I have decided that I will be creating a free player's companion to the series, which can also serve as a regional sourcebook for the default location where the campaign saga takes place. I will be posting my work in progress, and plan to update at least once a week.
Player's Guide to The Rituals of Choice Adventure Path
A Companion
To help immerse both players and player characters in the saga of the campaign, Rite Publishing is proud to present The Player's Guide to The Rituals of Choice Adventure Path for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. DMs are encouraged to provide a copy of this document to each of thier players (Full permission is granted to reproduce this document) and allow players to reference the Player's Guide during the course of the game. This Player's Guide also serves to help assemble the emerging "Puzzle Piece Plot" that constitutes the story arc of the Rituals of Choice Adventure Path by providing the starting framework.
The default setting where the adventure path takes place is a large town known as Far-Rough along with its surrounding environment called the Edgelands, once known as the fallen Duchy of Nem before the coming of the Dramojh (Dragon Scions).
Why Far-Rough?
The Cradle of Nem, The Birthplace of Seral the Rune Messiah, the giants call it Tar-Duph but overtime the local population bastardized the giantish pronunciation so that now most everyone else calls it Far-Rough; I, Lomen Taverson, Bard of the Eldritch, call it home.
You will find my home at the center of the "Edgelands" a crossroads that can lead into the Floating Forest, the Central Plains, and the forbidding Bitter Peaks. It is an outstanding location serving as both a destination for trade, and as layover on the journey into these evocative regions. Far-Rough offers many a pursuit for both knight and seekers of fortune such as myself, from expeditions into the ancient ruins that dot the central plains, to the evocative environment of the floating forest, and even the Clandestine War of the Dark Depths. The town itself offers a unique political climate where the Hu-Charad rules over a far larger population of humans along with a mix of other races. Backed by the large numbers of non-giants the Order of the Axe challenges the power of the Diamond Throne; while the Nightwalkers and Jaren jockey for economic dominion. It is even more dramatic still for my people the "Roughfolk" judge others only by their deeds, often you will find visiting goblins, rhodin, and chorrim about town this does not even address the more astounding permanent residence that settle in both Far-Rough and the Edgelands.
Far-Rough features all the amenities and ancient traditions of an old world city, dating back to a time before the dragons left for the mysterious west, coupled with the friendly charm and the hospitality of a small town. It has an excellent variety of first-rate inns, taverns, restaurants, sages, a trade bazaar in the Traveler's Burrow and even a magic item shop, as well as a vibrant culture scene.
My Lyre greets you, welcoming you to Far-Rough, the crossroad of adventure.
Tone of the Campaign
While each adventure can stand alone, when run as a campaign The Rituals of Choice Adventure Path provides an epic over-arcing storyline. It makes full use of the Diamond Throne setting and its various adventuring environments. Players are encouraged to read Chapter 10: the Diamond Throne Gazetteer of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, as while the first five adventures will keep the players close to the northern border of the Floating Forest they will travel the height and breadth of the lands before the story is complete.
The Rituals of Choice Adventure Path is a campaign saga that places a great deal of importance on the choices the player characters make. Every choice holds consequences that effect encounters throughout the course of the adventure path. There is no pre-destined outcome to the campaign. PCs can fail; they can destroy the world, or bring about a pyrrhic victory. The PCs could leave behind a bleak dystopia or even win a wondrous victory where they bring about their own vision of the future.
The choices presented will be far beyond choosing the left or right corridor, these are difficult moral choices that change the foundation of who the player character is, and from choice of whether saving a soul is worth risking the welfare of the world or assisting in a ritual suicide.
Honor, duty, and loyalty are not just words in this fantasy campaign they are supernatural powers in their own right, and the Lands of the Diamond Throne respect that power. The campaign fully expects players to be a part of the world around them there are powers in the world who will seek you out as both ally and enemy based on your choices, those you support will call upon your aid. This is an idealistic campaign where people keep their word, enemies rarely lie, and the untrustworthy few stand out in the crowd. With powerful ceremonies and customs stronger than law, backing the cultural codes of conduct the PCs will find the Lands of the Diamond Throne setting helps encourage a heroic ideal within the campaign saga. However, nothing stops a player from having their character be a scoundrel or a villain so long as they are willing to suffer the consequences of their choices. Ultimately, the campaign leaves this type of decision in the hands of the DM.
Idealistic does not mean Utopian, every NPC every organization, every cause, every oath, every choice you make will put you in opposition to a different agenda. Those in opposition to your position are likely to be friends who were previously allies, and people of principle who you likely respect. Whose cause is more just, whose oath more sacred, which choice is the right choice. As heroic as the PCs are they are not the only heroes, and in this campaign heroic Npcs are just as likely to be the opposition and be in the right as the Player Characters, for they are the hero in their own story. Part of the saga is the path taken to attempt to navigate past these obstacles and sometimes the battles that fail or succeed in defeating them.
The campaign saga evolves, changing, growing, and transforming both the world and characters playing within it. Beyond gaining character levels, the adventure path encourages players to create backgrounds that allow for character growth. Players will grow as well due to both the role-playing challenges presented by the campaign as well, as how the adventure path uses the rules themselves from compelling questions to invoked apocalypse. Players, who have memorized every class, feat, spell, monster and rule that has been published will be also be challenged by reinvented and original material put forth over the course of the campaign. Nearly, every reward component of the adventure path is also reinvented or original material to help enhance the sense of magic, wonder, and change.
