Heroic Chronicle

The heroic chronicle is a system that allows players and Dungeon Masters to work together to build a compelling character story. It even allows characters to gain additional proficiencies, magic items, spells, or feats before the campaign begins. This section assumes that the player is starting from scratch—without having chosen a race, class, or background for their character. The events that occur as a result of these random rolls inform what kind of character the player has. A player who already has a character concept in mind can choose options from the tables instead of rolling randomly, ignoring anything that doesn’t fit their character concept. If you’re a player using these tables, don’t be surprised if creating a backstory inspires you to change some aspect of your character concept. Let this tool inspire your imagination rather than limit it.

The "Backstory" section of the chronicle roots a character’s history in the world of Kairos by helping the player determine the character’s nation, home settlement, and relationships with family members, allies, and rivals. It helps establish major events that happened to the character before the campaign began. Options for determining a character’s favorite food and mysterious secrets can help further define a character’s relationship to their homeland and the other party members.

Race and Class

You don't need to roll for race and class, but sometimes it's fun to randomize a character. If you'd like to roll for a random class, roll on this table.

Homeland

The Northern Continent of Dorstovoya is divided into four regions, and then divided within those regions by nations. From west to east, these regions are Alousua, Kras'Kora, the Reinwald, and Dalthraine. This table only includes Dorstovoya as that's the setting of the campaign and the content with written information, but distant lands are not unreachable. Roll a d100 and consult the Homelands table to determine which region you were born in. If you were born in one region but grew up in another, roll twice on the table to determine your place of birth and the region you eventually settled in.

Faith

Kairos is full of clerics and devout followers, but many people pay fealty casually to one god their whole lives. Still others pray to an entire Pillar, and many pray to various members of the entire pantheon. Roll as many times on this table as you want to determine which gods you are loyal to, or don't roll on it at all if you want to be agnostic to the Nine Pillars.

Background

In addition to granting you items, gold, and proficiencies, your background gives you a sense of belonging in the world. You can roll on the Backgrounds table to randomly determine your character’s background, or you can choose one that fits your character concept. This table includes new backgrounds and adapted backgrounds from this world as well as the backgrounds from the Player's Handbook. New and adapted backgrounds are described later in this chapter.

Social Status

Your background determines your place in the world. Though your social status is determined by your background and your country of origin, you have the power to rebel against the hierarchies of your land and change your fate. Your background doesn’t change, nor do the proficiencies and other benefits you gain because of it. But the social status associated with your background might shift over the course of your backstory—and over the course of your adventures.

d20	Background	Relationships
1	Acolyte	1 Ally (Good or Neutral God) 1 Rival (Evil God)
2	Acolyte (Nochiir)	1 Rival
3	Charlatan	1 Rival
4	Criminal	1 Rival
5	Criminal (Spy)	1 Ally
6	Entertainer	1 Ally
7	Folk Hero	1 Ally
8	Guild Artisan	1 Rival
9	Guild Artisan (Merchant)	1 Rival
10	Hermit	--
11	Noble	1 Ally and 1 Rival
12	Noble (Knight)	1 Ally and 1 Rival
13	Outlander	--
14	Rewarded	1 Ally
15	Ruined	1 Rival
16	Sage	1 Rival
17	Sailor	1 Ally
18	Sailor (Pirate)	1 Ally and 1 Rival
19	Soldier	1 Ally and 1 Rival
20	Urchin	1 Rival

Home Settlement

Once you've determined your homeland and considered your social status within that realm, roll on the appropriate table in this section to determine which settlement you grew up in. If your character is a traveler—a child of soldiers, a nomad, a traveling performer, and so forth—you can roll for up to three settlements that you’ve visited often and have some connections in.

Note: Kras'Kora is the only region with defined settlements. The other regions only define nations. This will be updated later.

Family

Roll twice on the appropriate Family Size table—once to determine how many living parents you have, and once to determine your living siblings. The state of your family might change over the course of your backstory, just as it might change over the course of the campaign.

Parents. You might have been blessed with two loving parents, or you might have helped your single parent take care of the rest of your family. You might have been raised by three or more parents, whether because those parents engage in a polyamorous relationship, one or both parents had multiple spouses, or you were raised communally. Or you might have no parents, whether you were orphaned early in life or have outlived the parents you did have.

Siblings. Your siblings can include your parents’ other children, half-siblings from your parents’ other marriages or affairs, cousins who are as close as siblings, or beloved friends who became siblings by bond rather than by blood.

Family Member Traits

Once you’ve determined the size of your family, choose the gender and age of each family member.

Powerful Family Relationships

Even before your adventuring career began, you had allies who supported you and rivals who sought to thwart your success. In some cases, your allies might be so devoted that they are indispensable companions, while your rivals are hateful enough to make them nothing short of mortal enemies.

Your first allies and rivals are your family. Sometimes your family members are your closest friends. Sometimes you hate their guts. Roll a d3 . This is the number of powerful relationships you have within your family.

Roll once on the Family Relationships table for each powerful relationship you have within your family, to determine the setup of your friendship or rivalry.

Acquired Allies and Rivals

If you gained allies or rivals based on your background and your homeland, this section allows you to establish your relationship with those allies and rivals, as well as the broad strokes of their identities. Start by rolling once on the Ally Relationships or Rival Relationships table for each of those allies and rivals. Alternatively, you and your DM can work together to create ally or rival relationships that enhance your character’s story.

When you’ve determined the relationships between you and your acquired allies and rivals, roll for each one on the Ally and Rivals Identities table to determine their game statistics.

If you roll a particularly powerful ally or rival on this table, their involvement in your life causes a fateful moment to occur in your backstory, as determined in the next section.

Fateful Moments

No one decides to go adventuring without a reason. Some might set out from home in the name of vengeance, seeking retribution for themselves or their kin. Some might be looking for wealth or glory. Others might seek only a change from their dreary lives, never realizing that they’ll soon be caught up in events beyond their understanding along the open road.

Fateful moments are the turning points in your character’s life. The weight of these joyous or destructive occasions provided some of the talents, skills, and equipment you bring into your life as an adventurer. Roll once on the Fateful Moments table for each such moment you accrued in the previous section, courtesy of the allies and rivals that are part of your backstory.

If a fateful moment grants you a proficiency that you already had, choose any proficiency of the same type (armor, skill, language, tool, or weapon). If a fateful moment doesn’t make sense for your character (for example, if your siblings perished but you don’t have any siblings), roll a new event or work with your DM to change up the details. You can also forego rolling for fateful moments entirely, instead working with your DM to create moments specifically attuned to your character’s story.

Favorite Food

Each nation of Kairos favors different cuisine based on climate and culture. Depending on where you grew up, you probably have a favorite local food. You can roll on the appropriate table for your homeland, or select or create a favorite option of your own.

Note: This will be continuously updated to include more nations.