Deepreach

The town of Deepreach is a settlement that was built around a recently discovered entrance to a mega-dungeon, known as "The Caves". The dungeon was discovered right on the border of Andoran and Cheliax in a mountain range that was never properly settled, and so ownership of the dungeon is somewhat in dispute. While many independent adventurers have come to the area to explore the dungeon, no official agency from either country has gone there, and both countries have formed a treaty to consider this dungeon a "no man's land".

As a result, there is no strong law enforcement in the area, or agreement on which nation's laws to follow. The settlement sprung up as a small series of businesses that cater to the adventurers, miners, historians, explorers, and others who enter the dungeon. As there is no official government here, independent groups with independent guards tend to bully or force their way around.

Guilds from both countries have a small foothold here- as much as they can personally defend, and visitors come for the promise of wealth to be found inside the dungeon- though securing the wealth on the way out (and even when outside) can prove to be difficult in a lawless area. The term "The Cave Gets Richer" was coined, referencing the theory that more magic and loot goes into the cave on the backs of adventurers that never come back out again, than actually gets removed from the dungeons itself, especially since some of the areas closes to the entrance have already been thoroughly cleaned out. 

Because of guild presence and lawlessness in the town, the purchase price of all goods is 20% higher. (This does not affect the sale price of items). However, any craft skill, profession skill, or perform skill gets +10 to the result when used to make income (but not for purposes of crafting items to keep). 

Deepreach is a small market town. Finding someone to specialty craft magical items for you is near impossible, though some shops might sell some random magical items discovered within the caves. 

The Tunnels

Not far after the first few layers of the Caves (which has been pretty thoroughly cleaned out) is a huge labyrinth known as "The Tunnels". The tunnels connect the early parts of the Caves to other areas, some which have been explored, some that are still being explored, and some completely undiscovered.

The tunnels themselves are dangerous, with wandering creatures and lost adventurers, though there are some who have "mapped out" specific directions within the tunnels which lead to other areas within the caves.

In game terms, the tunnels represent an unmappable area that the players use to access different parts of the dungeon. They can try to find their own unexplored areas (which is difficult), or they can follow direction they hear about in Deepreach (though if someone else has been there, it may be explored). Beware of false directions, and of getting lost. Most explorers travel through the Tunnels, so you may run into other explorers here as well, and some areas that have been discovered are blocked off in some way and can't be traversed (unless you can find a way through!)

Character Creation

CHARACTER CREATION

Choose a path from the Path's listed in the pages section above. This will help with special character creation rules.

Setting: The PCs have come TOGETHER from elsewhere to the town of Deepreach to gain fame and fortune exploring the newly discovered megadungeon. You have been travelling together for at least 3 weeks. You have learned each others' names, races, and classes. You will have likely learned each other's drawbacks and general backstory during this time.

Pathless Characters: Some NPCs have paths as well, but others, including cohorts and other PC controlled characters, do not have paths. As such, they cannot craft magical items except for wands, scrolls, or potions, they cannot have cohorts themselves.

Level: Characters start at level 1.

Ability Scores: Every ability score starts out at 8. You get 30 points to divvy up amongst ability scores. Every score above 17 costs 3 points per point (so 18 would cost 12 points). This is before racial adjustments.

You may spend 4 points to add +1d6 to a given stat. This is applied last, and can only be done once per stat.

Skills: Gain 2 ranks per level for background skills. Reminder: background skills are Appraise, Craft, Handle Animal, Linguistics, Perform, Profession,  Lore (which is a more specialized version of knowledge), and Artistry (which is like a writing skill that crafts works which are not a specific performance of physical item). Generic knowledge (like knowledge:religion) is not a background skill. Lore (your specific religion) is okay.

Traits: You can choose 2 pathfinder traits. You may choose 1 drawback to get an extra trait. You can exchange 3 traits to get 1 bonus 1st level feat (meaning you take a drawback and get no traits). That feat can be any feat you would qualify for. Take a look at trust traits for additional trait options.

Alignment: No restrictions are made on alignment. Any character should have a reason to adventure. As a generality, Good characters tend to have reactionary motivations, and evil characters tend to have active motivations- evil to accomplish some greater task, and good to protect or fight evil. Obviously good and evil characters struggle to be in a party together.

Character for Review: I highly recommend that PCs work together to make a party that will work together. There are 3 main reasons: first, to make sure all party roles are defined and that all the roles are covered. Having all the PCs balked by a magic trap or a locked door is rough. Having no one capable of melee combat is rougher. Second, to make better use of the Trust Traits and to ensure that there won't be alignment issues that make a character unplayable. Chaotic and Lawful characters can run into as many issues as Good and Evil characters can. Third, it encourages the character to be made PRIOR to the first session- so that the DM can review PCs characters and backstories prior to showing up, not slowing down the first session.

Time: I can start gaming as early as 6pm, with minimal work interruptions. I'm comfortable gaming until 3am if needed. However, not everyone is able to game as late. As a matter of courtesy, if people could try to get in closer to 6 rather than 7 or 8, we can get more table time in without going later than others are comfortable with. Also, if you can't make a session, please let me know prior to the gaming date so missions can be adjusted based on the new party size. It can be very frustrating to start a mission waiting for one character we think is running late, who then never shows up. Please try to give us the courtesy of promptness and consistency.


Other Rules:

• Only Paizo classes, feats, spells, etc will be allowed. Even if it's on the blog.
• For Races, please use CORE RACES or FEATURED RACES.
• Core: Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half Elf, Half Ord, Halfling, Human
• Featured: Aasimar, Catfolk, Dhampir, Drow, Fetchling, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Ifrit, Kobold, Orc, Oread, Ratfolk, Sylph, Tengu, Tiefling, Undine
• Occult Classes are listed in Alternate Rule systems, so probably shouldn't be used. 
• Hybrid classes and alternate classes are okay, but they are treated as the base class(es) in many respects. So you can't multiclass a bloodrager with a barbarian or sorcerer, nor a ninja with a rogue. Likewise you can't multiclass bloodrager with arcanist, since sorcerer makes up both of them. This affect the gestalt path also- can't combine them either. 
• See the House Rules Page for more house rules that don't necessarily affect character creation. 
• We will be using the Hero Points rules, including the Antiheroes option, with one exception: Under "Bonus" the award is typically +8 before the roll is made, or +4 after the roll is made. Instead, it will be +X*2 before the roll, or +X, where X is the number of consecutive sessions the character has attended. (Minimum +2/+1). So hero points are more powerful if you don't miss sessions. 
• We will be using XP with Medium Progression. (Starting at 0 XP). The downtime system to "catch up" XP will be used if PCs fall behind in some way (usually due to missing sessions). 
• Note that without being a member of the various crafting guilds, crafting becomes much less effective. This is because the PCs are encouraged to make characters who make a living adventuring rather than ones who make a living crafting.