Name

The Mists of Ustalav

Premise

The party is in the mist bound, haunted region of Ustalav. The actual reason for being present there and adventuring will be decided with the players. You might all have come from a village destroyed by eldritch forces, be members of a cursed family (maybe some by adoption), seeking an answer to a prophecy, members of academy, novice members of an order dedicated to a cause, or maybe caravan guards and this is where the caravan ended (or was destroyed).

Locations

Ustalav and adjacent regions

Sandbox-ness

Fairly sandbox. I don't like running sessions with no linkage so over time, we will probably come across some things to tie things together but how important those threads are how and how long they are up to the players.

This does mean that by end a session or the following day, it needs to be clear to me as a GM what you want to do next so I can prepare something. I don't like 100% ad lib (although some is fine).

Roleplay

Likely an even mix of RP encounters and combat encounters but since the latter usually take more wall-clock time, more game time in combat than otherwise. I don't want to run a pure combat campaign, but I can skew things more heavily one way or the other if the party is interested in that.

Leveling pace

3-4 sessions per level. If players are experienced, a little faster to level 3.

Class Restrictions

If we go heavy RP, I don't want a mix of combat focused classes and more balanced PCs because the combat-focused PCs tend to force more combats than necessary and get bored in the RP encounters. If it is more of a mix of RP and combat, then most classes should be fine.

Ancestry Restrictions

As with classes, you can try to convince me on any ancestry, but many don't fit the campaign premise or campaign mechanics. So, no merfolk (too hard to accommodate). Most ancestries will work, even things like androids, constructs, fleshwarp, etc. Some like awakened animal we'll need to discuss to make sure it isn't just an anime or superhero character in disguise.

Uncommon feats

Usually okay unless they come from an organization like the Pathfinder Society or Firebrands. In that case, you may need to join that society to gain access and some organizations may not be a good fit for the premise. Always ask on uncommon feats but most are okay if not from an organization.

Backstory

Note that this is your characters back story before the game starts. It is not the PF2E background which is part of building your character for the game (see next few lines). It does not need to be very long. If you do want a long backstory that is fine but summarize the key points at the beginning, so it is easy for me to reference. If you make me scan five pages looking for hooks 20 sessions into the campaign, I will likely miss them.

You can use AI for your backstory but guide the AI. That is, maybe use it to generate some general ideas, pick one or two to refine, ask it to make further updates until you have a backstory that makes sense for you. Don't just tell it to generate a backstory from this page and use it as-is.

Even if you don't use AI, if you have a long backstory, you might want to have AI summarize it for you.

You are expected to have a backstory that gives you a reason for being in Ustalav although you don't have to be from the region. You do not need to have hooks in your backstory. If you do have hooks, I will try to work them in but the more they have to do with Ustalav, the more likely you are to see them in the campaign. There is no guarantee that we will get to any of your hooks, though.

Uncommon backgrounds

Most are okay but ask

Rare feats

Probably not okay but you can ask

Rare background

Probably not okay but you can ask. Rare backgrounds can make the PC the center of the campaign or provide an edge compared to other players. We can see if they work with the group as a whole, especially if most want a rare background but they require care

Core Content

Allowed, except see class and ancestry notes

Lost Omens Content

Allowed, except talk to me about organizations and regional requirements. Most regional ones are okay but realize you might not be able to get back to that region easily which might hamper access to some of the higher-level things from that region.

Adventure Path content

Most of it is okay but talk to me since it is all uncommon or rare. Keep in mind I will need to code up some of these or buy modules I don't own to enable this in the VTT so try not to go crazy with those.