Autumn Myths

A Lazy Origins 5.5E Campaign in the Autumn Lands

Based on the “Mythic Tales” from Ghost of Tsushima, especially the tale of “The Unbreakable Gosaku”.


Mission – use resources from Sly Flourish to build out the details and adventures to create an Origins 5.5E campaign frame set in the Autumn Lands by Dyson Logos. Main objective of the campaign will be for the PCs to travel the Autumn Lands to outfit themselves with legendary weapons, armor, and spells, along with acquiring new skills through training with masters, so that they may restore peace to their homes.

Resources – links to the inspiring materials and tools.

Why Origins 5.5E? – Because I think I agree with Patchwork Paladin that the “D&D that lives in my mind” is a lot more focused on exploring dangerous places in search of awesome and impactful gear than the D&D I actually play in my usual games (my interpretation of the appealing qualities of Origins 5.5E). I’ve always wanted to run some adventures inspired by the Mythic Tales quests in Ghost of Tsushima, but the problem with that game and normal 5E is that the characters are so powerful they just don’t need the legendary armor of past heroes. I think Origins will be a great fit for a campaign focused on the PCs seeking out legendary pieces of equipment as their primary form of advancement. In addition, I think it’s a great system to make using the Journey Stages procedure from 5.5E to simulate wilderness exploration and overland travel a primary focus of the game. The game is about their quests to get the gear, and Class Features or spells won’t trivialize that challenge after the first few sessions.

Why Lazy? – Because I think the random tables from Sly Flourish are great for quickly inspiring the material I need to fill out the critical information in this campaign. What is the primary conflict in the Autumn Lands and who are the major NPCs? What are the adventure types and locations? What are the magic items and spells the PCs can seek out to advance in the Origins system? Mike Shea’s material skews toward a dark fantasy flavor that I think will work well for this style of campaign. I’ll be using the tables in the Lazy DM’s Companion, but I have also linked theLazy GM Resource Document for free to access to a lot of similar material (This work includes material taken from the Lazy GM's Resource Document by Michael E. Shea of SlyFlourish.com, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)

Why use the Autumn Lands – Honestly I don’t have a strong reason here, but at some point we just have to pick or create a world and map. I love the work of Dyson Logos, and have always wanted to use one of his regional hex maps. I could also see this campaign being a good fit for the Dalelands in the Forgotten Realms, with Myth Drannor right there on their doorstep. Or go nuts and fully build your own world, but I’m trying to keep this relatively easy and Lazy friendly. I’m defaulting to a pretty generic fantasy or dark fantasy milieu for my campaign, because this is D&D, but I think this campaign frame could work well for almost any genre or flavor of setting and characters.

Additional Resources – links to further resources that could be helpful in the non-lazy work of actually running this campaign and filling in that wonderful hex map.

 

My Autumn Myths Campaign

So what would my version of this campaign look like? Well, I would try to really embrace the Lazy GM methods of spiral campaign development and building from the PCs outward. I would need to come up with the central conflict of the campaign, to provide that baseline to my players, and come up with some settlements to connect to hexes in the Autumn Lands map (either adding to “blank” hexes or using the already visible landmarks). After that, I would use the PCs as the basis to create the initial goals for the party. Is there a warrior in the party? Then they need to go searching for some incredible weapon or armor pretty quickly. Is there a mage of some kind? Then they are going to need to search out the hidden library of some learned sage.

From there, it’s just a matter of doing the work to create some adventures, items, and NPCs to convey the important information to the players. I’d probably just be using the 8 Steps of the Lazy GM to prepare each session as we played, and doing whatever additional work I felt was necessary to ensure the world and my tools could support whatever might arise during a session.

I think the campaign pitch to my players would include this tale from “The Unbreakable Gosaku” to help set the baseline expectations of the game. This is a tale of folk heroes stepping up to defend their homes, not an Avengers movie.

Two and a half centuries ago, Tsushima was terrorized by the Red Hand bandits of Akashima. Around this time, a farmer named Gosaku heard the spirit of a dead samurai calling to him. He found the body, still clad in brilliant armor. Overwhelmed by the armor’s beauty, Gosaku stole it. Before long, the Red Hand reached Gosaku’s home. Knowing the farmers would lose everything if the bandits went unchallenged, Gosaku donned the samurai’s armor. The bandits charged! Gosaku’s sword arm trembled in fear. He resigned himself to death, but blow after blow glanced off the armor and Gosaku did not falter. The bewildered bandits staggered back, tripping over their feet. A mysterious sense of calm suffused Gosaku’s body and mind. Impressed by Gosaku’s bravery, the dead samurai’s spirit guided his blade. Before long, Gosaku cut down the final bandit and the Red Hand were never seen again. Years later, when Gosaku died, the farming families locked the armor away for safekeeping. Each family holds a single key to the lock. Now terror stalks our island again. The farmers of Tsushima claim to have seen Gosaku high on a hill, looking for a mighty warrior to protect our farms once more.

Campaign Pitch

The Autumn Lands are being invaded by the armies of the Demon Prince, as he seeks to achieve godhood by building powerful monuments to increase his power and create an invincible army. Your characters are people of the Autumn Lands who know you can no longer wait for heroes to appear and save your homes. To succeed in your quest to stand against the Demon Prince’s armies, you will need to seek out the powerful relics wielded by legendary heroes and find skilled masters to teach you incredible new abilities. You will become the heroes of destiny by fulfilling prophecies through your own actions.

This campaign will require you to rely on your wits and planning to overcome challenges throughout your adventures. Victory in combat is never assured, travel and exploration are fraught with danger, and your power is limited. Look to your equipment, resources, and allies to give you the upper hand. 

We will be using encumbrance rules, along with exploration and journey procedures, to create a sense of challenge and satisfaction in overcoming arduous travel. You won’t always know the location of your destination, and the obstacles you face along the way will be significant.

In this classless and level-less version of 5.5E, expect combat to always be challenging and potentially deadly. Retreat is always a wise option, for both sides. Environmental advantages, traps, and tactics could play a decisive role in any encounter. 

We will discuss our options if a character should die as a group.

Please refer to the original Origins 5.5E post for character creation and guidance throughout the campaign.

End

I felt inspired by Patchwork Paladin’s very cool spin on a “Basic 5E” and saw an opportunity to really flesh out a campaign idea that’s been circling around the back of my mind for a long time, so I figured I might as well share it as a sort of campaign frame to highlight what could be possible with Origins 5.5E.
(Origins 5.5e © 2026 by Patchwork Paladin is licensed under CC BY 4.0)

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