Note that this document is a work in progress.
Gameplay Sessions
We will get together once every two weeks. In general, if two or more people cannot make it to a given session, we will reschedule.
The Eleva
Every Autumnal Equinox, each major settlements in the domain of Vosqia is requested to select their Eleva: those special people who exhibit unusual talent in useful arts and skills, be it cooking, tanning, oration, swordplay, magical-arts, etc. These talented people become candidates for entry into Donyr’s Prime, the elite section of the land’s standing army which has produced most of Vosqia’s heroes for hundreds of years.
This Autumnal Equinox, you have been chosen as one of your community’s Eleva!
On the following Spring Equinox, representatives from The Gavel, Vosqian’s Army, will arrive at your settlement to evaluate your skills. Should you be deemed worthy, you will enter into apprenticeship for The Prime and, subsequently, you will be escorted to your first assignment.
If you pass your evaluation, entry into Donyr’s Prime would give you a monthly salary of 20gp, your settlement would be given a monetary tribute, and your family (if you have any) would also be given a monetary tribute. Additionally, after 25 years of service, members of The Prime can retire, are awarded a generous lump sum of gold, and are given the option to purchase land near the capital city of Oszmir or the surrounding hinterlands.
For the sake of this campaign, we will assume you have accepted the honor of becoming an Eleva. Maybe you did this because you want to become like the heroes in all those fireside tales. Maybe you did this to help your family get out of poverty. Maybe you don’t give a damn about Vosqia or its army, but your secret guild convinced you to join The Prime so that you can report secrets back to your guildmasters – or so that you can assassinate one of the army’s generals. Let your imagination go nuts, and we can work together on the details.
Through the winter and to the Spring Equinox, you have prepared for your departure – and for the start of your new, exciting life.
Creating your Character
Beginnings
Our campaign will take place in the year 3258 on the planet Qelir in the domain of Vosqia around the city of Macati on the Spring Equinox. Your character has lived in a single settlement all of their life. Their home be in Macati proper (pop 13,000) or in any smaller settlement within 100 miles.
Further, when creating your backstory you can have a hand at customizing any aspects of your home town and/or the nearby city of Macati. Make up NPC, shops, events, whatever. Help me worldbuild. Visit the webpage for Macati to see the rough details of the city. Yellow buildings are finished. All brown buildings are temporary placeholders and open for your changes.
Your Personality
No selfish or distractingly contentious characters are allowed in this campaign. Tension and conflict are acceptable so long as they provide interesting role-play opportunities among CHARACTERS rather than being annoying, offending, or unfun situations among PLAYERS. Please make sure your character can harmonize with the rest of the party.
With the above paragraph in mind, evil characters are allowed. Secret agendas are allowed. Personal, private character goals are allowed.
Your Knowledge
The following will list the baseline knowledge known to the people of the land. Depending on your heritage, class, background, etc. you may know more.
- You live in the domain of Vosqia.
- Vosqia’s army is called The Gavel.
- The capital is a really big city called Oszmir. They say a dragon lives there!
- There is a big domain to the northeast called Rhovir. They are bloodthirsty barbarians that regularly raid Vosqia to steal, plunder, and abuse. It is said they only talk in grunts and are basically rabid animals. Your settlement knows at least one person that has been killed or maimed by them. The Donyr’s Prime needs you to help keep the land safe from these animals!
- There is a neighboring domain called Meneki to the south. Those people live in the desert! How the heck do they live in the heat like that?
- There is a biiiig trade city to the west called Ithidia. “All ways lead to Ithidia,” the saying goes.
- There is a highway called The Farmway that leads from the capital of Oszmir goes through Macati, and ends at Ithidia. They say its hundreds of miles long and is made of stone the whole way!
- TBD.
Background
Feel free to use any backgrounds available at https://2e.aonprd.com/ or in the Homebrew Changes section below. Rare, unique, or third party backgrounds need GM approval.
Free Archetype
This campaign uses the free archetype rule found at https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751. The purpose of this is to give your character flavor (and maybe a bit more power) rather than providing a way to min/max your character. Dedications and feats that are rare or unique are not allowed without GM approval. You can choose your dedication & archetypes from any campaign setting.
We do want to avoid any potential balancing issues. For example, the feat for Barbarian Resiliency gives hit points based on the number of feats, leading to a situation where characters with Free Archetype can unfairly stack on bonuses. So, for our campaign, Free Archetype feats are excluded from the count for Barbarian Resiliency and similar feats.
Hit the GM up if you have any questions about this.
Playtest Classes
Paizo Playtest Classes, such as the Necromancer and Runesmith, will be allowed (see Impossible Playtest for more details) with one important caveat: playtest classes can (and probably will) be adjusted to preserve game balance and harmony. This will happen when Paizo releases official changes to the playtest classes or when the group notices any balance issues. When this happens, appropriate changes will be implemented right away to your build. More than likely this will coincide with updates Paizo puts out. The GM and the player will work together to address these issues.
Only choose this option if you are ok with sudden changes to the core functionality of your character.
Suggestions
As always, I encourage the players to communicate with one another to ensure that the party as a whole has a wide variety of skill, languages, and other abilities so that you always have the options to support creative solutions to any encounter. That being said, the following will be particularly useful in this campaign.
Skills
Stealth, deception, and social skills should find plentiful opportunity to shine in this campaign.
Languages
While most inhabitants of the land speak common, settlements tend to be fairly cosmopolitan and multi-cultural, so one is sure to find pockets where only elvish, dwarven, gnomish, goblin, draconic, halfling, or fey are spoken.
Homebrew Changes
Heritage – Leshy
Leshy heritages do not have to be intrinsically tied to their form. You can have a spiky fern that has all the attributes of the Cactus Leshy but looks like a lush fern. You can create a “Swamp Orchid” Leshy that has all the traits of a Lotus Leshy or a Seaweed Leshy. So long as the mechanics are consistent with rules-as-written, let your creativity go wild.
Campaign-specific Heritages
Duzele
The Duzele are the dwarves who live in the Meneki deserts south of Vosqia. They retain the stout strength of their ancestors but are shaped by Meneki’s intense heat. Their skin is much darker, ranging from copper to black, and they can work with sand the way their ancestors worked with stone.
Heritage: Sun-Hardened Duzele
Your ancestors lived, worked, and battled in the deserts of Meneki. You gain the Terrain Expertise skill feat for desert terrain, you treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on), and loose sand (or gravel, or small rocks, etc) is not difficult terrain or uneven ground for you.
Heritage: Caravan Duzele
Your people hail from the desert domain of Meneki. Their way of life depends on traveling, working, and battling across the shifting sands of the desert. As such, you have become adapt at moving faster than normal. Your speed increases by 5 feet.
Lisii
The Meneki leshy, much like their beloved Dwarf allies, have adapted to forms that can tolerate the harsh, sun-baked climate. As stated in the Leshy section above, the physical forms of these heritages are not important. Choose a heritage that suits your own leshy design.
Heritage: Nightbloom Lishii
WIP
Heritage: Burrow Lishii
WIP
Leveling and Training
WIP.
Classes
Cleric
Deity’s Favored Weapon
Bold sections are our additions / changes
Your deity grants you the trained proficiency rank in one skill and with the deity’s favored weapon. If the favored weapon is uncommon, you also get access to that weapon. You may also pick any simple weapon to act as your deity’s favored weapon. This selection happens at character creation.