Character Creation/Advancement - START HERE
This article is specifically for the information you will need to know for building a character. I recommend that you read through this entire article and then read other available pages (ESPECIALLY anything under the mechanics category) before starting character creation so that you have a better idea of what you want to play as. The Hook is a long, ideally never-ending campaign, so you should be quite confident that your character will fit in well with the setting, lore, and most importantly, your fellow party members. Granted, there is no limit to how many times you can start over with new characters, but everytime you retire a character before you reach the cool backstory-related quests I had in mind for it, an angel loses its wings. I don’t make the rules. You just clipped that poor angel. It’s crying now.
DISCLAIMER: The Hook is what I call a “typed” campaign. Many of you would be aware of what I called a “silent” campaign in the past, and this isn’t really that different. Due to the nature of this campaign, the only real way it works is if players type out all of their canon actions and dialogue (or have another player do it, in the event that one does not have access to Roll20). The only reason I’ve rebranded the term is because we will still be on call during the session, where I can answer out-of-character questions and make other clarifications, you all can discuss strategies and opinions out of character, and we can shoot the shit with our ADHD-fueled nonsense without disrupting the flow of the campaign too much. If this doesn’t sound fun to you, I understand the preference, but I do not plan on altering this standard, so join the campaign at your discretion. For more details on how a typed campaign works, click here .
Character Sheet: It goes without saying that you are, in fact, REQUIRED to have a COMPLETED character sheet before joining the campaign, and I, as the GM, must have access to it.
I highly recommend using the new pathfinder character sheet template I created for The Hook (Available in the player drive folder under "Character Sheets" or on our discord server under "player-resources"). While this specific template is not required, it makes tracking the minute details infinitely easier in my opinion. All the “automatic” or “easy” sheets you can find online don’t really take all the extra details into account (especially homebrew) and make it next to impossible to figure out where exactly you’re getting your bonuses from, so if you rely on those too heavily, you’re gonna have a subpar character. In addition, the template I used for previous campaigns is obsolete, and this one factors new mechanics found in this campaign specifically. It is also organized in a much more comprehensive manner, making it much easier (in my opinion) to find any particular stat and its source. Using my template will also make it easier for me to be a helicopter parent and point out anything you may have missed, and I am perfectly willing to fill in any blanks if given enough time to do so, including adding hyperlinks to the srd and spelling out specific bonuses from your chosen abilities, feats, etc.
Regardless, as long as you have a COMPLETED sheet, with ALL details accessible in a way that you can understand without spending ten minutes trying to find anything in it, I will allow it (Knowing what your character can do speeds up this process a lot). I will also expect you to maintain a completed sheet throughout the campaign. No leveling may be done during a session. If you forgot to level up before the session, you are stuck with those stats until after the session. This is to prevent you from making choices to your level up that conveniently help out in situations you wouldn’t reasonably anticipate beforehand (i.e. you come across an ancient text in a language you don’t understand and then proceed to put a rank in linguistics mid-session in order to read it). It also prevents the session from grinding to a halt because you’re too busy leveling to participate.
Ability Scores: Ability scores are done on a 20 point-buy system
Level/Exp: Every new character starts at level 1. Exp growth is estimated to be slow in this campaign (by official Paizo standards, anyway), but will happen as long as you keep showing up. Characters will inevitably grow at different rates as players drop in and out of sessions, which will eventually lead to some characters being higher-leveled than others. Try not to be disheartened by this method of experience growth, as it can lead to very interesting roleplay opportunities for both the stronger and weaker characters in the party.
Exp is gained as player characters travel the world, win encounters, and roleplay. Exp is revealed at the end of the session summaries following each session. Characters that obtain enough exp to level up must return to Krakonia City and spend a day of rest there before they are allowed to do so. There is, however, a little wiggle room here that’s up to GM interpretation. If a character spends a day of rest during a session and then finds out after the session that they obtained enough exp to level up, they can level up without having to rest a second time, but only if it’s clear that the exp they received to level up was from before they rested during the session. This is to accommodate for the fact that I calculate exp between sessions, which would otherwise be unfair to players.
As a player, it isn’t necessary for you to delve into the minutiae of exp calculation, but in the interest of transparency, or just in case you’re curious about my subpar math skills, you can find a full breakdown on how experience points work in this game here.
