The First ...

The campaign rules are subject to change.

I will likely discuss them with the player base before hand, but it is worth putting my disclaimer out before hand.



The Second ...

Many of the house rules have developed from past campaigns i have conducted, and I have a high confidence in their playable usefulness.  Others are new experiments and I will discuss things with the player base when I decide to try something new so that things are not out of the blue to disrupt the campaign.



The Last ...

Is the Mexican Rule, which will be explained as necessary.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:10, Wed 02 Jan 2019.

Skills

Professions - Not a useless skill in my campaign.  This skill is used to determine what the character does in North Shire when they're not actively adventuring, and various contacts they might have related to the profession.  Professions also provide a varied (but limited) range of potential skills that the character might be acquainted with.  A character is normally limited to One Profession.

This Profession also provides a modest income, that i wash with the day to day expenses that accumulate when your character is not actively adventuring.  If you do not wish to participate in a profession, you may pay a 'Life Style Tax' after an adventure to reflect the spending that goes on between adventures.


Traits

Campaign Traits - {Keep in mind you may only select one Campaign Trait}

Advance Race ~ Your character is considered an 'advance' race, and starts the campaign with +1 racial point, and is limited to a max of '4' traits per Category.

Latent Psionic ~ Your character has untapped mental potential, +1 trait bonus on Will saves.

Monstrous Race ~ Your character is considered an monstrous race, and one of his racial traits may be Monstrous.

Purebreed ~ Your character is pure blooded and may not use Human Heritage.  You start the campaign with +1 racial point, and may select 'Standard', 'Weakness', 'Mixed Weakness', 'Greater Weakness', 'Paragon', or 'Specialized' for an Ability Score Modifier


Feats

Magic Creation Feats ~ Modified versions of this are in use, and allowed.  Will discuss as needed.

Mature ~ +2 racial points.  Your character has been around long enough to mature existing racial traits, or even gain new racial abilities.

Psionic Ability ~ Will discuss as needed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:14, Wed 02 Jan 2019.

Campaign Premise
The Misty Valley campaign takes place in a world I've dubbed 'Neo Earth'.  Rather than invent a world from scratch, use the world we currently live in as a common reference to share with many players.  Most notably is the use of 'languages'.  The campaign takes place in a mostly European established area, and as such Human 'Euro' is the common language of the land.  This should be the first language that should be learned by all characters that dont take it as a native language.  Most of the other core races use versions of modern languages as an inspiration.  ie.  'Asian' for elves, 'German' for Dwarves, 'Franco' for the Sidhe and other Fae Races, 'Black Blood' is a sort of common for the Humanoid races, 'Latin' for Celestial, and so on.  Everyone is playing a unique race, so we'll have to see how this shakes out.  As long as everyone has 'Euro' in common it should be fine.

The Economy runs on the 'Silver' Standard, which has been noted to being equated to the American 'Dollar'.  Gold is fairly common and would be worth 'ten' dollars.  Other coins in order of increasing variety are Platinum, Mithril, and Adamantine.



Campaign Gaming
The Campaign has a few phases to observe.

Adventure, is the active 'quest' or mission of the moment.  The characters have a goal, or problem to solve, and will face challenges that need to be over come to reach a happy resolve.  It's the nuts and bolts of what you expect a campaign to be.

Downtime, is the passive quiet time the character spends when not on an adventure.  They live and enjoy the quiet life and prepare for their next great adventure.  This is the bookkeeping phase.  When characters gain a level time is spent studying, training, whatever, to go up a level.  If characters have a craft skill or feat, an effort may be made to craft something.  Magic users may gather and each exchange 'ONE' spell with one another, or they may make an effort to learn new spells.  Each character/player will spend Downtime differently.  Some will have a flurry of activity, others will have next to none.

Sandbox, alot of roleplaying can happen and develop out of the scope of the adventure.  The sandbox is the place to develop this stuff, and is presumed to happen before, the current adventure.



Campaign Magic
Spell Casting
Spells are spells and work the way you expect them to except that spells cap out at 'third' level.

Spell Pools are a new campaign spell caster stat.
Spell pools are used to provide 'spell levels' (1:1) for magical feats, cast spell spontaneously (2:1), fast charge mana gems (1:1), or perform/support (1:1) Ritual Magics (4th Level or higher spells)

Spell Pool is equal to the Character Level + Unused Spell Ability Modifier + 4th level or higher spell levels

Characters capable of normally casting spells higher than fourth level, instead increase their spell pool by the levels of these spells  (ie.  A Fourth Level Spell would increase the spell pool by 4).


Magic Items
The most notable campaign resource are 'Mana Gems' and 'Mana Shards'.  Different people call them different things, and have different uses for them but their use is the same.  Mana Gems naturally draw and trap ambient magical mana which various inventive magical artisans have found a use for.  When a 'Mana Gem' shatters you end up with 'Mana Shards'.  Mana Shards no longer draw magical mana, but may still have residual mana that may be useful.  (Most often for crafting expendable magics)  Nearly all (if not all) Magic items in the campaign will use Mana gems in some shape way or form.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:08, Wed 02 Jan 2019.

