Campaign Rules

Equipment and Magic Items

In Northern Reaches, the following rules govern the use and acquisition of equipment and magic items:

• Trading and Sharing Magic Items: Items and equipment can only be traded through the use of “In Town” actions (see Town & Roleplay) for more details. During an adventure, it is acceptable for a character to allow a fellow party member to consume or borrow. However, this is an exception, and the expectation is that any items will be consumed or returned to its original owner at the end of the adventure.
  
  

• Non-Magic Equipment: All common permanent mundane items of level 6 or below are always available for purchase at the town merchant using the Buy From Merchant "In Town" action. This equipment is primarily intended for use when purchasing initial gear for your new character.
  
  

• Epic Items: Along your journey in the Northern Reaches, you will likely encounter relics of extraordinary power. These can be awarded by GM Perks, Events, or Clocks. Epic items are custom Pathfinder treasure made by our GMs that have power somewhat above the curve of typical items in the system. Epic items will have the "Epic trait", must be invested, and are "bound" to a character immediately after the session or action it was obtained within concludes, meaning the item can never be Traded or otherwise given away. Epic items cannot ever be reverse engineered or crafted. There is a default limit of ONE invested Epic item at a time, but GMs are free to raise, waive, or lower this limit as desired. The Epic trait may also be used on some Perks or other campaign rewards, which would similarly count against this limit.
  
  

• Epic Resources: Epic Resources are exceptional materials or artifacts that can be found while playing in sessions and completing major deeds such as slaying a frost wyrm in the mountains, successful harvesting an unusual plant deep within the jungle, or finding an ancient totem at the end of a trek through ruins. Epic Resources are a limited item that GMs can occasionally grant in their games as desired. 


  
  These items cost a variable amount of GMP from the GMs (1000+) and will discount (by the same amount) the purchase of future GMP Perks such as Custom Item (Epic) to transform the Epic Resource into a wieldable Epic Item. Beyond this, Epic Items may also be turned in to relevant clocks as a means to progress them or potentially crafted into Epic Items by other players after purchase of and completion of the requirements of the “Forge Item (Epic)” player perk. Any GMP originally paid by towards the Epic Resource similarly discounts the cost of “Forge Item (Epic)”. Please see XP Perks and GMP Perks for more information.
  
  

• Crafting: For detailed rules on Crafting, please see the Town & Roleplay Guide  and In Town Actions.
  
  

• Weekly Magic Item Availability: At the start of each week, a limited number of items will become available at the Trading Post. These are the only magic items that can be purchased during that week. Any items available in previous weeks are no longer available.

  • The magic items available each week will be a random selection of items within a few levels range of the current campaign level, though there are some potential Venue actions to influence the market.

  • Magic items will be categorized as either Permanent or Consumable. Consumables are typically sold in batches, with the total quantity indicated in parentheses (e.g., Oak Potion (4) means there are 4 Oak Potions in that batch).
    
    

• Purchasing Limitations: Each Permanent magic item or batch of Consumable magic items can only be purchased by each player once during the week it is available. For example, if a Rune of Crushing appears in the store with a cost of 50g, you can purchase this rune only once that week, even if you have enough gold to buy multiple copies. If the Rune of Crushing appears again in a future week, you may purchase another copy, but again, only one for that week.
  
  

• Essential Items: Certain items, as decided by the GM's Council, will be deemed "essential" for the progression and play of the game. These items will become permanently available starting from a specific week in the campaign and will remain available for purchase every week until the end of the campaign.
  
  

• Ammunition: Your character will be considered as having unlimited basic ammunition as long as you purchase and keep 1 Bulk of ammunition for each weapon type you plan to use on your character during adventures.

XP Perk System

With leveling being automatic in the Reaches, you can use your XP to purchase unlocks and upgrades for your character via the “Perk Shop”. GMs also earn GMP that can be used to unlock upgrades to the rewards of their adventures with more options being added throughout the campaign based on player actions. Player XP, GMP, and RP XP are separate pools and can be used to purchase different rewards from the Perk Shop. Please see XP Perks for more details on the available perks.

Returning Players

Returning players that had completed at least ONE In Town action or Session in a previous season will have a starting bonus of 2000 Player XP.

Players who participated in Season 3's Honor & Glory event will receive additional XP according to their accomplishments up to 3000 XP. This XP can only be used to purchase the "Setting up Shop" Townlife perk or to unlock uncommon & rare character options such as ancestry, backgrounds, or archetypes.

Earning Player XP

Players can earn XP throughout the season in a few different ways.

