Four Flavors of Heaven Ongoing Campaign and Recruitment: Here! Setting Guide
"Every eighty-eight years, the Celestial Court graces Yuanzi with their presence. As their Garden on the mortal realm, it gives them great joy to visit their handiwork and mingle with those who reside there.
During their visit, they challenge all willing mortals with a contest of wit, skill, and courage. Winners are granted a most auspicious gift; a touch of divinity. This blessing grants longevity, strength, and wisdom and when the gift-bearer is ready, it also grants them a place at the Celestial Court's side as their champion.
For nigh eighty-eight years, Old Soeji has bemoaned losing the previous competition. Now in his early hundreds, he's convened his friends, family, and anyone he knows who he thinks might even be remotely interested in succeeding where he failed so many years ago. Whatever the Court's challenge, Soeji is ready to put his heart and soul into making sure he is a part of the winning team.
Amid the raucous celebration that accompanies the challenge, the players will face challenges both mundane and supernatural, make friends and foes, and discover what belief truly guides their heart.
Concept
In Four Flavors of Heaven, the PCs will journey across the micro-setting of Yuanzi. As the Celestial Court's Garden, the world draws heavy inspiration from Asian mythology, geography, and themes.
As friends, family, pupils, or simply acquaintances of Old Soeji, the PCs will aim to succeed where their sponsor failed 88 years ago. They will travel the breadth and length of Yuanzi to complete the task put before them.
For more details, you can check out the Setting Guide and read up on the adventures so far. It's been going for a slow pace for about a year, but there's great chemistry and we're looking to shore up our current party with one to two additional members. Currently we have a Ninja, Inquisitor, and an Oracle/Sorcerer, so we're looking for classes that can complement these characters.
Expectations
Four Flavors of Heaven is a module-length homebrew adventure designed to take characters from 1st to 6th level. The party is currently at 2nd level, almost 3rd.
I expect players to be able to post at least once a day at minimum.
I will be selecting no more than two additional characters for this adventure. I will try and pick a balanced party.
Character Building
Please submit a character that follows the following conditions:
As soon as you can, create your Alias with your character and update your status bar with relevant information such as HP/Max HP, Initiative, and Saves. I'll be making my little cheat sheet in the Campaign Info tab for ease of rolling.
A reminder to post in once a day, and to that end I'll happily share my Discord Tag by DM to anyone who has one so we can make a Discord Chat group. We'll be playing on the Forum but having a place to contact players quickly helps.
"Every eighty-eight years, the Celestial Court graces Yuanzi with their presence. As their Garden on the mortal realm, it gives them great joy to visit their handiwork and mingle with those who reside there.
During the sixteen days of their visit, they challenge any mortal with a contest of wit, skill, and courage. Winners are granted a most auspicious gift; a touch of divinity. This blessing grants longevity, strength, and wisdom and when the gift-bearer is ready, it also grants them a place at the Celestial Court's side as their champion.
For nigh eighty-eight years, Old Soeji has bemoaned losing the previous competition. Now in his early hundreds, he's convened his friends, family, and anyone he knows who he thinks might even be remotely interested in succeeding where he failed so many years ago. Whatever the Court's challenge, Soeji is ready to put his heart and soul into making sure he is a part of the winning team.
Amid the raucous celebration that accompanies the sixteen-day challenge, the players will face challenges both mundane supernatural, make friends and foes, and discover what belief truly guides their heart.
Concept
In Four Flavors of Heaven, the PCs will journey across the micro-setting of Yuanzi. As the Celestial Court's Garden, the world draws heavy inspiration from Asian mythology, geography, and themes.
As friends, family, pupils, or simply acquaintances of Old Soeji, the PCs will aim to succeed where their sponsor failed 88 years ago. They will travel the breadth and length of Yuanzi to complete the task put before them.
Expectations
Four Flavors of Heaven is a module-length homebrew adventure designed to take characters from 1st to 6th level.
I expect players to be able to post at least once a day at minimum, and hopefully more.
I will be selecting no more than four characters for this adventure. I will try and pick a balanced party. Characters not selected will be given first dibs if ever another character drops out.
