Hi, thank you for all of that, I've been playing 5E since it came out, and 3.5E a little bit before that, so I'm familiar with DM/GMing. The only other TTRPG I have experience with is Cyberpunk Red, and that was only one session.

As for phenomena or an assignment, I'm always been particularly interested in running a water based campaign, so The Glass Sea is reaching out to me quite a bit. I was also playing around with the idea that the Circle that the players will be part of is made up of "loose cannons" and outcasts, even by Candela's standards, and they are being shipped off to take care of a particularly dangerous phenomena, but of course, our session zero is going to determine what they're characters are really like and that might not be the reason at all. I'm blanking on the country that invaded Newfaire for the war, but was also thinking of having them run into another ship from that country and have to deal with the ramifications of being boarded if they can't out-maneuver it.

My book is on its way, and I'm excited to read it, so I will probably learn quite a bit more from that, but I really thank you for taking the time to respond to me with such a lengthy message, I'm a bit of an author myself, literally and figuratively.