Mythic Tiers: Despite having an arbiter’s mark that suggests otherwise, each new character begins play without any mythic tiers, and is therefore considered non-mythic. The Arbiter’s Mark is simply an indicator that, mechanically-speaking, a character has the potential to ascend to mythic. Unlike with exp, mythic tiers are earned via milestones, and are individual to each character. Milestones are tracked secretly by the GM, and depending on the in-game choices a character makes throughout the campaign, different mythic paths/abilities may be unlocked. Methods of ascension are a mystery that players will have to uncover during the campaign, so it’ll therefore be difficult to plan tiers ahead of time, at least at the start. Since Mythic Adventures rules aren't as easily found as core rules, here's a link to the main srd page here.
Playable Races: As a general rule of thumb, any first-party race worth 15RP or less is playable in The Hook, but there’s a handy google sheet I lovingly made detailing each of the over 100 currently-playable races in the campaign, over half of which are homebrew, located in the player drive folder under "Homebrew Mechanics"-->"Races" or on our discord server under "player-resources". If you are yet to be satisfied by this list, feel free to request additional races ahead of time. Note that some of the first party races have been altered slightly to fill in some gaps in the srd in regards to certain descriptors (i.e. age, height, weight, etc), but they have otherwise been untouched. These changes have been marked on both the google sheet as well as in the races’ World Anvil pages.
Playable Classes: All first-party classes and prestige classes are allowed (with one exception; see below), as well as classes from Path of War, Occult Adventurers, and Psionics. I have additional homebrew classes available as well, although some of them are incomplete. If anyone actually expresses interest in playing one of these homebrew classes, I will complete them so that the player can more readily know what they’re getting into. Of all the planes of existence that Requerm currently draws from, it’s really only the Final Fantasy planes that have dedicated classes to draw inspiration from (The Elder Scrolls is already so heavily inspired by D&D and both The Legend of Zelda and Monster Hunter don’t really have class systems in place), so if you want to play as one of those classes, just tell me ahead of time and I’ll build it. There are an uncountable number of third-party classes and archetypes on the srd alone, so instead of me going through each and every single one of them myself, you can simply request that I review one and allow or disallow it.
There is one notable exception: Regular summoner cannot be chosen. If a player wishes to be a summoner, they must play as an unchained summoner. This choice is for balancing purposes, as regular summoner can too easily be broken, even when using only first party content.
Because of the wide expanse of new mechanics, both third party and homebrew, more exceptions may be added as the campaign carries on and more mechanics become more noticeably broken. If I deem a class too broken, I will give ample opportunity to players to change their characters' stats to accommodate the change, doing my best to balance the player's wishes, the campaign's story, and the desire to not completely derail every encounter I throw at my players.
Calculating HP: Each character treats their first Hit Die as if they rolled the maximum for HP. Starting at 2nd level, instead of rolling for HP, the character instead gains HP equal to the average for their hit die, rounded up. The calculation for this is as follows:
d6=+4 per level; d8=+5 per level; d10=+6 per level; d12=+7 per level
Character Traits: Each character starts with two traits, and may take a third trait if they also choose to have a drawback. Unlike in the official rules, there are no restrictions on the categories you can take traits from (i.e. you can take three traits from the same category if you really wanted to). Note that any trait that starts you out with more gold or other similar values, such as the Rich Parents or Chosen Child traits, are reduced by half because the game's economy is essentially halved due to the manacrystal system (see manacrystals below).
Skills: 4 new skills are available to assign ranks to (Two are from Psionics, one is from Path of War, and one is a completely homebrew skill). I will be asking players to make these skill checks as the campaign demands it, just like any other skill, so don’t go ignoring these just because they’re new additions. Details on each skill can be found in their individual World Anvil pages, where I have added some clarifications and additions, but below is a list of the new skills:
Autohypnosis(Wis) - Use this skill for a variety of mental checks to override physical limits.
Knowledge(Martial) (Int) - Use this skill to recall information about martial prowess.
Knowledge(Psionics) (Int) - Use this skill to recall information about psionic effects.
Memory(Wis) - Use this skill to recall past experiences and memorize data. In addition to this, some existing skills have been altered in some way. Below is a list of each skill that has been modified: Heal (Wis) - Added the ability to roll to determine target's health status.
