How to Make a Character

5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons
For the most part, making a playable character for the Sylvan Shards campaign setting is a straightforward process of implementing Wizards of the Coast's 5th edition rules for Dungeons and Dragons in the Player's Handbook.

Races
All the races from the Player's Handbook are available with the following exceptions:
 * Dragonborn and Tiefling are not found in Myrnia and are not allowed as playable characters.
 * Gnomes must play the Rock Gnome subrace.
 * Elves must choose between the High Elf and Wood Elf subrace.

New Race
Orcs can be a playable class.

New Class
In addition, players may choose the Tinker class. Tinkers are expert traders and crafters who tap into the magic of the High Roads. They are excellent at making deals and finding items and treasure.

Personality and Influence System
This setting has an optional additional set of systems used to define a characters personality and how they can influence others.

Background
There are two new backgrounds included in this setting.

Origins
Check the section on geography to determine details about where your character might be from. Races are not exclusive to one region, but the following home regions are most common:
 * Dwarves most commonly live segregated by gender:
 * Dwarf women live in the city of Karm Lema.
 * Dwarf men live in villages, settlements, and outposts in the Getakenak Hills outside of Karm Lema.
 * High Elves live through the human city-states in the Chiami Plains which was the heart of their empire. They almost never live in the ruins of their old capital, Chai-syl, or the Orc Commonwealth.
 * Wood Elves live in encampments and villages throughout the Zerif Forest.
 * Gnomes may claim parts of the Rock Sea, but that is very recent. Almost all gnomes come from one of the islands in the Verdun Archipelago.
 * Halflings live in clans. These clans may be found in small settlements, or they may be travelling traders or performers.
 * Most humans live in the city-states or in surrounding farmland. There are other humans who live in small tribes through the Rock Sea, which they call Monai-nan.
 * Orcs are almost exclusively raised on a homestead in the Orc Commonwealth.
 * Half-orcs and half-elves may come from either of their parents' lands, or may travel constantly if they are welcome in neither.

Religion
In Myrnia as in the real world, most people follow the religion they were raised in if they follow any at all. There is only one god in Sylvan Shards, a cosmological detail which is rarely debated by different cultures. This one god has sent many avatars to guide different races, and each avatar has created a religion. A few other religions have also sprung up without an avatar present.

The most common religions for the races:
 * Humans: The Unsent
 * Wood Elves: Seekers of the One
 * Halflings: Gree Grega
 * High Elves: Yang-hui
 * Dwarves: Ama-Ra
 * Gnomes: Maestro Macchino
 * Orcs or Half-Orcs: Remiah