This campaign is about a group of heroes coming into their own in a world of adventure. Unlike traditional D&D campaigns, there won’t be a single, overarching plot or campaign goal. Just the characters and the adventures they have on their rise to greatness. As a player, you’ll create a character and decide what motivates them. As a party, you’ll decide where to go, what to seek, what to explore, and what goals to pursue. Don’t worry, though. The world’s not just a blank map you have to fill in. It’s filled with interesting dungeons to delve and ruins to explore, sure, but’s also got all sorts of characters to meet, conflicts to resolve, quests to undertake, threats to confront, allies to gain, and mysteries to solve. You never have to strike out into the wilderness in the hopes of finding something interesting to do. But you can if that’s what you want to do.

Having the onus to drive the game dropped in your lap can be difficult. It might feel confusing or overwhelming. You might not know how or where to start. Just keep these five things in mind as you play and you’ll figure out the rest as the game goes on.

• 1. Know Your Needs, Know Your Wants, Know Your Motivations
• 2. Be Curious, Be Attentive, Make Note or Take Notes
• 3. Find a Need – Or Want – And Fill It
• 4. Seek and Ye Shall Find
• 5. Choose Carefully, But Not Too Carefully

There’s adventure in every direction, so how do you know which direction’s best? Let your character’s needs, wants, and motivations be your guide.

Your character’s needs are most important. And the most important need is survival. You’ll always need safety, shelter, food, and water at the very least. In town, you can buy those things or rent them, but that means you need money. In the wilderness, you have to bring those things along or find them where you go. So, you’ll need supplies, survival skills, or magic. If you don’t have them, you can buy them. Or hire them. But you’ll need money for that too.

You might have other survival needs, too, depending on what happens to you during the game. You might need treatment for major injuries, diseases, or poisons, for example. You might need to protect yourself from specific hazards or conditions during specific adventures. Or you might need to have a curse lifted or a demon exorcised.

As an adventurer, you also have needs beyond simple survival. For example, you need tools and equipment so you can do whatever it is you do. Weapons, armor, spell components, lockpicks, and so on. And you need to keep your equipment in good order. Equipment can get damaged. It can wear out. It can get lost or stolen.

As you get stronger, you’ll be facing greater challenges. And soon enough, you’ll find your equipment just isn’t good enough for the task at hand. This is why you’ll need to upgrade your equipment periodically. Or replace it with better equipment.

Speaking of getting stronger, you’ll be gaining experience during your adventures. But you’ll need to spend time training to hone your skills. To practice what you’ve learned. At the very least, you’ll need access to some training or study resources between adventures. Space to practice, maybe a sparring partner or a dummy, a library, a shrine and a priest to tend it. If you can train with others — even if they aren’t more powerful than you — you’ll benefit more than you would alone. And if you want to start pursuing a new talent or ability — gain a new skill, learn a completely new spell, gain a feat, adopt a sub-class or class build, or start on the path to multiclassing — you will need a trainer to help you. And some trainers will even be able to teach you things outside your normal class and level progression.

You won’t be able to fill every need all the time. Sometimes, you’ll have to prioritize. Or go with a need unmet for a while. In the wilderness, you’ll probably have to provide your own security, for instance. But eventually, you’ll have access to spells to protect your camp. Or you’ll be able to buy guard animals or hire guard people. Your equipment can go without maintenance for a little while. But wait too long and it might fail at a crucial moment. You don’t need to upgrade your equipment constantly, but if you go too long without, you might find you’re no longer equal to the dangers you’re facing.

Apart from needs, your character’s got at least one motivation. Probably several. Your motivations ensure that your adventures aren’t just about survival, that there’s something in it for your character. Maybe your character’s in it for wealth. Or glory. Or power. Maybe your character wants to help people. To do the right thing. Maybe your character wants to explore the world. Whenever you’re not struggling to survive, your motivations will tell you what you should be doing.

Finally, remember that it’s always good to be prepared for the future. And that means building a stock of resources. It’s a lot easier to deal with a problem if you already have access to the tool you need, whether that tool’s an actual tool or a trained professional or a magical item or friend with some political influence. Remember that anything can be a resource.

Always know what you need, what you want, and what might be useful later. That’ll help you make smart choices.

Remember as you adventure that you’re not walking a road, you’re wandering through a field. And that field is full of opportunities. Opportunities to meet your needs. Opportunities to fulfill your motivations. Opportunities to acquire resources. And opportunities to discover more opportunities.