Linguistics (Int) - Added a plethora of new language options. New Spells: If you are playing a spellcasting class, it may be worth your time to check out the List of New Subschools and the List of New Spells . Nothing has changed about spellcasting, these simply provide more options to your character. New Combat Mechanic (Goading): I've introduced a new combat mechanic that anyone can use, but gets more effective if you invest in the feat tree. It's called Goading , and lets you essentially trick an NPC into attacking you instead of another character. Feats: There are couple of notes on feats here. The first is that the Leadership feat is banned. Sure, it's broken, but that's not actually why I banned it. This is a campaign where you will naturally be making friends over time (unless you're trying not to), so reasonably, as you progress, level up, and complete behests, you're probably going to be able to form some militias anyway, regardless of the feat. Essentially, the cohort mechanic is redundant, since you'll be able to recruit NPCs to your causes anyway.
Additionally, there are some Homebrew Feats made for the campaign as well. This list will likely be updated as the campaign moves forward. Wealth Progression: Each character gains the average starting gold for their class (i.e. a cleric that rolls 4d6x10 for starting gold instead gains 140gp) as well as an outfit appropriate for their class. Wealth progression is not measured the same way as a typical campaign, and you are most likely not going to earn as much value per session as you may be accustomed to. However, to offset this, characters gain additional bonuses as they level up (See “Manacrystals” section below). Technology: Early firearms are readily available for purchase. Advanced and modern firearms may or may not exist in this world, but if they do, they must be discovered on quests, as they would be essentially artifacts at this point in time. Carrying Capacity: Carrying Capacity is technically going to matter in this campaign, but because of how much of a pain it is for me to track each individual PC's inventory, we are using the honor system here. I expect you all to keep track of your weight limits, and hope you actually adhere to them without me checking. If it becomes obvious that you are cheesing the system, I will audit your inventory like the IRS. Alignment: No alignment is restricted for this campaign, but I recommend not playing an evil character to keep party quarreling to a minimum. If you can convince me that your evil character will play nice with the party, I will allow it. Also, just because a character is chaotic-aligned, doesn’t mean they should harness chaos itself to be as annoying to everyone else as possible. At the end of the day, Pathfinder is a co-op game, and y’all are supposed to be a team, so remember that when choosing a personality. Speaking of personality… Personality Type: As some of the keener among you may have noticed in certain lore documents, the pseudoscientific Myers-Briggs Test plays a minor role in the setting. While it frankly has little to no merit in our world (the demon lawyers in Krakonia’s secret basement insist I assert that that’s just, like, my opinion, man), it actually has a mechanical role in Requerm, which means that each and every single character can and should be categorized neatly into one of sixteen personality types. This personality choice is determined during character creation and cannot be changed except in special circumstances. If you’re curious, feel free to look up the Myers-Briggs test in full, but below is what you actually need to know for the campaign: In order to create a personality type, you must choose one of two selections for four categories, resulting in a personality type with four factors. These four categories are Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I), Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N), Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F), and Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P). The result should be a personality type with four letters in it representing your four choices. Here is a link I pulled from Wikipedia that gives a good overview of each category as well as each full personality type.
One way to easily pick a personality is to put yourself into the shoes of your character, then find some corny website that claims to know your personality type and answer the questions as if you were your character. You can also simply choose each part manually, of course.
At the start of the campaign, there is no knowledge in character about these sixteen personality types. The best anyone can learn is through unreliable rumors and hearsay. Out of character, the personality type will have certain consequences throughout the campaign, but you do not currently know any mechanical benefits or drawbacks. These will become more clear as you travel the world, even if your characters don’t figure it out.
The main purpose behind this mechanic is to add some depth to a character’s personality beyond the usual alignment system. I recommend keeping your character’s personality in mind when making in-character decisions, including dialogue and actions. This is not meant to be restrictive, however. Do not think that you cannot do something just because your character’s personality type would suggest they wouldn’t do it. Even the most conservative of people may be pushed to improvisation when the situation calls for it, for example.
Religion: Everyone has religious beliefs, even if that belief is “I don’t believe,” and therefore should be marked down on your character sheet. Religion plays a big role in the setting, and there are a plethora of deities to choose from, even if your character doesn’t mechanically benefit from their worship. But this information of course becomes far more relevant if you are a divine caster of some kind. Clerics, paladins, etc all derive their powers from their faith in a deity, and these deities do, in fact, have specific domains, abilities, etc attached to them. A full list of all deities in Requerm can be found here , each with their own domains, favored weapons, and alignments, among other details (This includes atheists and agnostics, as they work differently in The Hook than they do in real life). If none of those deities catch your fancy, either for lore reasons or for mechanical ones, you may petition your own specific deity as part of character creation, but their existence cannot interfere with the ones that already exist in this setting, and therefore I reserve the right to refuse the concept you come up with.
