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This campaign is for 4 to 6 players and features a return to the Spear of Fate campaign setting, as a new chapter in the Symphony of Stars epic.

Broken and enslaved, the city-state of Tarn was wiped off the map in a matter of hours. A group of survivors returned to the ruins, and pursued a campaign of vengeance which led them, ultimately, to defend the plane from annihilation. They were not, however, successful in their efforts to rebuild their beloved kingdom.

This tale isn't about them. It's about another group of Tarnish survivors, who return to the ruins months later having received news of their city's troubles. With winter fast approaching, the promise of shelter provided by a personal friend to the east, in the Iatrus River Valley, seems like the only hope of survival. There, the survivors of Tarn must plan the liberation of their enslaved people, and find a new home, perhaps even founding a new Tarn.

This game calls for gestalted characters drawing from Pathfinder classes and resources. Use Psionics Unleashed and Psionics Expanded if desired. Attribute spread is 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13. Characters are young for their race, are 5th level, have normal wealth for their level distributed in any way they choose.

The previous games set in Symphony of Stars have called upon the Greyhawk gods and a wide range of books from 3.5. I would prefer NOT to use the 3.5 books, but would rather use paizo books such as the Golarion setting books for additional material if needed.

We will include some 3rd party material, aside from the Dreamscarred press material. We will include the Talented Fighter and More Fighter Talents resources by Genius Guide games. I can provide access to any of the Golarion specific materials, the Dreamscarred press materials, and the Genius Guide to the Talented Fighter.

I could be convinced to consider a few 3.5 resources, but I would prefer to keep things in Pathfinder.

Characters should be prepared to cooperate with one another. This game will not be conducive to loner types and those who have no interest in the affairs and goings on of others, or in the rebuilding of Tarn.

Gameplay will be largely sandbox, and will use the new rules presented in Ultimate Campaign for Downtime and other campaign systems. Players familiarizing themselves with the Downtime rules will have an easier time of adapting to the gameplay of the campaign.

This thread can be used to discuss the inclusion of the Advanced Race Guide race variation rules, as an optional part of the campaign.

Due to the long term influences of the Mythal on the population of Tarn, in addition to the special attributes, characters may have up to 10 additional race points which may be accounted for by using a more powerful race, or modifying existing races with extra abilities.

The alternative Hero Points rules will be used as Fate points. Development of Aspects will take place as a part of background development.

The character backgrounds elements of Ultimate Campaign will be used to develop backgrounds and fate tags, as well as story feats.

Some free feats may be given out, such as Story feats and a special new Feat allowing boons and obediances to the Tristalt Vestiges.

There is currently no planned game slot or time for this campaign. If sufficient interest develops a time and place will develop.

Preference is given to players who were a part of the Spear of Fate campaign, and Tristalt. Players participating in developing interest for the game, developing interactive backstories, and otherwise helping expand the backstory of the game and the ties between characters will also get preference.

Ultimate Campaign is up on the PRD

Sounds interesting... I'd kind of like to do this, for the sim-city elements if nothing else. But I'd also like to see others play with my content.

Couple of FYI's:
1. wiki link to dnd campaigns: http://www.lostknightsrpg.org/wiki/inde ... ar_of_Fate
I'll be happy to post some of the material for the various campaigns on the wiki if there is interest, I've been meaning to post my notes and some plot summaries for many years.

2. Symphony of Stars is an e6 campaign set in a specific solar system against a backdrop of stargate travel and ancient technology. The greater cycle you are speaking of is the Cycle of Ages campaign setting, which is an overarching multiverse setting. The game in which Arcturis was a key character was the 7th iteration of the Cycle of the Ages. Spear of Fate takes place in the setting, as does Tristalt.

3. I'm going to lose at least 1 weekend, maybe 2, per month once school starts. So that I can spend time with my wife, since we will be working the exact opposite schedule and we will only see each other on sat/sun for the most part. And there are other games on the back burners, so scheduling will likely be an issue. I might be up for a weekday game though, depending on when/what/where/how.

I was not planning to do E6 or a variant of it, but I was also not necessarily planning to go through the high levels. I think our gaming benefits best when leveling is independent of xp and is at GM discretion.

We'll use the character background creation tables to assist with character creation, and will discuss using Harrow deck readings to represent prophecies made about the characters themselves.

The proposed use of the background tables would start with a base concept including race and class, which would then react to unexpected things happening in the background tables.

I've gone through the background tables for a possible character for rise of the runelords, and I found that from a race and class combination, they provide interesting and unexpected details, which need to be sewn together to create a realistic and interesting character.

We'll use the drawbacks (negative traits that provide the benefit of a third trait) system from Ultimate Campaign as well.

As far as the economic elements of the game are concerned, my plan is to introduce NPC resources that can, in character, make the small, medium, and large scale economic elements make sense and lead characters in character to interact with them.