Opportunities take many forms. Obviously, you’ll come across plenty of posted notices and people in need of help. Those are obvious calls to adventure. But every character you meet is a potential opportunity as well. The merchant can sell you supplies. The herbalist can heal your wounds. The sage can provide valuable information. The urchin can deliver messages or spy on your adversaries. The guard captain can help you get out of trouble. The minstrel can sing your praises and help your reputation. The noble can provide influence and political clout. A whispered rumor overheard in the market or bought with a tankard of ale from the sot at the inn can lead to an ancient treasure or give you leverage over a rival. Some opportunities are as easy to spot as job posting, as loud as a shout from a town crier, as obvious as a sign hung over the herbalist’s door. Others are as subtle as a strange turn of phrase in an otherwise innocuous conversation or the casual drop of a name in passing.

Pay attention to the world. Take note of anything that seems like it might help you meet your needs or fulfill your motivations. Take note too of anything that piques your curiosity. And if something does catch your eye, don’t hesitate to check it out. Visit odd locations. Poke around the neighborhoods in the city. Sit in a public space, watch, and listen. And strike up conversations with characters in the world. Especially the ones who might help you meet your needs or wants or provide access to a useful resource. Most characters will talk freely to a stranger, but some might require a bit of effort. You might have to build a rapport with someone before they’ll open up. You might have to gain their trust. That might be an adventure in itself.

Not everything represents an opportunity. The world also contains threats. Some threats can hurt or even kill your character, but most threats are less overt. Less direct. In the civilized parts of the world, most threats won’t attack you directly. But they can deprive you of your needs, rob you of resources or potential resources, and prevent you from fulfilling your motivations. Like opportunities, threats might be obvious, or they might be subtle. Even hidden. Unlike opportunities, though, threats can be costly or dangerous to ignore. In those cases, you’ll either need to confront the threat or accept the cost of letting it be.

And then there are mysteries. Mysteries are things that pique your curiosity. They might represent opportunities, they might represent hidden threats, they might carry risks or dangers, or they might just be fun discoveries. The only way to be sure is to investigate them. There’s not always a payoff to pursuing a mystery, but when there is, it’s usually pretty unique.

Because the world is full of opportunities, threats, and mysteries, it’s worth taking time now and then to wander around just to see what’s around you. Like when you first visit a new place or after you finish a major pursuit. Take some time to take stock of the opportunities around that will let you meet your needs, fulfill your motivations, or build your resource pool. Take note of potential threats too. And any mysteries that draw your eye. Just don’t let wandering and noticing be all you do. Window shopping won’t get you anywhere in the end. It’s just a great way to find something you want to buy.

You can easily find out what’s around you by Getting the Lay of the Land (see below).

Once you’re pursuing something, though, don’t get tunnel vision. During your adventures, you’ll probably spot other opportunities, mysteries, and threats worth pursuing. Sometimes, it’ll be worth putting your current pursuit on hold to check them out. Otherwise, they’re worth filing away for future investigation.

As a time-consuming action, you can wander the local area and get a sense of what’s around you. The GM will describe the area and note interesting features that might represent opportunities, threats, and mysteries. You might be asked to make skill or ability checks to discover non-obvious features.

In a village, stronghold, or enclave, you can explore the entire locale and its outskirts in one go. You can explore either a town proper or its outskirts. Or you can explore a single neighborhood, district, ward, or complex in a city. In civilized locales, you might also hear about local rumors or happenings in passing (but see Gathering Information below).

In the wilderness, the size of the area you can explore depends on the terrain, visibility, and other factors. You can improve your odds of turning things up by taking advantage of high vantage points, spyglasses, familiars, spells, magical items, and other tools and resources. Because exploring involves crisscrossing a small area, you cannot cover any traveling distance while exploring.

Once you’ve got a good list of potential opportunities, threats, and mysteries, you – as a party – must decide what to pursue. Do any of you have any unmet needs? Are there motivations you can fulfill? Useful resources to access? Threats to confront? Mysteries to investigate? Such things as these are adventures made of. Or at least, such things are adventures filled with.