Birthday/Dawnday: Yes, believe it or not, you need to pick a date of birth. If your character appeared in Requerm due to The Effects of the Dawn , you also need to pick a Dawnday. A Dawnday is the term people use to describe the day they first appeared in Requerm . Much like a birthday, a Dawnday is often celebrated in Requerm, although this is a newer trend, and many would rather not think about how many years have passed since they were first forcibly removed from their previous lives. A character’s official birthday and/or Dawnday may play a mechanical/roleplay role in the campaign, but regardless of that, at the very least you need to keep track of your date of birth for the purposes of aging. Since this campaign is a longterm one and involves a lot of downtime due to travel, aging is very much something you need to pay attention to. The simplest way to pick a birthday and/or dawnday is to simply glance at the Modernized Requerm Calendar and pick a day at random, but you can choose to make the choice mean something more if you wish.
Determining a character’s birthday in character may a bit more complicated than one might think if one arrived in Requerm via the Effects of the Dawn. See, a character that was born in Requerm can simply tell people when they were born, like any other world. A character from another plane of existence, however, will probably need to do a little math to figure out their effective birthday since Requerm’s calendar works somewhat differently than most other planes of existence. Essentially, a character needs to add the days that it would take for them to age in their home plane, figure out the proportional difference in days between their home plane and Requerm, then subtract the age that they would be on their next birthday to the year they first appeared in Requerm. This math requires the knowledge of the character’s “Dawnday,”
For example, a homo sapiens from the Earth plane of existence was born on June 7th, 1995 AD. They were taken from their home on May 13th, 2024 at the age of 28 and ended up in Requerm on M’Rach’s 18th Oath, 50 AtD (After the Dawn). Having left their home plane 25 days before their birthday, this homo sapiens just needs to figure out what 25 days amounts to in Requerm (25 days on a 365-day calendar is effectively 28 days on a 420-day calendar), then subtract the age that they would be on that day, to figure out their effective birthday in Requerm. According to the Requerm calendar, this homo sapiens’ effective birthday would therefore be Rilpa’s 11th Oath, 21 AtD.
This math often results in older characters having effective birthdays predating The Dawn, despite most people not existing during that time. This discrepancy is easily hand-waved away, but can be an entertaining topic of conversation amongst certain types of people.
The Minor Details: You might not believe it necessary, but I will still require each player to fill in all the minor descriptors for your character. These descriptors include: Full name, age, height, weight, pronoun, gender, sex, orientation, eye color, hair color/style, skin color, and plane of origin. All of these can easily be found in the Basic Identity section of my character sheet template for easy access, but either way all of these pieces of information, while unlikely to matter, CAN still matter, so you need to have something solid in place ahead of time in case it comes up. If you do not bother with these, I will fill in the blanks myself, averaging them if they can be averaged, and putting in default descriptors for those that cannot. Note that each race has their own average height, weight, and age that can most easily be found in my race google sheet (Many of the first party races are difficult to pinpoint specific details outside of the core stuff, but my sheet’s got you covered).
Interests/Disinterests: Before beginning the game, each character should have 10 interests and 10 disinterests marked clearly on their character sheet. This is a new homebrewed mechanic that I detail more closely here .
Arbiter’s Mark: Each player is tied to both a specific mark and specific color that no other player can claim. Each of their characters has this same mark and color despite any other details or differences between them. More information on Arbiter’s Marks can be found here , but for the purposes of character creation, all you really have to do is pick a color and a shape that hasn’t been chosen by another player yet, then write it down on your sheet.
Manacrystals: In place of making as much money as a normal campaign, characters instead gain stats/bonuses/etc through a system known as Manacrystals . At level 1, no bonuses are applied from manacrystals, so this will only become relevant as you level up, but I recommend reading the page now just so you have a better idea of what to expect as you level up.
Rumors: When a character is first introduced to the campaign, they begin play with at least five rumors that anyone could reasonably have heard about their character before meeting them. These can be written by the player or the GM, player’s choice. These rumors are meant to jump-start some of the roleplay, so some thought should be put into them. The basic requirement, however, is as follows:
-At least one positive rumor about the character that most people in society would admire.
-At least one negative rumor about the character that most people in society would look down on.
-At least one true rumor about the character.