I have tried many times in the past to run an adventure through Discord so this time I will attempt to play through the Forums. If players would rather try Discord, I remain open to the idea.
Classes: All Base, Alternate, Hybrid, and Kineticist. Unchained Classes can be used, and must be used in the case of the Summoner.
Alignment: Any non-evil.
Wealth: Average wealth.
Permitted Material: Official Paizo only, no 3PP. If using something from a splat-book, please include the link to d20pfsrd for ease of reference.
Domain Spellcasters: You may pick any two domains.
Background Lore
For the purpose of designing your characters, I have included some preliminary information on the setting. Feel free to ask for more advice.
Yuanzi: Setting name for the world. It is essentially the Celestial Court’s garden, crafted long ago and now left to blossom and be shaped by mortal hands. Yuanzi is a large island nation.
Settlements
Xin: The capital city at the heart of the world. Built upon both banks of the Leiguang River, the Great Celestial Bridge spans the river connecting both halves of the city. The lands surrounding Xin consist of fertile lowlands and foothills and are the location of most of Yuanzi’s agriculture and population.
Shuishang: Coastal village, fishing, pearl diving. It represents one of the three divisions of the world: the sea. Shuishang maintains a vast fishing fleet and boats travel to three destinations: upriver back to Xin, south to the Shouzi Islands, and around the island to the north to reach distant Qiao.
Piaofeng: Mountain village, mines, quarries, monasteries. It represents one of the three divisions of the world: the sky. Mining camps throughout the Shijing Mountains produce a constant flow of iron, gold, gemstones, and coal.
Qiao: Forest village and rice terraces. It represents one of the three divisions of the world: the earth. Qiao produces most of the rice and bamboo for Yuanzi, supporting Xin’s Heartland agriculture. A small harbor lies not far from Qiao, allowing sea travel between Shuishang and Qiao. Most of the resources tend to be delivered through the Shijing Mountains, however.
Major Landmarks
Leiguang River: Flows from the Shijing Mountains all the way to the Jinghua Sea. This massive river splits off into a multitude of streams across the mountains and lowlands.
Shijing Mountains: Separates the northern and southern hemispheres of the world. The Leiguang flows from high up in the peaks before flowing south through Xin, then past Shuishang before exiting into the Jinghua Sea.
Jinghua Sea: Most of the southern hemisphere is taken up by the Jinghua Sea which circles the rest of the world. Sailing far into the sea leads you into dense, impenetrable mists.
Shouzi Islands: Five small islands within the Jinghua Sea. No proper settlement exists on the island, but small collections of floating/coastal fishing camps dot the isles.
Gangdao Forest: Also known as the Forest of Swords, Gangdao Forest is a great forest inhabited by many wild beasts. The bamboo is used as construction material.
The Celestial Court
The Celestial Host is composed of the five creator deities who formed Yuanzi. Each is associated with an aspect needed to maintain their garden and is represented by a different creature.
Lanxu (The Carp): Maintains the rivers, oceans, and lakes of Yuanzi. (Water)
Baijiao (The Yak): Maintains the mountains, fields, and hills. (Earth)
Hongwei (Giant Salamander): Maintains the underworlds, caverns, and depths. (Fire)
Yinyu (Falcon): Maintains the skies of Yuanzi. (Air)
Jinyan (Dragon): Maintains the heavens. (Void)
Inspiration
In no particular order:
Princess Mononoke
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Forbidden Kingdom
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
House of Flying Daggers
Akatsuki no Yona
An actual Chinese botanical garden near where I live in Montreal.
I am currently creating a micro-setting for an episodic adventure with a local playgroup but I am enjoying designing the world and story enough that I might envision writing it out completely and perhaps releasing it publicly.
One of my concerns as I design this setting is how to go about naming things.
When it comes to naming conventions, I always find myself at a loss. I want the setting to feel authentic, but since my experiences with Asia are entirely based on my travels there, I'm unsure of how to go about this important step.
My usual go-to strategy when coming up with names of foreign sounding places/people usually involve a trip to some translation software or a name generator. I am worried, however, that doing so will make my locations sound wrong to a native speaker.
