Adventurers of Gladden Vale (Inactive)

Game Master Syrus Terrigan

Welcome to Gladden Vale!

A quiet, fertile river valley emerging from a westward spur of the Barrier Peaks, Gladden Vale is home to industrious, self-reliant, hospitable folk. Count Ferren holds court in the town of Three Waters, where the River Gladden, the Godswell, and the Loggerfall conjoin near the mouth of the vale. Two separate baronies compose Ferren's domain, demarcated by the Gladden's winding path out of the mountains. The major communities of North Gladden are Ravenlock, Cutter's Wash, and Northferry; South Gladden's primary population centers are Southferry, Bear's Den, and Last Rest. Logging, trapping, and agriculture are strong industries in the Vale, with smaller operations in mining, masonry, and other business interests.

The spring thaw has finally arrived, and in a Naming Year the normal bustle has redoubled. The logging camps have stacked their logs at the riverbanks, waiting for the snowmelt rush to float them downstream, where the roads are better. The trappers are rambling through the wooded hills and rocky defiles, laying snares about as they look toward the year's catch. Farmers are checking shoes, plows, and team animals while bringing out seed saved from last year's harvest. And overrunning all of this, the young folk from around the Vale eagerly await the announcement of the Trial -- a tradition dating back long beyond the Gladdenfolk's becoming part of the kingdom --, and the beginning of their lives as full citizens, their chosen names in the Rolls as peers throughout the Gladden.

Yet with the hope of new spring, grim happenings have cast a pall over valley life, as well. Word of the death of the Count's eldest daughter is spreading like wildfire -- the young woman and her entire escort slaughtered on the road between Last Rest and Bear's Den. Rumor of strange comings and goings in the mountain passes has begun to trickle from remote parts of the vale. And from Greenstone, capital of the Duchy of the Eastern Reaches, it is being bandied about that Duke Wikark may call his banners to war.

Character Creation Rules/Guidelines:

All hopeful participants will be expected to make four 0th-level characters according to the following rules. And before you roll the dice, make sure that you’ve embraced the idea that some of those potential characters might not survive beyond the seventh roll. Just saying.

> All ability scores will be generated with a 3d6 roll in order (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha).

> Starting HP will be determined via a 1d4 roll adjusted by the character’s Constitution modifier. Any cumulative results of negative HP totals indicate that the character in question, no matter how mighty or brilliant, has died through some misfortune. Any cumulative results of exactly 0 HP indicate that something terrible has happened, incapacitating that character until such time that the narrative provides some chance at healing or restoration. But even those opportunities are not without risk.

> The most common, classic fantasy races/ancestries are acceptable options for characters, but PCs of human descent are heavily preferred. If you desire to play a more exotic character, I will need some persuasion; if I still say “No”, respect that decision, please, and reformulate your idea!

> Racial ability bonuses are not used to adjust ability score rolls until the character attains level one. Racial ability penalties are applied at the beginning of character creation. All other customary traits of the Pathfinder races will be addressed on an at-need, case-by-case basis. Humans do not receive the benefits of their bonus feat, nor of their “skilled” racial trait, at level 0.

> You may choose any starting age you desire for your characters, but do know that the primary hook for our opening adventure is age-dependent, consisting of a rite of passage from youth to adulthood (and legal recognition). It is recommended that human characters start the game with an age of 1d6+14 years. Nonhuman characters could start the game with an age of up to 20 years beyond that race’s age of majority (the longer the appropriate lifespan, the greater passage of years beyond majority is reasonable).

> Characters may have two background skills at 0th-level, but will not possess any skill ranks in them. So you will have the +3 class skill proficiency bonus, and then modify it by the appropriate ability modifier.

> This campaign is initially taking place in a homebrew campaign setting of my own creation, and the story impetus will revolve around the Gladden Vale. As such, I have created a random table for generating characters’ points of origin. This feature is entirely optional. You may choose a location within the Vale at will; origins beyond the Gladden must be GM-reviewed.

Roll 3d6!

3 - Rural hills (North Gladden)
4 - Ravenlock
5 - Rural mountains (South Gladden)
6 - Southferry
7 - Count's peasantry
8 - Last Rest
9 - Rural plains (North Gladden)
10 - Cutter's Wash
11 - Rural hills (South Gladden)
12 - Northferry
13 - Rural mountains (North Gladden)
14 - Bear's Den
15 - Rural hills (South Gladden)
16 - Three Waters
17 - Non-Valer
18 - GM's option

> Starting equipment will be issued by the GM. Each character will begin play with 1d4 silver pieces.

Gameplay:

The long-term goal is that other players will take stints as GM once a given adventure arc is over. This rotation is not obligatory, and hinges upon inspiration and desire over any other criteria.

As such, let me brief you on things you can expect of me, and that I’ll expect of you as players.

> Participants should post at least one message per day in either the Gameplay or Discussion thread. This is a built-in allowance for those days that Life Decides to Bite You. After a two-day silence, I will take the liberty of advancing the narrative as best I can. Should a player go silent for three consecutive two-day cycles, any associated characters will be written out of the game in an “on pause” fashion, unless the characters are in imminent danger. In which case their fates will be somewhat . . . messier.

> As is customary for most live tables these days (outside the realm of PFS play and the like), if I make a call that runs counter to the rules or seems to be unwieldy/imbalanced, roll with the decision for its results in Gameplay, and then we’ll address and revise it afterward in Discussion. I’m not going to go for a heavy rules focus, and will run fast and loose with action resolutions through checks, saves, and defensive statistics. I’m asking for a great deal of trust from all of you; I mean to see that trust rewarded with a fun, engaging world for all of us.

> As much as I wish to avoid any rules-heavy components in this campaign, trying to eliminate Vancian spellcasting from its proceedings is a daunting task. I do not wish to stray so far from the customary Pathfinder spell system that we are forced to learn a complete, unfamiliar system in a trial by fire, but I want to step away from the greater portions of daily resource management as a limitation to daily progress. (This will also be true of other classes with daily allotments of features.) Part of this effort to move away from Vancian casting will involve spellcasting checks, where natural 1s are catastrophic (and often self-immolating) failures and natural 20s are successes of legendary proportion (so to speak).

> All of these components are intended to allow for an up-tempo game that will not inherently feel punitive for characters’ use of their abilities. Perhaps moreso than is typical, time will be a constant factor in the degree of PCs’ success.