-At least one false rumor about the character. These requirements can be combined, but this does not change the five-rumor minimum. For example, a character can have four positive, true rumors and one false, negative rumor. All rumors, however, should be believable to an outsider, regardless of if they are true or not. A simple DC10 knowledge (local) check by another player will inform that player about any one of these rumors, chosen by the GM. This DC may go up or down depending on the notoriety of the subject, also GM discretion, but for most greenhorn adventurers, the DC should be about 10. I strongly encourage players to not disclose the truth behind these rumors out of character (I can’t exactly stop you, free speech and all that, but I can insist). A character, in character, however, can certainly allege that a rumor is true or false, if they so choose. When writing rumors for your character, consider the fact that everyone else in the party still needs to work with you, so try to refrain from creating rumors that would prevent others from letting you in their party. Even an open-minded party of player characters may have their limits. Examples of rumors can be found on the example character sheets provided in the player folder. Backstory: While much of your backstory is up to you, every starting character has an indisputable fact in common: You are all provisional adventurers in the employ of The Hook, the tavern associated with the The Adventurers Guild of Krakonia(AGK) , and have yet to earn your full licenses, operating only with provisional permits. This essentially means you are new to legally adventuring under the Krakonia banner and have yet to complete any actual behests, requiring at least one veteran to accompany you in order to make sure you don’t die on the job. This is a precautionary law that has nothing to do with any actual experience and/or confidence your character may have received before enrolling with the AGK. Your duty as a licensed adventurer is to take on behests issued by the kingdom however you see fit, which essentially makes you mercenaries with extra protections and benefits. As for the rest of your backstory... I’m not asking for War and Peace over here, but your character should have at least some personal details and motivations unique to them. While writing your backstory, consider the fact that your character is level 1, so they are not going to have a lot of experience as an adventurer unless some tragedy struck and your character got mechanics amnesia or something. Using the rumors you are required to add to your character sheet is a good place to start. If you are otherwise struggling to come up with a more compelling story, or simply are looking for additional ideas to add some meat to your backstory’s bones, consider some, or all, of the following: The Effects of the Dawn: Many people in Requerm were affected by the Effects of the Dawn, the mysterious phenomenon trapping mortals in this plane of existence seemingly without rhyme or reason. Just about everyone in Krakonia has a personal story to tell about their origins. “What is your plane of origin?” is usually one of the first questions somebody asks when getting to know someone else, right up there with “What do you do for work?” or “Do you have any family?”
-If your character appeared in Requerm due to the Effects of the Dawn, what plane of existence did your character come from? What was life like for them before they got isekai’d? What was life like for them after they got isekai’d? Are they a totally fresh face, popped up in the world yesterday with far too many questions? Or have they been here for some time, and gotten adjusted to their new life?
-If your character was born in Requerm, what are/were their parents like? Are your parents also Requerm natives, or were they the ones to appear due to the Effects? Would something you did as a child have a lasting impact on the development of Krakonia or the people residing within it? The Founding of Krakonia: The Kingdom of Krakonia, and by extension Krakonia City, in its current state, is a pretty new settlement, all things considered. There is a big history behind its founding that is still fresh in the minds of most citizens. Many of these details can be found in the various lore documents for this campaign, so consider what involvement your character may have had in Krakonia’s founding. They could be an ex-soldier, retiring from the frontlines after Krakonia won in order to pursue adventuring instead. They could be an enemy having been forced to assimilate after their own people were defeated. They could be a citizen that helped in the background, building new buildings or selling goods to the many people helping to establish this new settlement. They could be an ex-convict or prisoner of war looking for a fresh start. They could be all sorts of other things, the sky’s the limit. The People, Guilds, and Clans of Krakonia: Take a gander at all the character bios available to you documenting the many NPCs in Krakonia. Consider whether or not your character would know any of these people, either in passing or more intimately. Would your character be part of a Guild or Clan ? Many of those exist in the city, and each one has a particular category of people affiliated with it, some as vague as “we use magic here sometimes” and some as specific as “we are all the same race and from the same plane at the same time period in history and also we all believe the same politics and our favorite meal is caramel apple pie with a side of ice cream and whipped cream on top.” Relationships: Does your character have any friends? Family? Roommates? Rivals? Enemies? Lovers? Lovers that were once enemies? Pissed-off exes? Acquaintances? Somewhat friendly mailmen? A particularly nosy neighbor? Any NPC you give me, I can and will use and abuse. Personal Motivation/Goals: Everyone is striving for something, whether they know it or not. Why does your character wish to be an adventurer? Money? Power? Fame? Babes? Looking for the assassin that killed your brother in cold blood and the only way to do it is to get stronger, building up a long, meticulously crafted character-driven story arc where you learn all about the power of friendship and that gun over there? Travel? Multiple Characters: While not a requirement, I encourage everyone to have at least two characters, if not more, for this campaign for a few reasons. Due to the nature of scheduling between a bunch of busy adults, there will likely often be times where a player that is particularly needed for a specific quest will be unavailable, and the other players that are available will feel that they cannot (or should not) continue without them. In that scenario, the available players can simply go on a different quest with their secondary characters. In addition, a player with multiple characters may be able to play with multiple characters at once in restricted situations. Those situations are as follows: -A party of three players can each use up to two PCs at once.