My setting takes inspiration from real-world Eastern Asia, primarily parts of Nepal, China, and Japan. So far, I've stuck to naming places by combining pinyin pronunciations together to form, at least in my eyes, setting appropriate names. I've gone with using pinyin names for major settlements and regions, and anglophone names for specific locations. Paizo seems to have kept to this sort of strategy. Browsing through the Jade Regent's article on the city of Kasai, a lot of proper names and geographical locations use an asian-sounding word or name, while specific locations within the city use English names. (Inu Island versus Monastery of the Thunderous Cricket).
So, as fellow players, GMs, and writers, what would you do if you were making such a setting? How do you ensure you are using appropriate words/names?
Intro to the World
You are adventurers in the realm of Beef ’s Keep, where the nations have been splintered over major disagreements in how to treat the realm’s people. Creepingvale and the United Clown Nations have led their people into a collective darkness known as The Deep Freeze. While the world currently feels like a cold and desolate place, you reside in the one nation that remains a true beacon of hope: Freshtovia.
Freshtovia is known for its lush fields; signature dishes; and redheaded queen, Queen Wendy. As queen of Freshtovia, Wendy has clapped back at all attacks on her borders. She is strong and has maintained her nation’s integrity despite the growing pressure of the other nations.
I'm sorry... What?
No you're not hallucinating! If you haven't followed the wacky world of the Twittersphere this past week, then you may have missed that Wendy's (yes, that Wendy's) has put out their very own Tabletop Roleplaying Game.
Consisting of a complete adventure taking heroes from 1st to 5th level, the Rise from the Deep Freeze campaign takes you through 5 Scenarios across the delicious realm of Beef's Keep.
Forge a hero from one of 14 Orders (your classes), equip yourself with the finest kitchen cutlery weapons gold can buy, and strap on your burger buns, cause it's gonna get hot! (And cold!)
Recruitment!
I don't expect these adventures to be taken seriously or take all that long so here's how it's going to work.
I'll simply take the first four recruits on a tour of the first Scenario and keep on churning through until we reach the end. If I find it fun enough, I'll happily take another group, then another, until I get bored of burger puns and ice cream jokes (I meant Frosties, my bad.)
So uh... How do I get started?
To qualify for recruitment, you simply need to dot below and then provide me with a finished character before Friday, October 11th.
You'll find everything you need HERE. Character Creation rules begin on Page 5.
One caveat though! The PDF does contain the entire adventure so please, pretty please, don't ruin it for anybody. It's quirky, it's fun, you can ham it up for days, but it'll sour the whole experience if you read on ahead.
If you want to visit the whole website, you can RIGHT HERE.
Sample Character:
Name: Sir Pryse of Nuggeton
Order: Order of the Nugget
Resistances & Weaknesses: None
Advantage & Disadvantage: Advantage at night time on attack and strength-saving rolls.
Skilled With: Light armors, light weapons, throwing weapons
Cannot Use: Heavy armors, medium armors, shields, heavy weapons
Order Skills:
Grab and Go (Passive): When engaged in combat, you do not have to use an action to break out. You can move away freely without risk of attack. You can also use a bonus action to move up to twice your movement and still attack or perform another action.
Late-night Craving (Passive): While attacking at nighttime, you will gain advantage on all attack and strength-saving rolls.
Gold: 10
Oh My Goodness... This is Actually Happening
Now you're catching on! I've even meticulously printed out the entire pdf at my local staples, got myself a stash of red-colored dice, and I'm ready to blast through a-not-so-serious adventure with some hopefully fun and friendly people.
I'm not a frenzied poster, so we'll discuss two options for gameplay:
1) Forum Post - 1 post a day minimum (my least favorite option)
2) Discord - Still 1 post a day but I'll be able to play much quicker there. (My prefered option).
The Adventure
Inspired by all the lovely content in the Horror Adventures and Occult Adventures book, with a heaping dose of Red Hook's Darkest Dungeon to boot, the PCs will be at the forefront of a valiant (if perhaps foolhardy) crusade to cleanse a provincial valley from its countless curses, woes, and horrors.
As the new proprietors of the crumbling village of Westchurch, the PCs will venture forth into the Vale to slaughter evil, and hopefully make it back alive and, hopefully, sane.