Arcwright Manor - Ancestral home to the North Shire Burgomaster and his family.

North Shire Exotic Imports and Exports - Campaign Magic Shop and home to all things magical and mundane of use to equip the well equipped adventurer.  If they don't have it, they can tell you who does.  If they don't know who does, it probably doesn't exist.

North Shire Inn - Every campaign has a place for travelers passing through to check in and stay.  The North Shire Inn is the campaign's institutional Inn for these guest.

North Shire Shelter - Original a Temple dedicated to Luna, charitable work with the less fortunate has led to it to be known more as the North Shire Shelter for the homeless or those down on their luck.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:00, Wed 02 Jan 2019.

Campaign Magic Items...

This is a low level / low magic item campaign, but that doesnt mean that useful permanent magic items are not in existence for use.

This is the 'quick' summary on the magic items of the campaign.  Old returning players will be familiar with this and can mostly browse/ignore it.

The campaign will make use of 'Mana Gems' which are the core component of magic items.

In some way shape or form, they are used in nearly all items.  Either intact as gems, shards, or ground up as powder to use for inks and potions.

A typical mana gem is crafted into a masterwork item of some sort, which has been crafted to tap into these gems to trigger a magical effect of some sort.  To make full use of these items, a character must attune themselves to the magic item, where upon they may make use of the effects.  As a general rule, a character may not attune themselves to use more than one of these items at a time.

So how does this work...?

Say you are a character that needs something like that improves your armor class to keep you alive in combat.

My campaign has Mage Shirts, which are master work shirts, that have been imbued to cast Mage Armor (x1/Day), caster levels are considered 1'st level for effects, in this case Duration.  Value of this item is 420gp.

So once a day, when the character knows that danger is coming up, they can activate the shirt, and enjoy the benefits of Mage Armor, a +4 armor class bonus, with no armor check penalties for the duration of the spell.

Upon use, the mana gem is exhausted and will need to quietly trap ambient mana to recharge for a day before working again.  (Functionally we treat it like spell casting and you just consider them all recharge after you wake up)


In a similar manner, Masterwork Weapons who have a natural +1 to hit, have Mana Gems put in them, to self cast Magic Weapon on the weapon, turning it into a true +1 weapon for the duration of the spell.

Mana Gems can be collected and put in existing weapons increasing the charges available to the item.  In the case of Weapons and Armor, when you collect enough of them, the item eventually becomes a true +1 weapon or armor of they type enchanted.

In this way, you may come across a magic item that no one wants, so you can just remove the Mana Gems, to use in an item you do want to use, and sell of the masterwork item for some coin.

Questions on this will be asked, and will be answered, in the OOC thread.

Repeat the Normal Combat Sequence until one side or the other is 'defeated'.  The definition of defeat might vary from encounter to encounter.  When a side goes, each character will take a Full Action.

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During a characters turn they have several options on how they take their actions.

Move Action - This is the easiest action to explain, your character is able to move the distance they allowed on the map.  Each Map will usually be scaled for 5' boxes.  Horizontal and Vertical movements are 5', while diagonal movement is 7.5' of movement.

Standard Action - This normally involves any number of things, and is slightly more time consuming and complicated than a move action.  Most of the times a character will expend their standard action making an attack or casting a spell.

Full Round Action - This covers things that are complicated and time consuming enough to take up all the activity a character is allowed on their turn.  This will often be used for character who are capable of more than one attack a round, or who wish to  make a charge attack (which, simplified, allows them to take to move actions, followed by an attack)

Free Action - These are actions that don't take much time at all, and for the most part of little concern and dont really count against a characters actions.  While officially there is no limit to how many free actions you can take, i keep an eye for this action being abused and will warn you not to be surprised if i act if you take too many free actions beyond what i consider reasonable.  The most common use of a free action, if you haven't taken a move action, is to take a 5' step in some direction.

Swift Action - These are actions that require a little more thought than free actions.  While they dont impact your actions too much, it's worth observing that you may only take one swift action a round.  In the campaign most magic items imbued with a spell will activate on a command word and a swift action.

Immediate Action - These are like swift actions, but may be taken at any time, even on an opponent's turn.  The Immediate action counts as the characters swift action, when he is allowed to take a turn.

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When a characters turn comes around.

They have 6 seconds to act.

A Full round action, will take up all 6 seconds.

A Standard action, will take up 3 seconds, but you may only take one standard action each round.

A Move action, will take up 3 seconds, so you make take two move actions if that is your desire.

A Swift action, will take up no time, but may only be taken once a round.  A swift action may be prohibited if an Immediate action was taken earlier as a pre-emptive swift action.

A free action, will take up no time, and more than one may usually be taken a round.  This includes things like dialogue, and if you have not used any movement actions, you may use a free action to take a 5' step.


It is important to note, that the order of actions may vary.

ie.  Normally a character will take a move action, and then a standard action to attack something.  It is... also possible to attack something, kill it, and then use a move action to withdraw, or close with something else to fight.

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While quite wordy, these are the most essential and simplified rules that everyone should be familiar with to function in the campaign combat setting.