Rules

## Home District

Characters created for the Ethergaard campaign are allowed to choose a home district. They will receive a place of residence as well as benefit or item from choosing their home turf. The bonus feature is at the DM's disgression, but if the player has an idea of how their residence appears they can have input in this process. Below is a brief guide to what you can expect based on district:

Ethercourt- (DM Permission only) Ethergaard profession, ethergaard armor, ethergaard weapon

Bazaar- Random assortment of coins, extra goods, a carriage

Deadtown- Thieves tools, a weapon, a tattoo

Exalted Estates- Expensive residence, gem cutter's set, extra gold/gems

Emerald Knoll- Jewelry, instrument, art object, a mount

Southern quarter- A firearm, a place in the academy, quality rations

The Fishery- A starting profession, a boat, a pole

Vaitarna River- (DM permission only) Marked for exile

City Limits- A tent, light source, a compass

Other Cities- DM permission only

## Campaign Tone

Paranoiac, horrifying, medieval, steampunk, tragic, esoteric...the Recurring campaign retains an overall dark tone. Unlike many horror campaigns, characters are not completely vulnerable, finding themselves in a relatively high-magic world and being fairly strong from character creation. That being said, themes of survival will be stressed. Challenges are aggressive. The idea is high risk, high reward, both in terms of treasure and experience. New characters and guest stars are encouraged to fit their character into the world but are free to help shape it. Have a great idea for a business your grandfather run, a floorplan for your residence, or a feature in the city that would help flesh out your character? Put it in your bio and we'll work together to realize your vision in the town.

## Soundtrack

Below are some links to musical inspiration for Recurring

Tim Hecker- Konoyo

Tim Hecker- Ravedeath 1972

GAS- Rausch

Sleep- Holy Mountain

Lightning Bolt - Fantasy Empire

Thee Oh Sees- Orc

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull

Agalloch- Ashes Against the Grain

## Character Creation

Roll 4d6 subtract lowest die for abilities. Players may reroll entire set if the results include more than one ability at a negative, not positive overall, or lacking at least one ability at least 16 or higher naturally. Recurring is a high difficulty campaign with moderate/moderate-high magic and requires heroic character builds for survival. All decisions are one a case-by-case basis, all D&D sources including third party ones are permissible but subject to final approval by DM.

## Inspiration Points for PC Bios and Art

Characters can gain bonus inspiration points for writing PC bios on this site and for creating art and literature relevant to the campaign. At DM's disgression, bios and site updates can also be worth an XP bonus to help characters catch up to the highest XP total in the party.

## Identification of Magic Items

Some items can be identified with a short rest, but some rare items may require an identify spell or a successful arcana check to clue the PC into the origin. This is especially true with artifacts/items dating back to the Kingdom of Cephalan

## Scroll Mishaps

If you have to make a roll to use a scroll (probably because the spell on it is too high a level for you) and you fail that roll then you have more to worry about that the spell not going off. You need to make a saving throw or a mishap occurs – this mishap might be annoying, debilitating or deadly. It’s a random die roll.

## Sanity

Under the Sanity variant, all characters may be required to make wisdom or charisma saves (as applicable) when confronted with aberrations, powerful undead, or extraplanar travel. They are called upon to make Sanity saving throws to avert Madness. They may also need to save when gaining lore about terrifying non-Euclidian entities from beyond. Repeated failures may result in more serious, long-term Madness.

## Times of Day

Many events are triggered or affected by the time of day. Below is a rough equivalency of Amathara's rough time-telling (6 four hour slots) versus what you'd see on your water-clock. The third column is the celestial titan associated with that time of day (relevant to some spells and events)

 6 am - 9 am
 10 am - 1 pm
 2 pm - 5 pm
 6 pm - 9 pm
 10 pm - 1 am

## Buying, Selling, Trading

See this section for buying, selling, trading rules. These are up to DMs discretion but the outline should help establish the campaign tone with these (more classic style than 5e but also not a constant inventory management game).

## Firearms and Explosives

Amathara is a medieval setting but primitive firearms and explosives exist. Critical failures with these prototype devices are especially deadly. While encountering these objects are uncommon, they are a part of the campaign and can be added to an equipment list.

## Steam Contraptions and Vehicles

Going along with the steampunk influence, steam contraptions and vehicles also exist. Similarly to firearms, critical failures to control these machines result in particularly grievous outcomes. The D&D rules for sky ships are relevant along with 3rd party material covering steam/more modern transportation.