-A party of two players can each use up to three PCs at once.
-A party of one player can use up to four PCs at once. If at any point the number of players changes, extra PCs will come and go as per the Arbiter’s Call (see Arbiters - Player Characters for details). A typical session will only occur if at least three players are present. A party of one or two will pretty much only occur when a player(s) requests a private session outside of the typical session rotation. There could be several reasons for this, the most likely being when a player feels that a personal quest for their character(s) takes priority and they don’t want to drag a bunch of other irrelevant players along for the ride. Private sessions are difficult to schedule, and may take time to actually occur, so they should be limited to when there’s no reasonable alternative. HOWEVER, note the first sentence of this paragraph again. Consider the implication there. Yup, if only one or two players are actually free during the normal campaign schedule, well, they can just go ahead and start a private session right then and there, should they be so inclined. Slow is Smooth is Fast: I am fully aware that this is a lot more homework for the campaign than people are used to. Hell, think about how long it took me just to get to the point of officially starting the campaign in the first place (Please don't give me the exact number of days, I'd rather not be aware of that lol). It would be absurd to ask everyone to suddenly drop everything they're doing and get on my level of world-building obsession. This is why I am giving ample time and opportunity to do these character sheets right. The more you complete your character ahead of time, the more efficient we can be once we get going. Remember that, first and foremost, this is a free game that we are all collectively choosing to play in our free time. You should not be stressed out over this. If you, at any point, feel overwhelmed during character creation, please please please reach out to me ahead of time and let me know so that I can help you through the numbers and the links and the obscure rules and the absurdly large lists of feats and spells, so that you have more time and energy to focus on the parts that matter: Who you are and what you want to do. Take it easy, think things through, and communicate.
Knowledge(Martial) (Int) - Use this skill to recall information about martial prowess.
Knowledge(Psionics) (Int) - Use this skill to recall information about psionic effects.
Memory(Wis) - Use this skill to recall past experiences and memorize data. In addition to this, some existing skills have been altered in some way. Below is a list of each skill that has been modified: Heal (Wis) - Added the ability to roll to determine target's health status.
Linguistics (Int) - Added a plethora of new language options. New Spells: If you are playing a spellcasting class, it may be worth your time to check out the List of New Subschools and the List of New Spells . Nothing has changed about spellcasting, these simply provide more options to your character. New Combat Mechanic (Goading): I've introduced a new combat mechanic that anyone can use, but gets more effective if you invest in the feat tree. It's called Goading , and lets you essentially trick an NPC into attacking you instead of another character. Feats: There are couple of notes on feats here. The first is that the Leadership feat is banned. Sure, it's broken, but that's not actually why I banned it. This is a campaign where you will naturally be making friends over time (unless you're trying not to), so reasonably, as you progress, level up, and complete behests, you're probably going to be able to form some militias anyway, regardless of the feat. Essentially, the cohort mechanic is redundant, since you'll be able to recruit NPCs to your causes anyway.
