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The following Campaign Journal is as much a presentation of the campaign my players are going through as a means of keeping a record of their ongoing quest. I figured some people might like reading it. Feel free to ask questions and comment.
This campaign started off as an excuse to playtest the revamped Kingdom and Mass Combat rules in the Ultimate Campaign and my players brought up the idea of PvP. As there were no rules for PvP in the book itself, we homebrewed a few things and set to work.
RIFTWAR BACKGROUND
(Rough idea of what we came up with)
50 years ago, a planar portal opened up on the material plane, bringing with it legions of monsters and horrors. They were eventually driven back through the gate but it had come at a great cost. An expedition, consisting of both military and civilian personnel were sent through the gate as it closed naturally. This expedition was tasked with founding a beachhead beyond the gate. There, they would seek to discover why the portal had opened, and prevent any more monsters from pouring into the world.
As the gate closed, communications were lost however.
And now, after 50 years of silence, the portal has reopened once again. No monsters have poured forth however... and no members of the expedition either.
Now, each PC is a leader of a new expedition, each one entering this new realm for their own reasons. Some seek to make contact with the Lost Expedition, some seek to claim the land as their own, and others have even more mysterious motives.
HOMEBREW PVP RULES
- Each player submits their Realm actions to the GM at the start of each turn.
- Any actions that require a clear decision on who did what first, have opposed rolls to see who goes first. Certain bonuses can be applied to this roll.
- Characters level up at specific moments instead of by gaining experience points. While the focus as a whole is on the kingdoms and armies, the players still roleplay themselves and go on adventures.
STARTING RESOURCES
Each PC began with the following:
- 50 BP
- One randomly selected Hex in Valtheria.
- A 1st level character, 25 point buy.
THE PLAYERS AND THEIR REALMS
Valdar of Silverholde (LN male human fighter 1): Valdar's quest involves finding the members of the lost expedition as well as defeating the source of the monstrous attacks 50 years ago.
Szarde Ruinhorn (CE male tiefling rogue 1): Szarde is on a simple mission. Destroy everything. By flame and shadow, he seeks only to devastate this world and all who oppose him.
Filwick Northwind (NG male halfling alchemist 1): To Filwick, Valtheria is a world fresh for exploring and experimenting. His only desire is to study and revel in what only a fresh world can bring.
Serrina Helvinter (N female human ranger 1): Serrina is the only other expedition member who truly seeks to find out what happened to the expedition 50 years ago. As well, she has always felt a strong pull to the land of the region and hopes to preserve it eternally.
Excellent idea for a campaign (a sort of planar "kingmaker", it seems). Will the players be engaging in both large-scale pvp (as per Ultimate Campaign) and typical adventuring?
I'm curious, what factions exist beyond the portal? Are there celestial as well as fiendish denizens? What about elementals?
Szarde is a tiefling, but his loyalties aren't very clear. Is he a member of some planar faction from beyond the portal (a native of Valtheria) or is he being sent from the material plane like the others?
I know it's too sensitive to post here, if indeed your players read through the thread, but I'd like to know: what caused the portal to open in the first place--and why did it open precisely 50 years after it was closed--will it close again only to re-open in another 50 years--if so, what would end the cycle?
Keep posting; I'm very interested!
I was hoping for a Midkemia homebrew. But who knows? Feist's just about done. You could be next!
@Detect Magic: Of course. We're using Chapter 4 in its entirety.
We wrote up a lot of faction ideas and not all of them are implemented yet, but we're trying to have a strong racial tie. We also made some new races with the Race Builder so expect some of those.
Szarde also comes from the material plane. In his mind, Valtheria is a perfect world to ravage.
As for the portal opening, I don't think my players use paizo.com so I can tell you. Essentially, Valtheria works in very accelerated time. In fact, in the 50 years since the portal opened, 500 years passed in Valtheria. The world itself is slowly decaying from within. An order of like minded individuals called the Voices Unheard decided to siphon off time from other worlds and cycle through them every decade to restore Valtheria. The "material plane" is one of those siphoned realms.
Not evil per say, they have no other alternative and rather than bleed a single world dry, they have connected to a dozen or so of them to prolong themselves.
The "monstrous attacks" were initiated to keep the realms busy while the binding rituals were completed.
This seems like a complicated--albeit--wonderful campaign to be involved in! Good luck and I look forward to reading more!