Thornhold — A Real Online Multiplayer RPG

Hey everyone,
Some of you know me from Vision AI Assistant...however, I'm not here to talk about that lol. I will say that although the app got quite a bit of success, the reality is that apps were coming out with better features and already on the meta glasses. I had to take a step back and think of what I really wanted to invest my time and money into. Something that I cared about a lot as this subject really holds a big place in my heart.
I have been secretly building a game for months. And it's almost ready.
It's called Thornhold — a full online multiplayer RPG running proper D&D Fifth Edition rules, a persistent living world, real players, real stakes, real consequences. It plays great with VoiceOver, and it plays great without it. Blind and sighted players in the same world, same servers, same game.
Soooo, TLDR, but let me actually tell you what's in this thing, because it's a lot.

The World
Thornhold is a big place. Hundreds of named regions spread across a map with real geography. You start in a rough town — The Battered Flagon tavern, a market square, an apothecary, a gate leading out to the roads beyond. From there it opens up.
Head west and you hit the coast: Salt Port, Tidal Harbour, Saltmarsh Village, Smuggler's Inlet, sea stacks, drowned ruins. The coastal towns have their own feel, their own quest types, their own economies. Head inland and you're pushing through the Whispering Woods, across the Riverside Crossing, past the Old Mill and into Stonehaven Ruins. Deeper in: a Goblin Warren, the Barrow Downs, Thornwatch Keep, a Blasted Heath that used to be something important, an Ossuary carved into ancient stone. Go north and you reach the city of Aurveld — Scholar's Quarter, Grand Library, Alchemist's Quarter, a place called The Forbidden Archives, a Spire. There's also a whole fey region: The Faerie Ring, Moonveil Grove, Twilight Glade, The Unseen Path, Courts of Amber, The Pale Throne.
Every region has a danger rating. Safe. Low. Medium. High. Deadly. You'll know what you're walking into.
Movement is tile-based. Every location is a real grid you walk through step by step using a four-direction D-pad. Roads between regions are actual corridors you walk, not instant teleports. Set a waypoint to any destination and your D-pad lights up with directions toward it — VoiceOver reads "Go South — toward Town Gate" so you always know exactly where you're headed. Arrive somewhere and the game narrates the tile: the name, what you see, what it feels like. The world describes itself as you move.

Character Creation: Full D&D 5e
You pick a race. All the classics: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Dragonborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Tiefling, plus Tabaxi, Aasimar, and Genasi. Every race has its real racial traits implemented — Elf Darkvision and Fey Ancestry, Dwarven Resilience, Halfling Nimbleness, Tabaxi climbing speed and Feline Agility, Aasimar celestial resistance, all of it.
Then you pick a class from all twelve: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. The full roster. Every class has its real progression — hit dice, proficiency bonus scaling with level, class features unlocking at the correct levels, and subclass selection when the rules say you should pick.
Your six ability scores are real and they matter. STR for melee attacks and Athletics. DEX for AC calculations, finesse weapons, Acrobatics, Stealth, initiative. CON for your HP pool and concentration checks when you get hit mid-spell. INT for Arcana, History, Investigation, and if you're a Wizard, your spell attack. WIS for Perception, Insight, Medicine, and spellcasting for Clerics, Druids, and Rangers. CHA for Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and spellcasting for Paladins, Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks.
Proficiency bonus scales from +2 at level 1 to +6 at level 20. Your saving throw proficiencies are class-specific. Skill proficiencies are tracked. Armor class is calculated from your actual armor, DEX modifier, and relevant class features — Barbarian Unarmored Defense adds CON, Monk Unarmored Defense adds WIS. It's the real system.

Combat
Turn-based, real 5e mechanics. Attack roll versus Armor Class. Damage with the correct dice for your weapon. Saving throws. Critical hits on a natural 20. Proficiency bonus added where it belongs.
Barbarian Rage gives you damage resistance and bonus STR damage. Paladin has Lay on Hands. Rogues get Sneak Attack dice. Monks spend Ki points. Bards hand out Bardic Inspiration. Paladins Divine Smite. Spellcasters burn spell slots. It all works.
When you're knocked to zero HP, you go unconscious. Now the clock starts. Each turn you're down, you make a Death Saving Throw — roll a d20, hit 10 or higher and that's a success, nine or lower is a failure. Three successes and you stabilize. Three failures and that character is gone. Permadeath. If an ally reaches you and stabilizes you with a Medicine check, or a healing spell brings you back above zero, the saves reset. But if your party can't get to you in time, you're done.
This is not a soft death system. Pay attention to your HP.