I'm introducing a set of guidelines to reign in some loopholes in the downtime construction and economic rules, and to bridge them to the kingdom level rules. This will hopefully appear seamless and other players will not need to interact with this part.

The game will take place over the course of several, or even many years, particularly after we reach kingdom level interaction, as a "turn" for a kingdom takes place over a month, and we would expect to pass through several turns in one game session, depending on how much other activity is pursued.

I've decided to allow the following resources for character creation:

All pathfinder core rulebooks, which at the time of this writing include:

Core Rulebook
Advanced Players Guide
Advanced Race Guide
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Ultimate Campaign
Gamemastery Guide
NPC Codex
Bestiary 1,2,3

Dreamscarred Press sources:

Psionics Unleashed
Psionics Expanded

Genius Guide:
The Genius Guide to the Talented Fighter
The Genius Guide to More Fighter Talents

and the Book of 9 swords.

Characters will have a Fame/Infamy rating for the Iatrus River Valley.

Characters will follow an Honor pathway of their choice.

Characters will be Gestalted, under the following guidelines:
Two base classes. NO prestige. ONE class MUST be a published pathfinder class from one of the Paizo volumes. The Talented Fighter may substitute for Fighter in this regard. You MAY select two classes from Paizo material but could NOT, for example, select one class from Dreamscarred Press and one class from Bo9S, or two Bo9S or two psionic classes. You COULD however select the Talented Fighter (genius guide) and, say, Warblade (Bo9S), and then go on from there.

You should use the background generation table for your paizo class, but may propose substituting a 3rd party class for another table. If you have two available class tables, you must choose which table to roll on before rolling.

Like in real life, the events that befall our characters are beyond our control. In a character creation method that depends on random events taking place, our character concepts should grow to include dealing with those events, rather than subverting them.

I will now open the floor for a question.

"I don't need help creating a background for my character. I don't want to use those tables, or I want to pick and choose from those tables to better accommodate what my character should be."

That's great buddy. You'll find that adding the use of the random tables and the harrow reading adds a level of depth and complexity to your background that will fill in areas you didn't think of, or, at a minimum, give you a challenge as a roleplayer to come to terms with. Sure, go with your concept. As I've mentioned, this isn't going to be a good game for one-sided mary jane fantasy fulfillment stoic unfeeling characters. This background generation method will let you develop your own ideas which will then, in a somewhat realistic but still fantastic way, be made more dynamic and more involved by the introduction of events and elements of your backstory that bring in contrast and develop your character some more.

"Can I see an example? This is weird."

Ok.

I'm working on several character concepts for RotRL, and this example is a Dwarven Inquisitor. My original concept was for a character following the mission of the dwarven gods, whose pantheon in golarion is headed by Torag, who seeks out monsters and beings who are allied with those interests that oppose dwarves and safety and put them down. Basically a monster hunter type character, who targets giants, goblinoids, aberrations, and similar creatures primarily, but also seeks out other foes of civilization.

I took this base concept of a male dwarven inquisitor of Torag and put him through the background generation tables.

Step 1: Homeland, Family, and Childhood.

Homeland: Hills or Mountains. You gain access to the Goldsniffer race trait and the Highlander regional trait.

Parents: Both of your parents are alive.

Siblings: 1d4 siblings. With 2 or more siblings you gain access to the Kin Guardian combat trait. (rolled 3 siblings.)

These siblings were rolled as 1 older and 2 younger.

Circumstances of Birth: Adopted.

Parents professions were rolled in the order of birth parents and then adopted parents.

Birth parents were Entertainers, which grants the availability of the Talented social trait.

Adoptive parents were Merchants, which grants the availability of the Merchant social trait.

Major Childhood Event: Betrayal. This gives access to the Suspicious social trait.

Step 2: Adolescence and Training

On the Inquisitor Background table, we generated Bureaucracy's Bane. The character is an inquisitor rather than a cleric, paladin, or oracle, due to a rejection of bureaucratic pitfalls and delays in the pursuit of his God's mandates in the world. This gives access to the Focused Disciple faith trait.

Under Influential Associates, we rolled The Boss:

You once gained employment under an organized and powerful individual with far- reaching influence. When the boss was present, everyone listened. This could have been a military commander, tribal chieftain, guild leader, or gang leader. From the boss, you learned how to make people listen, make them see reason, and keep them in line. You gain access to the Natural-Born Leader social trait.

Step 3: Moral Conflicts, Relationships, Drawbacks

On the conflict tables, we rolled Told a Lie, to a Tradesperson, with the motivation being Amusement or Entertainment. This totals 6 conflict points. I selected Sincere Regret for the reaction to this event, subracting 2 from the conflict point total. I then evenly distributed those points on both alignment axes, making him Lawful (2) Good (2). Following the alignment change system in ultimate campaign, he is the middle of lawful and the middle of good, with further non-lawful actions and further non-good actions pushing him to L3 or G3, after which a further action would be N4 on either axis. So he is realistic as being in the middle of his moral axes, and not "that" far from an alignment change.