Start by prioritizing your immediate needs. Food, water, shelter, security, and health. In settlements, meeting those is usually a matter of renting a room, securing a palette in a temple or a lord’s keep, or finding a farmer who’s willing to let you sleep in their barn. If you need treatment, you might need to seek out a healer, herbalist, hedgewitch, priest, or chiurgeon. In the wilderness, if you’re going to be in one place for a few days — say while you plunder a dungeon — it’s worth setting up a base camp so you have a place to which you can retreat each day and where you can store your supplies and your plunder. Things can’t get spoiled, broken, stolen, or ruined in a dungeon if you don’t bring them with you. And they don’t weigh you down. At first, you might have to resort to hiding them at your camp — say in a buried chest — but you can use spells and traps to secure your camp and later buy guard animals or hire guards. In general, a good camp is more likely to be disturbed by a lone wild animal looking for food than by an intelligent, powerful monster that just happens upon it. Of course, this varies by the terrain and the precautions you take.

Next, consider your near-term future needs. Can you acquire, upgrade, and repair equipment? Buy supplies? Class tools? Who might buy any exotic treasure you turn up? Do you have access to the facilities you need to use your skills? To train for your next level? In the wilderness, you’ll have to wait until you get back to town. In town, take note of such resources soon after you arrive and investigate them. You don’t want to discover the local priest won’t give you access to the shrine until you gain their trust when you’ve already got enough XP to gain a level.

Once your basic needs are sorted, you can tackle your wants and start stockpiling resources. This is where it’s useful to have a list of the opportunities, threats, and mysteries you’ve identified. As a party, consider your options and pick whatever seems like the best opportunity, the most dangerous threat, or the most intriguing mystery. At this point, the game will probably start to feel more like a normal D&D campaign. You’re just pursuing a goal you chose. But don’t get too wrapped up in the quest mindset. Sometimes, you’ll have to do some investigating before you can define the goal. Sometimes, you’ll have to figure out how best to pursue the goal. Sometimes, you’ll want to change goals based on something you discover. Sometimes, you’ll want to abandon a goal partway through. Sometimes, you’ll discover a goal is just beyond you and you’ll have to give up on it. For now or forever. That’s all fine. You won’t always succeed, but you’ll never run short of opportunities.

Don’t assume you have to do anything a certain way. Don’t assume that you have to fulfill a goal just because someone’s offering it. If a criminal offers you a job you object to, you don’t have to take the job. But you also don’t have to reject the job. You could turn the criminal in to collect a bounty or you could do the right thing by protecting the criminal’s victims. And just because you’re asked to kill all the goblin raiders in the hills, that doesn’t mean the townsfolk won’t be equally happy if you just drive the goblins off or even broker peace with them.

It’s fine for the party to split up and pursue their own needs and wants. Sometimes, that’s the most efficient way to do things. But adventuring is risky. When it comes to major pursuits, especially those that involve traveling beyond the boundaries of civilization, the party will have to work together. And that means you’ll have to pick your goals as a party. Because you’ll each have your own needs, motivations, and perspectives, you won’t always agree on which opportunity’s best. Which means you’ll have to compromise. Sometimes, that means putting your own needs and wants aside to help your allies pursue their own. And sometimes, that means they’ll do the same for you. That’s how it is with groups. Remember, the world’s dungeon floors are littered with the bones of the lone wolves. And your allies have skills you need. That’s why you’re a team. But that has a price. You have to be willing to help your team even when there’s no profit for you once in a while. And hopefully, after a little while, you’ll see your teammates as allies. Comrades-in-arms. Friends even.

Sometimes, you’ll find that you don’t have everything you need to pursue an opportunity. That you’re missing a tool, skill, or another resource. And sometimes, you’ll find that there’s just nothing on your list of opportunities, threats, and mysteries to meet your needs and wants. Sometimes, there just won’t be anything you want to do. And that’s when you need to take a more active role in your explorations.

You can seek anything you can imagine. Information, skills, resources, they’re all available. Somewhere. You just have to find them. The key to finding what you want is specificity. The more specific you are, the more likely you’ll find what you want. Tell your GM, specifically, what you’re looking for. And, if you can, tell your GM, specifically, where and how you’re looking.

First, be specific about what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for healing potions, don’t tell the GM you want to find a magic item shop. If you’re looking for a chance to help someone in need or a way to protect your camp while you’re in a dungeon, say so.

Second, be specific about how and where you want to start your search. Think about what’s around you. What locations have you seen? What characters have you met? Are there any that are more likely to provide a lead? That’s where you should start your search. Want to do a good deed? It’s probably best to visit the local temple. That’s where people go to pray for help. Are you looking to buy something? Start in the market. Are you looking to buy rare spell components? Talk to local magic users first.

