So, you're looking to get started as a member of the East Marches? This guide will lay out exactly what you need to do to get set up and ready to start adventuring (or running adventures, if that's your things). For the East Marches campaign, we will be using this website in conjunction with Roll20 and Discord.

Kanka will be the site we use to create and join adventures as well as what we use to keep track of the world and any relevant campaign info. All important guides pertaining to the campaign can be found in the Notes tab.

We will use Roll20 to actually play the games. All your relevant character info will need to be uploaded onto a character sheet using that app.

Discord will be our main communication hub outside of games. We will also use Discord's voice chat during sessions in lieu of Roll20's voice options.

Step 1: Create an account on Kanka

Hey, you're already on the damn thing, so create an account for it, or link up and log in using your google account. Do note that if you choose the latter option, we may be able to see your real name (if it is listed on that account).

If you didn't reach this campaign using an invite link, use this link to officially join the campaign. If the link doesn't work, reach out to Ratbrother for a new one.

Step 2: Create a character page for yourself on Kanka

Go to the Characters tab on Kanka. Once there, click on the blue "+ New Character" button in the top right corner. You only need to fill out two fields - Name and Type. Your name should be whatever you, the player, are known as or wish to be known as (e.g. Ratbrother). For type, enter in either "Player," "Dungeon Master," or "Player, Dungeon Master" depending on what you intend to do in this campaign.

You do not need to fill in any other field, but if you want to include basic info about yourself or your D&D experience in the Entry field, feel free. It is recommended that you provide some sort of contact info (Discord name, etc.) so that other players and DMs can get in touch with you for scheduling purposes.

Step 3: Create character pages for your actual characters

Players are allowed to create up to two characters, according to the limitations in the Character Creation Guide. You will eventually use these pages to add your characters to prospective adventures. Once again, go to the Characters tab on Kanka and click on the click on the blue "+ New Character" button in the top right corner. You will need to fill out the following fields:

• Name - Your character name or a temporary placeholder (e.g. Ratbrother #1 Ratbrother #2, etc.)
• Title - Your class and level (e.g. Rogue 3)
• Race - Your character's race. This section will autocomplete when you type into it.
• Location - Should always be [airship, guild hq]. This too will autocomplete.
• Image - Once you have a picture of your character, upload it or attach it via a url using the box provided.

Beyond those essentials, any information you choose to include (bio, age, etc.) is up to you.

Step 4: Join the East Marches Roll20 Game

Character Creation Guide.

Once you have your character(s) fleshed out, make sure to update the basic info your character page(s) in Kanka to match what info you provided in Roll20.

Step 5: Join an Adventure and Play

To see a list of East Marches adventures, click on the Quests tab in Kanka. This list will show both current and previously completed adventures, but you can use the sort function to move all uncompleted adventures to the top.

If an adventure catches your eye and you meet the requirements of it (and there's an open spot), click on the characters tab under the quest info (not the main Characters tab on the main sidebar), hit the "+Add a character" button, and enter in your character's name. You may also add your availability/limitations/time zone into the description box to help with scheduling.

Once the adventure is full and the DM is ready to run it, they will reach out to you and the other prospective players to schedule the session and provide any additional details you may need.

OPTIONAL Step 6: Becoming a Dungeon Master

If you joined to run an adventure as well as play one (or if you solely want to DM), reach out to any of the current DMs for the necessary info on Roll20 to get set up as a DM.

All DMs will run adventures from the same Roll20 account. This allows us to have all possible characters in one Roll20 game. We will set up folders to keep each DM's information/maps/etc. separate. Please do not look at or alter another DM's materials (unless they allow you to).

In Kanka, you will need to refer to the following guides:

• DM's Adventure-Making Guide - A basic rundown of what an adventure should look like and how it should operate.
• DM Info - Creating an Adventure - A guide with how to properly create and manage an adventure using the Quests tab in Kanka.
• DM's Loot Guide - A guide that explains how to award loot in an East Marches adventure.

Help and Support

If at any time you need help with any of the above or any of the intricacies of either Kanka or Roll20, reach out to Ratbrother or any of the other regular DMs. Many of us are also more than willing to help with items like character creation or the D&D 5e rule system.

This guide establishes the rules and boundaries for character creation in the East Marches and is intended to keep all players on an even footing. As the world of the East Marches progresses, this guide will be updated to reflect any changes and the minimum level and starting funds for any new characters will rise to meet the current cast of adventurers so that any new character isn't too far behind those who have been playing for some time.

Character Stats

Rather than use the standard array, all characters will be created with rolled stats using the "4d6, drop lowest" method. To maintain fairness between individual characters, we will use a total score minimum of 72 and a maximum of 82. Add up your six ability scores once you roll; if they fall within that 72-82 range, that's your stat array. If your total score is too high or too low, roll again until you get an array that fits within that range. If you are unsatisfied with your final stat array, you are free to use 5e's standard array instead (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).

