You can make the rolls for your character creation here. I'll have more setting details soon and answer any questions you might have.
A backwater province of the troubled Empire, the Northern Reach covers the lands east and north of the Shield Mountains, stretching as far north as the Desolation and east to the Auroral Ocean. Littered with the ruins of vanished peoples, much of this land remains a wilderness—trackless, unexplored, haunted by the faerie, ravaged by beastmen, and shadowed by the undead that besiege the citadels of the Crusader States. But even with all the dangers afoot in these lands, civilization thrives.
At the center of the Northern Reach, Crossings spreads across a ring of hills overlooking the lake known as the Dark Waters. Six pale spires rise above the city, obscured by the perpetual smoke spewing from the stacks of its industrial district. Miles of farmland spread to the east, while the rolling hills known as the Barrows form a natural border to the south, curling around to the Black Hills where the city pries iron ore from dwarf-dug mines deep within the earth.
The present city is the latest in a long line of communities that have stood on the shores of the Dark Waters. Evidence of previous settlements can be seen in the city’s architecture, from looming faerie spires to the arches left by the First People, to the castles raised by the Edene when they ruled these lands. The city’s cobbled streets, ancient cemeteries, and statues of people and events long forgotten have all withstood the tide of years.
The Crossings of today grew from exiles, bandits, and refugees fleeing the Empire’s tyranny and squatting in the ruins of a town emptied by the plague. Though the new settlement was a lawless and dangerous place, the influx of settlers and the march of the crusaders to establish their citadels tempered the community’s excesses and helped its people establish a rule of law that has made the last century a stable one. Isolation and wealth have given Crossings a great deal of autonomy, and the city acknowledges the rule of the provincial capital of Sixton in name only.
Humans make up most of the people living in the city. Half that population can trace its ancestry to the indigenous peoples of the Northern Reach, and are distinguished by their auburn hair and dusky features. Many also have tribal tattoos that often depict divine symbols of the Old Faith gods. The rest of the city’s humans hail from across the Empire’s lands.
Halflings are the second most significant population in the city. However, their numbers are even larger in the countryside, where they maintain their farms and tend to their herds. Halflings mingle freely with humans, and marriages between humans and halflings happen from time to time.
Alongside those two races, Crossings features all the other peoples living in and around the Empire. Brutish orcs can be found haunting the taverns in Old Town or brawling with jotun exiles that ventured north to find their fortunes. Goblins tend to the city’s sewers and keep its streets clean. Changelings infiltrate the city in human and halfling guise. And clockworks, either fashioned locally or having arrived from far-flung places, struggle to find their place on the frontier.
Remember that each race has their own categories for rolls. Many of those won't apply to your race.
With permission from the GM, I'm using a different set of rolls made in the discord chat. I rolled randomly to determine which race and books I'll be using.
Race:
Skinchanger
Curse: Someone you knew contracted the curse and passed it onto you the fi rst time they changed.
Animal Form: Rat
Side Effect: The shadow you cast has the shape of your animal form.
(Shame I didn't get what I rolled the first time - normal animals of the type treat you as if you were of that type. Just seems fun. :) )
From here, I rolled which living race I would be. My first roll was clockwork, which is an invalid entry. My second roll was Goblin, from the core rules book.
Goblin Rolls:
Age: 11-25 (young adult)
Build: Normal height/weight range for a Goblin
Distinctive Appearance: You have one eye
Odd Habit: You like to hide
Goblin Background: You snuck into Alfheim and stole a lock of hair from the Faerie Queen.
Goblin Personality: You try to rise above the filth and squalor of your people to do good in the world.
Professions
Common (Shopkeeper)
Common (Miner)
Wealth: Comfortable
Interesting Thing: A box of iron nails
Traits. Positive: Forgiving. Negative: Vulgar.
Bookrat here. Here's my PC's story. I'm thinking that at this point, he doesn't know he's a Skinchanger.
---------
As a Goblin, life is s!*&. Let me tell you. S&%@ on by the Fey. S$%* on by the humans. Even the f&+*ing orcs s%$@ on you, and when that backwards slave-ass race looks down on you, you know it bad. But hey, at least I didn't love in the f$%&ing sewers, wallowing in their literal s@&&.
I grew up in Crossroads. Ma raised us up on the outskirts, in the trash heaps. Sure, people think it's bad, but there's treasures there like you wouldn't believe! Pa was a miner - worked at the Crossings Landfill. What? You don't think the landfill has mines? Ha! You humans are dumber than you think we are! I spent years in those mines, searching for discarded treasures. You'd be amazed at what we'd find. We made good reselling what we found back to the humans. You'd be amazed as the trash they'd buy off us. And it was more than enough to feed me and my siblings. We loved good. But, it just wasn't enough, ya know? I needed something more.
And then one day it happened.
