Player's Guide to Velnaris — Starter Kit Edition

Free. A player's book to hand out before Session Zero.

Velnaris is a gothic port city run on debt, favors and secrets. This guide tells your players what the city feels like, what your table agrees on before play, and how to build a character who belongs there. None of it comes from the GM's side of the screen, so every player at the table can have a copy.

What's Inside (37 pages)

• Four peoples made in Velnaris — the Avidin, the Cendrin, the Votary and the Veillant — each on its own illustrated page with full 2024 traits, followed by two pages of example heroes
• A full-page map of the city, and its thirteen districts in one line each
• A content and safety chapter for adult tables: five named safety tools, fade-to-black by default, and a form to fill in at Session Zero
• A one-page character creation checklist in nine steps
• Portraits of the eight people everyone in the city knows by name
• The sanctuary rules of the House of Red Vows, and what happens to people who break them
• Twenty backgrounds at a glance, naming tables, prices, city slang, d20 reasons you are still here, d10 rumors and d8 downtime
• The Player's Kit, ready to print: a character companion, a between-session check-in, and the city on one page

No GM spoilers, and no other book required.

Who It's For

Players joining a Velnaris campaign with characters of levels 5 to 10, and GMs who want the whole table to agree on tone and limits before the first scene.

Content

18+. Sex work portrayed with agency, religious fear, substance use, psychological tension, political violence, blackmail, indenture and crime. Intimacy fades to black by default, and explicit content is not required at any point.

More in the Line

Rogues of Velnaris (eight Rogue subclasses) · Backgrounds of Velnaris (20 full backgrounds) · Heroes of Velnaris (seven level-5 pregens) · Courtesans of Velnaris (GM) · the Velnaris sourcebook (GM) · everything together in the Velnaris: The Complete Edition bundle.

Written, designed and playtested by a human; AI assists with editing, translation and art.

Compatible with fifth edition. Includes material from SRD 5.2.1, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.