Additionally, there are some Homebrew Feats made for the campaign as well. This list will likely be updated as the campaign moves forward. Wealth Progression: Each character gains the average starting gold for their class (i.e. a cleric that rolls 4d6x10 for starting gold instead gains 140gp) as well as an outfit appropriate for their class. Wealth progression is not measured the same way as a typical campaign, and you are most likely not going to earn as much value per session as you may be accustomed to. However, to offset this, characters gain additional bonuses as they level up (See “Manacrystals” section below). Technology: Early firearms are readily available for purchase. Advanced and modern firearms may or may not exist in this world, but if they do, they must be discovered on quests, as they would be essentially artifacts at this point in time. Carrying Capacity: Carrying Capacity is technically going to matter in this campaign, but because of how much of a pain it is for me to track each individual PC's inventory, we are using the honor system here. I expect you all to keep track of your weight limits, and hope you actually adhere to them without me checking. If it becomes obvious that you are cheesing the system, I will audit your inventory like the IRS. Alignment: No alignment is restricted for this campaign, but I recommend not playing an evil character to keep party quarreling to a minimum. If you can convince me that your evil character will play nice with the party, I will allow it. Also, just because a character is chaotic-aligned, doesn’t mean they should harness chaos itself to be as annoying to everyone else as possible. At the end of the day, Pathfinder is a co-op game, and y’all are supposed to be a team, so remember that when choosing a personality. Speaking of personality… Personality Type: As some of the keener among you may have noticed in certain lore documents, the pseudoscientific Myers-Briggs Test plays a minor role in the setting. While it frankly has little to no merit in our world (the demon lawyers in Krakonia’s secret basement insist I assert that that’s just, like, my opinion, man), it actually has a mechanical role in Requerm, which means that each and every single character can and should be categorized neatly into one of sixteen personality types. This personality choice is determined during character creation and cannot be changed except in special circumstances. If you’re curious, feel free to look up the Myers-Briggs test in full, but below is what you actually need to know for the campaign: In order to create a personality type, you must choose one of two selections for four categories, resulting in a personality type with four factors. These four categories are Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I), Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N), Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F), and Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P). The result should be a personality type with four letters in it representing your four choices. Here is a link I pulled from Wikipedia that gives a good overview of each category as well as each full personality type.
-At least one negative rumor about the character that most people in society would look down on.
-At least one true rumor about the character.
-At least one false rumor about the character. These requirements can be combined, but this does not change the five-rumor minimum. For example, a character can have four positive, true rumors and one false, negative rumor. All rumors, however, should be believable to an outsider, regardless of if they are true or not. A simple DC10 knowledge (local) check by another player will inform that player about any one of these rumors, chosen by the GM. This DC may go up or down depending on the notoriety of the subject, also GM discretion, but for most greenhorn adventurers, the DC should be about 10. I strongly encourage players to not disclose the truth behind these rumors out of character (I can’t exactly stop you, free speech and all that, but I can insist). A character, in character, however, can certainly allege that a rumor is true or false, if they so choose. When writing rumors for your character, consider the fact that everyone else in the party still needs to work with you, so try to refrain from creating rumors that would prevent others from letting you in their party. Even an open-minded party of player characters may have their limits. Examples of rumors can be found on the example character sheets provided in the player folder. Backstory: While much of your backstory is up to you, every starting character has an indisputable fact in common: You are all provisional adventurers in the employ of The Hook, the tavern associated with the The Adventurers Guild of Krakonia(AGK) , and have yet to earn your full licenses, operating only with provisional permits. This essentially means you are new to legally adventuring under the Krakonia banner and have yet to complete any actual behests, requiring at least one veteran to accompany you in order to make sure you don’t die on the job. This is a precautionary law that has nothing to do with any actual experience and/or confidence your character may have received before enrolling with the AGK. Your duty as a licensed adventurer is to take on behests issued by the kingdom however you see fit, which essentially makes you mercenaries with extra protections and benefits. As for the rest of your backstory... I’m not asking for War and Peace over here, but your character should have at least some personal details and motivations unique to them. While writing your backstory, consider the fact that your character is level 1, so they are not going to have a lot of experience as an adventurer unless some tragedy struck and your character got mechanics amnesia or something. Using the rumors you are required to add to your character sheet is a good place to start. If you are otherwise struggling to come up with a more compelling story, or simply are looking for additional ideas to add some meat to your backstory’s bones, consider some, or all, of the following: The Effects of the Dawn: Many people in Requerm were affected by the Effects of the Dawn, the mysterious phenomenon trapping mortals in this plane of existence seemingly without rhyme or reason. Just about everyone in Krakonia has a personal story to tell about their origins. “What is your plane of origin?” is usually one of the first questions somebody asks when getting to know someone else, right up there with “What do you do for work?” or “Do you have any family?”
