe your adventuring party got their start fighting along the Blackthorne. Nothing says you can’t set a campaign back in the days of the Silver Kingdoms. 

There are no limits; just get in there and make awesome campaigns. While you are at it, stick around and subscribe to get more content like this delivered to your inbox!