Once you’ve figured it out, tell your GM what you’re looking for, where, and how. Just say, “I want to find a work opportunity. I want to help people in need. I’ll start at the Temple of Mercy.” And if you don’t know what you need or where to start, you can always ask your GM. Say, “I have this crafting feat, but I don’t know what tools I need to use it.” Or say, “I’d like to find a magic weapon, but I don’t know how to start looking.” The GM will give you an answer. Or at least give you a place to start. Or at least tell you that there’s no way to do that right now.

Sometimes, you won’t have a good starting place. Sometimes, you won’t know exactly what you need. That’s when it’s time to Gather Information.

As a time-consuming action, you can seek information from the locals in a village, stronghold, enclave, town, neighborhood, or complex or a specific location therein such as an inn, market, guildhall, or academy. The more specific you are about the information you are seeking, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for. Or find out that it’s not available. Smaller locations are easier to canvas but the information you’re seeking may not be available at all types of locations. You might be asked to make a skill or ability check to determine whether your efforts are successful, and you might be asked to pay bribes, finders fees, buy drinks, or otherwise sacrifice some money before you can roll or to improve your odds. If you’re successful, the GM will either provide you with the information you’re seeking or provide you with a lead that you can pursue to acquire the information.

Instead of seeking specific information, you can also eavesdrop, gossip, and chatter with the locals. The GM will provide you with several rumors and happenings that might represent opportunities, threats, and mysteries to pursue. This is similar to Getting the Lay of Land, but reveals informational leads rather than locations (see Getting the Lay of the Lay above).

While playing this game, you might feel overwhelmed from time to time. At any moment, you’ll probably be aware of several opportunities, threats, and mysteries and you’ll be finding more all the time. You might wonder how you’ll ever know when you’ve found them all. And you might wonder how you’ll ever deal with them all.

You won’t. You can’t. You will never be aware of every opportunity. And you will never be able to pursue every last one of them. It’s impossible. You won’t have the time. You won’t have the resources. And everything you do will change the list of things you can do. So, it’s important to think carefully about what you do. But not too carefully.

You’ll never find all the opportunities, so don’t try. And don’t convince yourself that there’s a perfect opportunity out there to find. Because there isn’t. There’s no perfect choices. Every choice you make has costs, risks, and consequences. By all means, avoid the ones where the risks and costs seem too high and the rewards seem too low, but you can’t avoid any risks or consequences. You can’t avoid taking sides. And whatever you do, you’ll always be losing out on something.

Every choice has consequences because the game’s about consequences. It’s about the choices you make and what happens as a result. It’s about what happens to the heroes on their rise to power. It’s about the heroes becoming whoever they become and what happens along the way.

This isn’t a game you can complete and it’s not a puzzle in optimization. So don’t treat it as such. Treat it as a playground. Treat it as a world full of adventure. And remember that adventure isn’t about endings, it’s about what happens on the way.

Hopefully, you're still interested in playing. That's a good thing! There's some basic topics to discuss first to get everyone in the right mood to form a team of adventurers.

As a rule, players are expected to remain sober and reasonably sensible for the course of the game; while some people can do amazing things while drunk or otherwise incapacitated, if we can tell, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

As a general rule, barring session breaks, there will be no more than ten minutes of pausing the game to go over a particular ruling, although the DM reserves the right to alter judgments on particular matters given further time to review the matter, which may result in retroactive adjustments to the game.

As a rule, player knowledge should not overlap with character knowledge; this is especially important when one player is handling multiple characters, sidekicks, etc. that have no way of communicating a particular thought or idea.

Players are expected to put some effort into roleplaying their character, explaining what they do as much as what they say. While you needn't narrate every sword swing or missed shot, you're certainly welcome to!

The general tone of this game is occasionally comedic, and often dramatic. Every character gets the chance to shine in the spotlight, if they wish, and players have narrative license to best depict their characters.

Retconning - the act of taking back an action in play - is generally allowed before the player rolls for a character's action; it may also be taken back when the DM misrepresents a scene or creature in such a way that a character would know better even when a player would not, or when the DM has adjusted a ruling and needs to make amends.

Player versus player action is generally acceptable on a social level - characters are not expected to always get along - but not as a general rule. (Nobody would keep a rogue who kept stealing from the party, for example.)

The DM encourages you to discuss any RPG pet peeves that have not yet been addressed with them, and if the subject matter becomes serious, go immediately to the next point.