I skipped ahead to Romantic Relationships here, deciding to deliberate further about religious choice, rather than just going with Torag as before. I'll explain where I wound up later.

I rolled Current Lover, which means that somewhere in the world I have a romantic interest. This gives access to the True Love story feat, which I plan on taking, and which elaborates this person to someone that my character cannot be with now, but if his situation resolves in some way, either by being with that person or by moving on to the "right" person, his feat comes to fruition.

I skipped relationships with fellow adventurers until there are fellow adventurers.

For drawback I rolled Material Wealth, which grants access to the Avarice drawback.

This is the conclusion of the rolls and choices in the character background tables.

So, Dolgrin was born to a family of traveling entertainers in the Five Kings Mountains, and participated in their acts by joining with his brothers and sister in the singing of battle songs and tales, and playing roles in their dramas and epics, however, he was rebellious and wished to focus on other pursuits, such as the mining of precious metals and other good pursuits for dwarves. One fateful day, his interests led him away from the group while his father orchestrated a scam against local lords in another dwarven settlement, and his family fled the area without him, never to return. He was taken in by a merchant and his family, and his eye for appraisal earned his keep with his adoptive parents. This family eventually left with their larger organization to set up shop in Varisia, joining with other merchant families of various races. It was here that he came under the employ of Therelo Magrovi, a Szarni Boss of tremendous influence, who taught him some of the elements of a criminal enterprise, but more importantly how to lead men and identify weaknesses. While Magrovi was a human criminal, his influence on Dolgrin was mixed.

Dolgrin, under Magrovi's employ, struggled to gain recognition and accolades among his criminal comrades, and attempted to play a practical joke. He cheated a trades-person by misrepresenting his wares and selling at full price for shoddy goods, but when the trades-person brought this back to Magrovi, the Szarni boss had the man beaten for his insolence, and stated that dwarven workmanship was beyond reproach. Dolgrin never forgave himself for having this man beaten or for cheating him, and swore to never repeat the mistake, or allow it to be perpetrated by others.

He later met Agna, another dwarf in the Szarni's employ, and the two found themselves sweet hearts in short order. It was only later that he learned that Agna was his cousin, and like his real family, was a cheat and a thief who posed as an acrobat and singer in order to get inside wealthy dwarven holds, merely to rob them in their drunken sleep.

These conflicts led Dolgrin to leave his employ with Magrovi, and to seek absolution in the faith of Abadar, the god of Merchants and Civilization. Having kept his hatred of corruption and that which organizations such as the Szarni promote a secret all these years, Dolgrin sought to find an audience for such complaint in the halls of the church of Abadar, but found the unyielding dedication of the priests of that faith more directed at following the teachings of Abadar, rather than purging the world of such corruption.

"WE cannot sully ourselves with such pursuits, and we cannot identify the corrupt without joining them. Better for our souls to do our business with honor, and in time, the world will see us for what we are."

Still holding the Forge Father in his heart, but seeking absolution for his crimes in what he believed to be a worthy crusade, Dolgrin resolved that his dedication to his cause was sufficient to step outside the boundaries of the formal halls of Abadar and to seek retaliation against the corrupt on his own. He took the path of the Inquisitor Infiltrator.

Dolgrin travels now in Varisia attempting to join the ranks of the corrupt discreetly, by conducting trade and through diplomacy and guile, and to cause them to be brought to justice, either by the law or at the edge of his axe. His love of gold, and desire for wealth, however, make this a journey of temptation, a gilded gauntlet he must move through. While he seeks absolution for the crime he committed, he walks through temptations which he must "pretend" to succumb to, blurring the lines between corrupt merchant and righteous Abadaran crusader, all the while trying to resolve the conflict between his feelings for his cousin and the mores of society.

I feel that this character is much more interesting and in-depth than that which I had initially developed. I kept my original concept loose until the tables were done, and though the twists they presented, further complexity was added.

From those options revealed by the backgrounds, I chose the Merchant Trait, the Goldsniffer Trait, and the Highlander Trait. I took the Avarice drawback, and my level 1 feat is the True Love story feat.

So, I haven't done a harrow reading on this character yet and won't until his class features are sorted out, but from what I did on that previously, I think it further adds some interesting elements. The harrow reading creates the opportunity to interpret events in the characters background, examine current motivations, and develop goals that are emotional and driving.

So, this was for a single class character with realistic attributes. For a gestalted character, this would be a bit more complicated.

If people want to do so, two tables and two rolls could be used for the two classes, with thematically matched tables being used for non-paizo classes, such as fighter substituting for warblade.