• Playing in Sessions - Playing in adventure sessions awards 120 XP / HR OR optionally the total XP earned during the adventure if it was a Choice-Driven game.
  
  In order for a session to qualify as 'Choice-Driven', a session must satisfy all of the following:

  • Players need to have agency to make informed choices outside of combat which can impact the session, site, and campaign world at large

  • Players need in principle to be able to interact with the world in ways you haven't anticipated or prepared

  • Players set their own goals and are allowed to change them during the session as they come across alternative ones
    
    

• Gamemastering - Running games as a Gamemaster awards an equal amount of XP & GMP depending on the type of session. Please see the GM Guide for more details.
  
  

• Roleplay - While Roleplaying does not directly earn Player XP, the RP XP earned from Roleplaying within the RP channels can be converted to Player XP via “In Town” actions.

Events & Clocks

The Reaches are a living world that is constantly impacted by the stories told by the players. These stories from Sessions or Roleplay can lead to some temporary or permanent impacts on the broader world which are tracked in #events-and-clocks.

In the #events-and-clocks channel you will find a list of any active effects on sessions or In Town activities as well as completed clocks or past events. Your actions In Town and in Sessions can progress these clocks or alter active events. Details on how can be found in each individual post as well as the expected outcomes once they are resolved. 

Quest Board

The Quest Board is the way that you as a Player can request the type of sessions that you would like to see to help drive the narrative throughout the campaign or even just explore a theme or place from a previous adventure that you found interesting. Once posted, these Quests are picked up by GMs who receive additional rewards for the effort to tailor an adventure to the request. Quest Board posts are not intended to enable requests for specific magic items, but may be requested generally to explore libraries, mines, or other areas where desired items may be more likely to be encountered. These requests should not dictate outcomes, but instead provide context around the setting, themes, and style of adventure desired. The outcomes will be determined during the session by player choices and the dice.

Examples of valid Quest Board requests:

• Was there a particular creature in a previous session that got away but still owes you a debt?

• Interested in learning more about the strange runic magic that was pulsing throughout the ruins you just explored?

• Hoping to find some precious minerals needed for that next craft, exotic herbs to cure a strange malady, or maybe even a new animal companion to join you on adventures?

Examples of invalid Quest Board requests:

• I would like to visit a monastery and earn a new Sash of Prowess

• Please run a session where we visit a library where I can find a Scroll of Teleport

Interacting with the Quest Board as a Player:

The quest-board is a place for adventurers and venue owners to post suggested or requested quests for GMs to pick up and run. The goal of the Quest Board is to allow players to be able to make requests around story hooks that they would like to see explored (either personal for their character or just related to lore they have seen in the world that they would like to continue interacting with). These are referred to as Player Quests. Each player is allowed to have ONE active Quest Board post at any given time.

How to post a Request?

If you would like to post a quest that is not related to a venue, you just simply need to provide details around the quest and why it is important to the world. This should include some details regarding the suggested setting (including potentially the zone) of the quest and any NPCs that you believe would be involved. This should not include specific actions that need to be taken throughout the adventure to achieve the goal or specific rewards for the adventure which are up to the GM to decide.



There are template with examples in the 'quest-board' forum in discord that you can follow to submit a quest. Once a quest has concluded, it must be updated to tag it as 'Completed' or ‘Failed’ before a new quest is posted.

Interacting with the Quest Board as a GM:


As a GM, the quest-board is a great place to draw inspiration from for game ideas that players want to see. It can serve as a starting point for an adventure theme that you can add your own twists and turns to as desired. These quests should only serve as inspiration for the session, and should not dictate specific actions or rewards within the adventure for the players which are up to you as the GM to decide. If you decide to run a quest posted by a player, please reply to the post on the board to let them know and message them as needed if you have any questions around the quest. 

If you as a GM elect to run a quest from the board, you will receive an additional 30 XP / GMP per hour of the session. To receive this reward, there needs to be a minimum number of three players in the session and the session needs to be a Choice-Based session. There may be exceptions to this for specific notable creatures, though these need to be approved by the GM council ahead of time, and likely would benefit from a Hexcrawl or other similar style ‘tracking’ activity that would qualify it as a ‘Choice-Based’ session.

Also keep an eye out as there may be some special quests added by the GM Council from time to time with enhanced or special rewards for GMs that run the games as well as the players who participate.