All rolls should be done in the East Marches discord channel or in some other setting with a witness who is already in the campaign.

Races

All published races will be allowed to play in the East Marches per the linked list on DnDBeyond. Homebrewed races or unofficial races (such as in Unearthed Arcana) will not be permitted.

Classes and Subclasses

Classes will be limited to the basic classes found in the Player's Handbook with some exceptions listed at the end of this section. Subclasses will be limited to those found in the Player's Handbook, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and the Dungeon Master's Guide. Homebrew classes will not be permitted.

The following classes are exceptions to this rule and are free to use:
- UA revised ranger
- UA revised artificer
- Matt Mercer's Blood Hunter

Backgrounds

Players may make use of all published backgrounds, except for the backgrounds provided in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. All backgrounds are to remain unmodified from how they originally appear, and whatever gold the background provides is on top of the starting gold provided later in this guide.

Feats and Spells

Players are welcome to make use of feats in place of Ability Score Increases (or when playing as a variant human). Feats will be limited to those provided in the Player's Handbook as well as the racial feats provided in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

Spells are limited to those provided in the Player's Handbook and Xanathar's Guide to Everything plus the four cantrips in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (booming blade, green flame blade, lightning lure, sword burst).

All spells require the usual material components, except for spells centered upon revival of dead characters, which have been modified as explained in the Character Death and Revival guide.

Starting Level, Equipment, and Funds

All characters will be created at level 4 and will begin their life with the typical starting equipment as specified by their class and background + an additional 40 gold to spend on weapons, armor, adventuring gear, etc.

Other Restrictions

In the interest of keeping things friendly between players, no character can be either neutral evil or chaotic evil. Additionally, attacking or stealing from other characters is strongly discouraged. Players are also strongly encouraged to create characters that are capable of working with others in the party, even if it is done reluctantly.

Character's Personal Story

Each character is required to be a active member of the Adventurer's Guild. Beyond that, it's your story to tell (within reason). Keep in mind your current level when establishing your backstory. A level 3 character is not likely to be a world-beating hero or a warrior of legend. The only thing you truly need to establish is how you came to join the guild.

Character Limit

Currently, players will be limited to two total characters. A player can unlock a third character slot by DMing three games.

Helpful Links for Character Creation

• Google Drive of 5th Edition Books
• Mega Link of 5th Edition Books
• 5eTools - This site features a ton of sortable information and incorporates all published content. The classes page is particularly useful for character creation as it has all the subclasses in one handy place as well as a feature to compare them.

This guide establishes the rules and boundaries for character progression in the East Marches and is intended to keep all players on an even footing. As characters in the guild go out on adventures, they gain experience through their actions, their battles, and their discoveries. Rather than deal with the minutiae of thousands experience points, the East Marches will use a credit system to handle leveling up.

Active Characters and Resting Characters

An active character is a character that is participating in an adventure being run by one of the DMs. A resting character is a character who is not participating in an adventure at the current time.

Earning Credits

Earning credits is easy. Participating in and completing an adventure will earn a character one credit.

A character who doesn't participate does still benefit from the success of the overall guild. As such, each character who doesn't participate in an adventure receives half-credit for each adventure that that guild completes.

DMs can specify in advance that an adventure awards half or no credit, should they so choose. This could be done for a session that is more relaxed, RP Heavy, or designed as a test of a game mechanic.

Credits and Leveling

Each credit puts a character closer to leveling up. Once a character earns enough credits to reach the next level, they can cash them in to ascend to the next level. Credit costs of leveling up scales with the level of the character in a 1:1 ratio. As such, a level three character needs to earn three credits to become a fourth level character, who would need to earn four credits to become a fifth level character, and so on.

Cashing In and Storing Credits

When a character earns enough credits to level up, they cash those credits in and the cost of the level is subtracted from their total number of credits. Any remainder carries over as progress towards the next level. A character is under no obligation to cash in their credits at the earliest opportunity and can remain at their current level should they so choose. The credits will continue to build and there is no limit on how many credits a character can earn or store.

Earning Gold and Items

Leveling up isn't the only way to make a character stronger, as you can also augment a character by upgrading their weapons, armor, and other gear. The obvious currency for this is gold, which can be earned by completing adventures. Each adventure has a base gold reward, but characters can also find additional gold during the course of an adventure. Adventurers may also be able to find additional loot during a session: usable weapons, armors, potions, scrolls, and other gear - potentially some magic items.

For simplicity's sake, items earned by characters can be freely traded during the adventure in which they are found. Once the adventure is completed though, any items or gold earned becomes the property of that character. Once back on the airship, players can continue to trade spoils but are encouraged to do so in some sort of transaction - whether it's item for an item or item for gold.

Once again, the success of the overall guild benefits those characters who may not have participated in a successful adventure. For each completed adventure, a resting character earns one quarter of the gold earned by that adventure's highest earning character, rounded down to the nearest 5 (minimum 10 gold).