The rating of most games run by Aus tend to run in the PG-13 to R camp, although he can run a campaign at any rating: G, PG, PG-13, R, or X. However, this must be discussed first and foremost when establishing a game so that people have realistic expectations of what to expect going in. (X-rated sex and violence, for example, is very much not to most people's tastes, and even R-rated horror movie tropes may not be welcome at a particular table.) If there is anything you do not want to occur in game, please privately message Aus to discuss it, as well as ways to signal when something is getting to be too much if you would not be comfortable saying “please stop” during the game.

Consequences for breaking these rules will generally begin with private discussions on the matter, unless such has managed to offend the entire table. Sometimes people may not be a good fit for the game group, and that's alright. People who blatantly disregard these rules may be removed from the game if necessary.

As noted, the campaign setting is Arcydea, a homebrew world based on over twenty years of active play. Magic is fully accessible, and technology is frequently available in some countries. Adventure may take place anywhere in the known world, from forests to grasslands, cities to oceans, the sky to outer space, depending on where the characters go next. The primary theme is adventure, and while there are significant threats to individual locations, there is no major threat to the world in progress. Adventures are as linear as the characters make them out to be, although the world will keep moving and changing in regards to your actions, or inactions. The typical mode of play is 'theater of the mind', although maps and tokens may be used to make things easier on spatially challenged players, especially in complicated dungeons or combat scenarios. Characters start at level one, and players are expected to work out a reasonable explanation why these characters are working together, with the DM's assistance if needed.

Character statistics are derived by rolling 4d6, rerolling 1s, dropping the lowest die and assigning stats as you see fit.

Characters earn experience as opposed to milestones, with bonuses occurring based on how characters meet their goals, ideals, and flaws through roleplaying. Characters require time to train in order to gain the benefits of a level-up; this usually requires at least one downtime day and suitable training areas. Special exemptions may be made by the DM on a case-by-case basis.

Hit points are based on the class: a fighter starts with 10 HP + Con modifier, for example. Hit points increase every fourth level by the average result of the hit die (6 + Con modifier for fighters).

Spirit points are also based on the class: a fighter starts with 10 SP + Con modifier, for example. Spirit points increase every level by the average result of the hit die (6 + Con modifier for fighters).

Damage is taken first from Spirit Points, then from Hit Points. A character who has no Spirit Points left is Dispirited; they are at disadvantage on their ability checks, skill rolls, attacks, etc, and enemies gain advantage to resist any spells or effects they produce, until the character regains Spirit Points.

Healing can be applied either to Hit Points or Spirit Points, but not both. The end result is a character who has slightly more health than normal, enough to down a healing potion before getting entirely hacked to bloody bits.

Alignment is most commonly used when checking whether a character is in concordance with their god; it is influenced by the character's actions. A specific spell, Detect Karma, exists that gives a rough estimation of the mechanical numbers connected to alignments.

Racial bonuses are used as written. There are no race/class restrictions excepting those from outside Arcydea; these are accepted on a case by case basis.

Backgrounds (along with the rewards from them) are available from the standard background list, although if you want a background and can't find it, the GM will assist you in creating one.

Encumbrance is loosely tracked via carry capacity; you won't be expected to be capable of carrying 20 suits of scale mail, for example. However, there are various ways to easily surpass standard carrying capacity limits.

Rolling a natural 20 is a critical success; in combat this is an automatic hit with double damage dice, while outside of combat it may have other benefits at DM option.

Rolling a natural 1 is a fumble; in combat this is an automatic miss and may cause additional penalties, while outside of combat it may have other negative effects at DM option.

Inspiration is rewarded by the DM for good and entertaining roleplay, and may be given under certain other conditions (after a kill during Heroic Battles, for example).

Characters may make multiple action skill check attempts under certain circumstances (trying and failing to pick a lock, for example), but there may be negative consequences for failure. Skill checks that rely on recollection (Nature checks to determine the nature of a beast) can only be attempted once per character; if the roll fails, the character simply doesn't know.

Group skill checks may be made under certain circumstances (attempting to sneak through dangerous territory, for example). In this case, the total results of all group members will be averaged to compare against a target DC (for example, the enemy's Perception.)

Initiative is based on highest roll plus Dexterity, with the exception that PCs always go before NPCs and enemies when initiative is tied.

Characters have starting equipment based on their class and background.

Characters can use Spirit Dice during a short rest or other occasions to recover Spirit Points. Hit Points can only be healed or recovered after a long rest.

Death and resurrection are as written, although the god of death, Gareth, likes to meet the dearly departed and point out just what went wrong.