Titles and Legacies

Players have the opportunity to earn unique Titles that fit the impacts of their characters and leave behind lasting legacies throughout the Northern Reaches. The most common way to earn one of these Titles is through the purchase of specific XP Perks such as "Hero's Legacy" or "Talk of the Town". These perks give the player the opportunity to work with the GM Council on impacts to the campaign tied to their character's actions that can range from limited time events, seasonal changes, or permanent changes to the system. Typically, the larger the impact, the shorter the duration. It is important to note that Titles are only one way that you can interact with the world, and that these changes can also be accomplished by clocks, community effort, and your actions throughout sessions regardless.

After you have met the minimum requirements for one of these perks, You may create a thread in the #gm-council-secret channel to start the process:

• The title of the thread should indicate your character's name and which perk you are purchasing

• Additional posts in the thread should detail the following:

  • Your available XP balance and any donated XP towards the purchase of the perk

  • Your character's notable actions and achievements in adventures or in town

  • Any thoughts on mechanical or narrative impacts that you are hoping to contribute

These requests will be prioritized based on a combination of timing of request and closeness to completion. Requests typically take multiple weeks of discussion with the council to align on requirements and outcomes. Please be aware that while your actions taken to date will be taken into account for the title, additional requirements based on the request such as particular quests or donated XP costs are common.

Death, Resurrection, and Retirement Rules

In the Northern Reaches setting, characters face death under the same conditions as in Pathfinder 2nd Edition (PF2). This includes reaching Dying 4, being reduced to 0 Hit Points from an effect with the Death trait, and similar circumstances. If your character dies in Northern Reaches, they will lose all items and unique earned abilities. You as the player will retain all earned XP and unlocked XP Perks.

That said, Death doesn’t have to be the end in Northern Reaches, as there are available XP Perks to resurrect a dead character (provided you have the XP available) or to provide them additional lives prior to their untimely end. No other form of magical resurrection can be used to revive a character who has died after an adventure has concluded. You can revive a character anytime after their death unless you have replaced the character in the same character slot, at which point they are considered permanently dead or retired. Until a character is revived, all of its inventory of items are considered lost and inaccessible to any other characters the player may possess.

Resurrection Process

If you consume the required XP Perk to revive a dead character, the character returns in the following condition after one minute of recovery:

• Full Hit Points: The character is restored to their maximum HP.

• No Conditions: All conditions are removed.

• No Spell Effects: All beneficial or harmful spell effects are cleared.

• Full Resources: Spell slots and focus points are fully restored.

However, any damage to equipment or usage of magic items remains unchanged.

Retiring a Character

Players can choose to retire a character at any time, whether they are dead or alive to allow them to replace the character slot with another active character. To retire a character, they must have a minimum of 450g worth of items in their inventory. If the character has less than 450g in total worth of items (based on full purchase price), then gold or resources may be offered instead to make up the difference. This should normally not be applicable as all characters will start with a minimum of 450g to purchase initial items with and will quickly earn more by taking "In Town" actions or on adventures.

Player Logs

Each player will be REQUIRED to update a Player Log post weekly in the #player-logs channel (following a provided template). Each weekly update must include a list of Actions taken "In Town", purchased XP Perks, and current resource totals (XP, Gold, Furs, Minerals, and Herbs).

For Actions taken, the log should clearly include who any actions were taken with (if applicable), what venue they were taken at (if applicable), and the outcome of the roll for the action (if applicable). The provided template in the #player-logs channel includes examples of each of these.

Town Blessings

Every week, there will be the opportunity to use KoLC tickets (provided as part of your Patreon subscription tier) to purchase Blessings for the town in the #blessings-of-the-overlords channel. These blessings affect all active players in the community and are a shared purchased where all players contribute to the same cost to unlock the blessing for the next week. 

There are two distinct blessings that can be purchased:

• Blessing of Progress - Next week, each player who either attends a session or takes an In Town action receives an additional 300 Bonus XP. Additionally, any GMs that run a game during the week will receive an additional 300 GMP, though they do not receive Player XP from these GMP.

• Blessing of Harmony - Next week, each player receives an additional In Town action. Each player also receives an additional hero point for use In Town.

In Closing

We are thrilled to have you join us on this journey and deeply appreciate your support for the Knights of Last Call. As we embark on these exciting adventures together, we remind you that all our code of conduct rules apply across all games and activities. We strive to create a fun, inclusive, and respectful environment for everyone, so please keep this in mind as we explore the vast, sprawling wilds of the Northern Reaches.

This document is a living guide, and while it may evolve slightly before the official launch, rest assured that our commitment to your experience remains steadfast. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to the GM’s Council—we’re here to help. Once again, thank you for your support, and welcome to the Northern Reaches. We can’t wait to see where your adventures take you!