Cack. He's another goblin, like me. We grew up together. It was his idea. It was his plan. Ya see, he was the one who saw it. A doorway to Alfeihm. I'd dreamed of this place. We knew we wasn't welcome, considering that the Queen herself threw out out of goblinkind, but we just had to take the chance. We snuck in. We did the unthinkable. It was I that did it. Cut off a lock of her hair. Yes! Her! F@&$ing her! The queen herself! She was asleep! And I cut her hair! I handed it to Cack as we fled.
Leaving was harder than getting in. Guard were on high alert when they found out what happened. I wanted to hide. Cack wanted to run. I mean, the doorway - it was right there. But something wasn't right. I just knew it. I hid. Cack ran. Cack was caught.
I watched it all from my hiding place. Ah was she angry. Livid. She picked him up with one hand around his throat, screaming about how dare he touch her. He tried to say it wasn't him - and it wasn't. It was me. But he had her hair on him. And that was all the proof they needed. She screamed at him. Called him a little rat scurrying in filth. Said, “If you want to be a rat, so be it!” At the time, I didn't know what she meant. She tossed Cack back through the doorway and back to the mortal realm. I stayed hidden. Eventually, the coast was clear and I fled.
A few days later, I finally caught up with Cack. He wasn't no worse for wear. And we had a good laugh about it all, especially considering how we both got out alive.
But two weeks later, it happened. We was hiding out in an old mine shaft. It had partially collapsed because some orcs dumped a load of trash on top of it. Dangers of the occupation. But just because it was collapsed didn't mean it had no treasures. We was digging through, when we found a bottle of liquor! What a find! We started drinking, and were singing songs and laughing when ol Cack started complaining that his insides hurt. I walked him outside to get him some fresh air, when he screamed in pain and started convulsing. He started to change right there in front of me, fur growing out of his hide, limbs bending in ways they shouldn't, claws and teeth forming. He was becoming a giant rat! Just like the Faerie Queen said! Then he turned on me. He bit my arm while scratching at my belly; I managed to fight him off and eventually he ran away. I ain't seen him since. I think he remembers what happened and is just too embarrassed to come back to me. At least, I hope. I hope he ain't dead. That would just f!~*ing suck.
Ultimately I have decided to go with Human as my race here.
Results:
Age: Young adult: 27 years old.
I have a spouse and 1d6-2 children. Perhaps she is a halfling.
=0.
Build: Average height and weight.
Religion: Follower of the tenets of the old faith.
Personality: (Heart of gold) I help others because it's the right thing to do.
Appearance: Perfectly average looks and appearance.
General Profession: Religion (You belong to a religious institution.)
Specific profession: Minister. (You are a religious leader in your community. You know how to read and write one language you know.)
Wealth: Getting By.
Man, this guy is just Mr. Vanilla over here. Not sure I intend to be a priest here or not. Write up later.
Whoops, forgot a few things:
(A fondness for the bottle.)
(Dependable but craven.)
So Imedren is a young man who is average looking in all ways, married but no children. He's a cowardly minister priest of the old faith with a fondness for alcohol but with a heart of gold who is dependable as long as things don't get tough or confrontational. He doesn't come from wealth and is not terribly ambitious by any means but he will always do the right thing.
I'll have a clear write up later.
Here are definitely aspects from my story that don't capturey entire PC. Such as how he wants to rise up above the filfth of his people to fight evil forces. I wasn't sure how to incorporate that into what I wrote.
Also, did you know it's pretty hard to find an avatar of a goblin with one eye?
We are still waiting for Drot's player to make a character and to see if one or more of his friends will join us.
The interesting thing I rolled fits very well with my character. I'm working on the story now, we've been busy at work so I apologize for the delay.
No problem, Drot T-Bog! I'll probably get things started here on Monday morning, giving everybody the weekend to finish up their characters' stats and stories. Since it's just the three of you, I'd like to stat up Imedren's wife as a DMPC to round out the group, with his permission, of course. Imedren, is your wife a human or halfling?
Ah yes, sorry about that. I got a little lost over this last week and never did get around to finishing Imedren's character write up.
She will be a Halfling named Uruuna. Something that irked his parents but also isn't completely unheard of and after some contemplation did allow their family to be seen as more open to the community as a whole. So he only had to deal with it's ramifications occasionally.
Also, sure. I'd already pictured her as a stronger willed and potentially rougher sort than Imedren. They met in a tavern during Imedren's haze of trying to cope with some of his issues and the two of them became drinking partners, friends, and eventually fell for each other.
I'll come up with a description of what I imagine her to look like later.
Edit: And that was over 30 minutes of writing I lost due to a combo of copy/pasting mistakes as well as Paizo's backtrack too far issue. I will have to just remember to come back later and write that up. For now, I'm going to bed.
Im ready to go!