I foresee this adventure going until at least 6th level, perhaps a few more. I don't want to promise some eternal campaign that will never finish. Players will be presented with possible goals and objectives, and they will be free to explore as they see fit.
Discord
I've found keeping track of play by post games to be sometimes tedious. Discord allows me to be in touch and respond quickly, moving the game forward at a quicker pace. With the help of Dash Delta Bot, rolling dice and calling up items/monsters is even easier.
Submission
I will not ask players to build full characters. Instead, simply submit a brief description of your character, including their race/class combination.
Creating Your Character
1st level, 25 point buy.
Any Core Races allowed.
Any Hardcover Book Classes allowed.
No need to select a Deity. Domain casters can pick any 2.
Any official Paizo content published in hardcover is available.
Players
I have already a player signed up, so I will be looking to take three new characters. If I get a lot of offers, I may be tempted to run two parties at the same time on two different discord channels, but that remains to be seen.
"Five cannons that were once used by Golden Epoch pirates to terrorize the Great Sea shipping lanes have been recovered from a wreck that is believed to have belonged to the notorious pirate, Captain Zantares."
"The cannons, one weighing in at almost three thousand pounds are the latest artifacts divers have salvaged from the wreck of the TEMPEST, which was scuttled in the Eleanor River in 1713. Strand's Museum of Histories and Sciences is currently leading the salvaging efforts."
"Since the wreck was uncovered after last week's heavy rains swelled the river, Museum archaeologists, divers and experts have assembled to begin the extraordinary task of raising the wreck from the riverbed to clear the river's shipping lanes. Rumors are in that an elite team has been assembled to head this task."
"The wreck and its contents are to be displayed in the soon to be opened Golden Epoch of Piracy exhibit at the Museum in the coming month."
CAMPAIGN
Edges of the Map is a Pathfinder adventure with strong Indiana Jones, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, and Jules Verne tropes in mind. The adventure is one based on traveling the world, exploring ancient ruins and discovering long lost secrets (and treasure of course).
It takes place on Orbis, a world similar to our own Earth but quite smaller. The adventure takes place in the equivalent of 1850s. Instead of electricity, technology is powered by phlogiston, an element mined throughout the world containing magical properties.
CHARACTER CREATION
Stats: 20 Point Buy - no scores below 10 before racial adjustments.
Allowed Material: All Paizo big sourcebook sources allowed. No splatbooks.
Wealth: Starting gold is average for your class.
Traits: 2 Traits taken from the Ultimate Campaign book.
Domain Casters: Choose any 2 domains representing your ideology. There are no Gods in this campaign per say.
Commonplace Guns: While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons. Early firearms and their ammunition cost 25% of the amounts listed in this book, but advanced firearms and their ammunition are still rare and cost the full price to purchase or craft.
CHARACTER BACKGROUNDS
Choose your character’s point of origin to begin with and we will work together as a group to create interesting backgrounds. In this smaller world, continents are country sized while countries are essentially city-states and surrounding affiliated villages.
I’m looking for characters that would fit well in a globetrotting/pulp adventure type campaign. Someone who would be interested in traveling a world, meeting new people, treasure hunting, etc.
Edenmarch (Europe)
Strand (England) City
Keldanny (Ireland) Island
Loch Aislinn (Scotland) Collection of Villages
Chasserets (France) Collection of Towns
Islif (Iceland/Scandinavian Countries) Collection of Villages
Esperada (North America)
Nuevaluzia (USA) City
Orada (Mexico) City
Cetza (South America)
Soley Islands (Caribbean) Collection of Villages
Tarakona Rainforest (Amazonia) Collection of Villages
Rasad (Africa)
Khetur (Egypt) City
Maqnaa (Subsharan Africa) Collection of Villages
Jiang (Asia)
Aizu (Japan) Collection of Villages
Honshan (China) Collection of Villages
Shiyan (Nepal) Collection of Villages
PLAYER REQUIREMENTS
I expect players to be able to post 1/day during the week and at least once during the weekend.
I am looking for four characters with a good range of diversity in terms of builds. I will not be taking two characters with the same class for example.
