A 'little' recap of my group's Triumph of the Tusk session 0 while I prepare for next week's session!

To preface it a little bit, my group widely varies in PF2e experience and world knowledge, the campaign we've already completed together was Outlaws of Alkenstar and we're currently in a Kingmaker game as well. A few of the players are in other groups and have a lot more APs under their belts though!

I started off giving a brief recap of the history of the Orcs, their ascent into the surface from the Darklands at Deepgate, their war with the Dwarves, their past with Tar-Baphon, big recent events like Grask's reforms and his death, Ardax coming into power, The Battle of Nine Broken Skulls, the Godsrain/War of the Immortals, etc just to try to make players aware of the big lore events that might be relevant in roleplay and the story. I also dug out my PF1 Orc books to sprinkle in some extra lore that TotT doesn't always cover in depth.

After that, I set most of the ground rules for the campaign, no free achetype this time, uncommon/rare stuff is subject to my approval, the usuals. I had a rule that everyone pretty much has to be an Orc/Dromaar for the theme, but I left it open for one person to potentially be a Kholo, Lizardfolk, Goblin, etc if they really didn't want to be an Orc. But unsurprisingly in the Orc campaign, everyone ended up being a full-blooded Orc.

We went into character creation and ended up with: An Orc storm druid of Rull with a pet terror bird (who I had no idea started at large til we dragged his token out in foundry lmao), who was taken as a boy by the Storm-Screamers of Rull and trained in their ways, choosing to escape before the Hold's shaman was too threatened by him and potentially tried to kill him.

An Orc ranger prepped to take the Mammoth Lord dedication next level, having a roc egg on him to further set up his future pet roc. He also choose to use the barricade buster, which I did make the players fully aware that if they choose to use Orc trait weapons, they would get brownie points from me and from NPCs in-game, so I love that.

An Orc warpriest cleric of Grask, who served under Grask Uldeth personally and after Grask's death and ascension to godhood has become a cleric under him. He's determined to maintain Grask's reforms and the power that he garnered in his life, and wants to help Ardax for that very reason.

An Orc Guardian, another veteran of The Battle of Nine Broken Skulls. He's the one I know the least about as of right now.

An old Orc war wizard, who used to be a general in his old Hold, but during The Battle of Nine Broken Skulls suffered extremely heavy losses, and thus was exiled/shamed by the survivors.

To further tie everyone in, I gave them the choice to create their own Orc hold and to be representing themselves at the Torrentmoot, trying to curry favor with Ardax and build up some potential allies.

They decided to call themselves the Skull Talon Hold, they have a small village named Terrorpeak in the Kodar Mountains near Wyvernsting. A small population built largely out of survivors of the Nine Broken Skulls and other drifters looking for a place to be. They primarily worship Rull and raise terror birds. They're also known for their alcohol and potentially sweet talked a storm giant in the area with enough of it to get a roc's egg, which is how the ranger got ahold of one. Even without knowing much about the AP or Orc politics they decided to be largely neutral with the Unbroken Horn publicly, but dislike them in private. They also heard me talk about the Wingrippers Hold nearby and actively decided to have a rivalry with them also another creature taming Hold, which is gonna be reaaaaaaally fun to play up with Murshek at the end of chapter one.

I wanted everyone to have a role in the Hold as well and after a lot of deliberation the party decided to not have an NPC leading their tribe and voted in the war wizard to be their chief. The ranger was unsurprisingly deemed head ranger, tasked with providing food and scaring off most of the dangerous stuff in the Kodar mountains. After I had read the blurb from one of the 1e book that Orcs take their banners very seriously and it's a great shame to lose it/have it taken in battle, the Guardian was elected to be the standard bearer, carrying their flag. The cleric decided on being the village enforcer, and the druid the village's shaman.

And after that mouthful, that's about it as far as session 0 was concerned! I'm hoping to do a weekly recap, or at least a chapterly recap to help promote a little discussion in the sub. Regardless, I'm excited to DM session 1 next Tuesday!