@ DM Brainiac, for stating up Uruuna, do you just want me to describe her in great detail?
Also for the group in general, what sort of role are you each planning on playing? My background set my character up for being a priestly character again, this time of the Old faith variety, but I was sort of leaning more towards a roguish sort or maybe arcane caster. But if you were both thinking of that, I could go down that road again.
I made some rolls on the halfling tables to create her background, but you can provide Uruuna's physical description.
Uruuna stands at a height of 3'2 and has a firm build. She has dusky skin and straight dark red hair that parts naturally down the middle and which she keeps tied up in two separate tails. Her eyes are a deep blue. She prefers to dress in dark brown boots and simple clothing that tends toward earth colors.
Hope that description works.
Yes, I can work with that. I will make an alias for her tomorrow morning then we will begin the game!
Imedren, it looks like you've got an extra +1 to your stats. Starting characters may only add +1 to one stat in exchange for -1 to another. So either your Agility or Intellect has to go back down to 10.
T-Bog, still don't have your story yet. But you and Anophth both have the miner profession, so it stands to reason you have worked together before. And since you have the peasant conscript profession, you might have served under Imedren's brother, who is a lieutenant in the militia.
Anopth and T-bog, since your lifestyles are poor or getting by, you probably live in the city district called Grievings.
Grievings is a desperate, dangerous district, whose people work as servants in Coins, toil in Smokestacks, and labor anywhere else they can find work in the city. Although the district is infested with vermin and riddled with disease, Grievings’ people are proud and independent. They look after each other, and mete out their own brand of justice to those who cross them.
Imedren, you and Uruuna likely live in the Old Town District.
I'll have the first gameplay post up in the next few hours!
Oh, and Imedren, halflings don't have their own language. They speak Common, so you can choose a different starting language.
Here's Uruuna's alias.
Ack, I got some lifestyles mixed up earlier. Anopth is likely living in Old Town with his comfortable lifestyle. Uruuna has a comfortable one as well, even if Imedren is just getting by, so they can be in the Old Town still.
The first gameplay post is up!
Imedren, it looks like you've got an extra +1 to your stats. Starting characters may only add +1 to one stat in exchange for -1 to another. So either your Agility or Intellect has to go back down to 10.
Don't forget that humans get an extra +1, in addition to the +1 for -1 trade.
Oh! I think I overlooked that when I built Tesswyn... I never gave her the extra +1.
Any chance I could retroactively apply that +1 bonus now?
Here is a map of Crossings. I'll put a link to it in the campaign description as well.
Oh! I think I overlooked that when I built Tesswyn... I never gave her the extra +1.
Any chance I could retroactively apply that +1 bonus now?
Absolutely!
Thanks! I will bump up her Agility to 14.
Ah, so I don't have to change my stats.
Quick clarification GM, Imedren would almost certainly know if Father Gregory was living at another house or not. Does he have another home for the group to visit or does he stay mostly at his shrine?
Also, does the horned skull drawing mean anything to Imedren with his background in religion?
Gregory lives here in the shrine. He doesn't have another home to speak of.
Imedren doesn't know what the significance of the horned skull might be.
Well without further ado, to the Fallen Soldier tavern.
I'm thinking that the better way to go would be talk to people surrounding the tavern to learn more about the people we want to ask about before heading to the tavern itself. Unless people think it would be better to start at the center of things and work our way spreading outward?
Where's the center? I thought the tavern was the center. I'm good with starting there. How are goblins generally accepted there?
The tavern is the center. Goblins are generally tolerated, as long as they don't cause trouble.
Forgive the presumption of what Imedren would do here. I know it's not something most PC's ever do, but as a character with the negative trait, craven, he would not want to stay and fight two threatening men who are known thugs.
That being said, if both Uruuna and Anophth were already in the thick of things with the other two men, his positive trait, dependable, would override his craven state and he would help.
Everything looks good, Dramm. You can start posting whenever you're ready. Just include why you're interested in trying to track down Father Gregory or one of the other missing people.
About to go to bed. I will post an update when I wake up.
The rest of you are all up for your combat actions. Please state fast or slow initiative and post your actions.
Ah, my bad. I had meant to post that Imedren at least had no immediate plan past stealth.
Well now it's time to swing a stick.
I really like how much that entire encounter reminded me of the completely incompetent fight scene at the end of Pineapple Express.
Had a super long and unusual day after my usual sleep schedule was interrupted. Will post tomorrow morning.
Hi all, Bookrat pointed me onto here.
I'll have time to look over my pdf bundle this evening (GMT) if that's okay.
Sure thing! Welcome to the game! Let me know if you have any questions. If you have Discord, I can invite you to the chat room we have set up there, too.
I forgot to mention, everybody has gained Fortune for great roleplaying so far! Keep it up! :D
Yay!
Excellent!