-If your character appeared in Requerm due to the Effects of the Dawn, what plane of existence did your character come from? What was life like for them before they got isekai’d? What was life like for them after they got isekai’d? Are they a totally fresh face, popped up in the world yesterday with far too many questions? Or have they been here for some time, and gotten adjusted to their new life?
-If your character was born in Requerm, what are/were their parents like? Are your parents also Requerm natives, or were they the ones to appear due to the Effects? Would something you did as a child have a lasting impact on the development of Krakonia or the people residing within it? The Founding of Krakonia: The Kingdom of Krakonia, and by extension Krakonia City, in its current state, is a pretty new settlement, all things considered. There is a big history behind its founding that is still fresh in the minds of most citizens. Many of these details can be found in the various lore documents for this campaign, so consider what involvement your character may have had in Krakonia’s founding. They could be an ex-soldier, retiring from the frontlines after Krakonia won in order to pursue adventuring instead. They could be an enemy having been forced to assimilate after their own people were defeated. They could be a citizen that helped in the background, building new buildings or selling goods to the many people helping to establish this new settlement. They could be an ex-convict or prisoner of war looking for a fresh start. They could be all sorts of other things, the sky’s the limit. The People, Guilds, and Clans of Krakonia: Take a gander at all the character bios available to you documenting the many NPCs in Krakonia. Consider whether or not your character would know any of these people, either in passing or more intimately. Would your character be part of a Guild or Clan ? Many of those exist in the city, and each one has a particular category of people affiliated with it, some as vague as “we use magic here sometimes” and some as specific as “we are all the same race and from the same plane at the same time period in history and also we all believe the same politics and our favorite meal is caramel apple pie with a side of ice cream and whipped cream on top.” Relationships: Does your character have any friends? Family? Roommates? Rivals? Enemies? Lovers? Lovers that were once enemies? Pissed-off exes? Acquaintances? Somewhat friendly mailmen? A particularly nosy neighbor? Any NPC you give me, I can and will use and abuse. Personal Motivation/Goals: Everyone is striving for something, whether they know it or not. Why does your character wish to be an adventurer? Money? Power? Fame? Babes? Looking for the assassin that killed your brother in cold blood and the only way to do it is to get stronger, building up a long, meticulously crafted character-driven story arc where you learn all about the power of friendship and that gun over there? Travel? Multiple Characters: While not a requirement, I encourage everyone to have at least two characters, if not more, for this campaign for a few reasons. Due to the nature of scheduling between a bunch of busy adults, there will likely often be times where a player that is particularly needed for a specific quest will be unavailable, and the other players that are available will feel that they cannot (or should not) continue without them. In that scenario, the available players can simply go on a different quest with their secondary characters. In addition, a player with multiple characters may be able to play with multiple characters at once in restricted situations. Those situations are as follows: -A party of three players can each use up to two PCs at once.
-A party of two players can each use up to three PCs at once.
-A party of one player can use up to four PCs at once. If at any point the number of players changes, extra PCs will come and go as per the Arbiter’s Call (see Arbiters - Player Characters for details). A typical session will only occur if at least three players are present. A party of one or two will pretty much only occur when a player(s) requests a private session outside of the typical session rotation. There could be several reasons for this, the most likely being when a player feels that a personal quest for their character(s) takes priority and they don’t want to drag a bunch of other irrelevant players along for the ride. Private sessions are difficult to schedule, and may take time to actually occur, so they should be limited to when there’s no reasonable alternative. HOWEVER, note the first sentence of this paragraph again. Consider the implication there. Yup, if only one or two players are actually free during the normal campaign schedule, well, they can just go ahead and start a private session right then and there, should they be so inclined. Slow is Smooth is Fast: I am fully aware that this is a lot more homework for the campaign than people are used to. Hell, think about how long it took me just to get to the point of officially starting the campaign in the first place (Please don't give me the exact number of days, I'd rather not be aware of that lol). It would be absurd to ask everyone to suddenly drop everything they're doing and get on my level of world-building obsession. This is why I am giving ample time and opportunity to do these character sheets right. The more you complete your character ahead of time, the more efficient we can be once we get going. Remember that, first and foremost, this is a free game that we are all collectively choosing to play in our free time. You should not be stressed out over this. If you, at any point, feel overwhelmed during character creation, please please please reach out to me ahead of time and let me know so that I can help you through the numbers and the links and the obscure rules and the absurdly large lists of feats and spells, so that you have more time and energy to focus on the parts that matter: Who you are and what you want to do. Take it easy, think things through, and communicate.
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