Short Rests and Long Rests
Also fully implemented. When you take a Short Rest — spending at least an hour catching your breath — you can spend your hit dice to recover HP. Roll your class's hit die, add your CON modifier, get that much HP back. Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Monks — classes built around short rests get their key features back too. Monk Ki points, Fighter Second Wind, Warlock spell slots all come back on a short rest.
Long Rest is a full eight hours. You wake up with all your HP restored, all your spell slots back, all your hit dice refilled up to half your level, all your class features that need a long rest recharged. Barbarian Rage uses. Paladin Lay on Hands. Everything. Long rests are the difference between going into that dungeon at full strength or scraping through on fumes.

Rests aren't free, either. Taking them in dangerous regions costs you. Something might happen while you're sleeping.

Quests
Every region has quest types that match where you are. What you're handed in a goblin warren is not what you get in the Grand Library. Your party composition feeds into the quest too. A party of three Rogues and a Bard is going to get different work than a Paladin, a Cleric, and two Fighters.
Quests are full multi-scene adventures. You get a title, a hook, scenes that unfold as you push through them, and a thread at the end that connects to the next job. When a quest completes, your party gets the next hook. The story keeps moving.

Activities
Every location has things to do beyond questing and fighting. The tavern has dice games and arm wrestling. The woods let you forage for herbs and hunt. The Riverside Crossing has fishing. The market has bartering and appraising goods. Ruins are full of things to study and search. The keep has sparring matches with soldiers. The apothecary has remedies to research. The goblin warren — if you're bold enough to go in friendly — will let you negotiate trades and challenge the residents to bouts.
Every activity uses a real D&D 5e skill check. Go fishing and roll Survival. Barter with the market traders and roll Persuasion. Study inscriptions in the barrows and roll History. Your skill proficiencies and ability scores affect the outcome. Do it well and you earn gold. Do it poorly and you might walk away empty-handed or worse.

Jobs
Beyond activities, you can pick up work from NPCs — jobs that pay gold for services rendered. This is how you build wealth without combat. Run an errand, deliver goods between regions, do a job for the locals. It's a living economy and your character is part of it.

Gambling, Dice Games, and Card Games
The Battered Flagon has Farkle and Yahtzee right now. You can play them against the house, or against another player. Wager your gold, play the game, win or lose it properly. Your win-loss record is tracked. The gold is real.
This is expanding. More dice games. Card games. As new taverns open up across different regions — coastal taverns, city establishments, roadside waystation inns — each one is getting its own table games. The plan is for every tavern in the world to have a different set of games. Some of these will have bigger tables and bigger buy-ins.
PvP gambling is in. Sit down with a friend, pick a game, put gold on the table, and play. No house edge — just you and them.
their is also a PVP fighting system being worked on as I write this...and I do have some secret plans that I'm not sharing here yet!
Multiplayer
Real-time, always online. Other players are in the world with you right now.
Form a party with friends or people you meet in the world. Party movement is voted — someone calls a direction, the party votes yes or no, and you walk together. Sighted and blind players, same party, same game, same footing.
World chat reaches everyone in Thornhold regardless of where they are. Local chat reaches whoever is in your current region. Talk to NPCs, pick up rumours, find out what's up ahead. The locals know things.

Sound
Every region has its own ambience. Tavern hearth crackle and murmur. Rain on cobblestones at the market gate. Wind off the cliff face at Cliffside Watch. Dripping stone deep underground. The coastal towns have surf. The fey regions have something harder to name.
Footsteps change with the surface. Combat sounds different from exploration. The world has texture you can hear and their is also music to go along with the locations.

When Is It Out?
Soon. I'm in the final polish phase — navigation, interaction flows, making sure everything lands properly end to end.
Watch this thread. I'll post here as I update, maybe start a beta test,, and let you know when it opens up to the world.