As an example, four characters complete an adventure and the highest earner earns 112 gold. One quarter of 112 is 28, which rounds down to 25. As a result, all non-participating characters earn 25 gold for the completed adventure.

Resting characters do not earn items or other loot while resting, but can obviously spend any gold earned while resting on new items from the airship's vendors.

Rewards for Dungeon Masters

Not only is DMing a lot of work, but the DMs own characters run the risk of falling behind the more a person DMs. As a result, we've decided to provide some reward for putting in the effort of writing and running an adventure. As such, DMs will earn the following for each adventure they run:

• Full-credit for one of the DM's characters (of their choice) instead of the usual half-credit resting bonus. Any other character(s) earn half-credit as normal.
• Double the amount of the resting gold earned for that adventure for all of the DM's characters.

Purchasing Items between Adventures

The guild's airship is outfitted with its own general goods store, weapons store, and armory. As such, characters can purchase any item listed in the Player's Handbook during downtime. As the guild encounters success, more stores with more powerful wares may pop up on the airship.

Retiring Characters

A player can choose to retire a character at any time and for any reason. A retired character leaves the airship and, as such, earns no further credits or gold as they would if they were a resting adventurer. A character may also be unretired at any time, but does not retroactively earn any missed credits or gold while they were retired.

The table below tracks the progress each character has towards their next level-up. The East Marches does not feature traditional experience points and instead awards credits (cr) based on adventure participation and completion. The full description of how this system works is in the Character Progression Guide.

The following table features seven columns: CHARACTER NAME, CLASS, LEVEL, CREDITS EARNED, CREDITS TO LEVEL, OVERFLOW, and PLAYER NAME. The table is sorted alphabetically by character name.

• CHARACTER NAME is the name of the character in question.
• CLASS is that character's class.
• LEVEL is that character's current level. A level in red signifies that this character has earned enough credits to advance a level.
• CREDITS EARNED is how many credits that the character has earned, either through active participation or passive guild earnings.
• CREDITS TO LEVEL is how many more credits the character will need to earn to be eligible to ascend to the next level.
• OVERFLOW is how many credits the character will have left over after they ascend to the next level (in the event that they have earned more than what is required to level)
• PLAYER NAME is the name of the player who created the character.

TABLE: EAST MARCHES LEVEL AND CREDIT TRACKER
Last Updated: 11/15/19

The following table tracks characters who are no longer part of the permanent roster, either due to retirement or death. In both cases, the character ceases to earn passive credits and gold until they are placed back on the active roster. A retired character can be brought back to active status at any time. A character who has been killed can be brought back to life according to the rules posted in Character Death and Revival. If the player behind the character already has created the maximum number of allowable characters, the player will need to retire one of their active characters to free up a spot for the unretired or revived character.

TABLE: RETIRED/DECEASED CHARACTERS
Last Updated: 10/3/19

The following table contains placeholder slots for players who were interested in playing but never got around to making a character. Placeholder characters will be retired after earning 5 credits (or essentially being unused for 10 completed quests). These placeholders will no longer earn resting credits or gold, but will retain what they have already earned. Once retired into the table below, the only way to unretire it is to make a character. A retired placeholder will not be placed back on the roster as a placeholder.

TABLE: UNUSED PLACEHOLDERS
Last Updated: 8/23/19

This guide explores some of the nuances of the system for a DM looking to create an adventure in the East Marches. For any questions that aren't addressed here, feel free to ask any of the other experienced DMs.

Basic Guidelines for an Adventure

The two most important things that an East Marches adventure needs to be are short and self-contained.

Each adventure should be no more than a single session, or perhaps two, and should range in length from 2 to 6 hours of playtime. This way both you and your players can play and not have to worry about scheduling handfuls of sessions across any number of time zones. Obviously, being up front with the overall time commitment, especially for longer-length sessions, is important.

Each adventure should also be self contained. It should be an adventure with a clear beginning and end, and a clear goal or target. All involved characters must be returned to the airship at the end of the adventure and, as such, cannot be stranded in another plane or other inaccessible location.

How many characters? What level?

You, as the DM, can design an adventure for any number of characters. Want to run an adventure for a pair of people? Go for it! Want to run one for a relative horde of eight? Sounds like hell, but make it happen. Just make sure you factor in that every character added has the potential to slow down your session (and make things harder to manage and balance overall)

You can also set a level range for your adventure, but it should be for a range of levels that currently exist in the guild. The range can be as large or as small as you like, but a smaller range is recommended due to ease of balance. All characters within the adventure will level up at the same rate.

Where can I set it?

In a word: anywhere. The world is a blank slate. Create a new town, forest, mountain range, or dungeon; or piggyback off of features created in a previous adventure to give the world a more lived-in feel. You can host multiple adventures in the same locale or the same town if you wish.

Can I use lore, locations, and NPCs created by another DM?

That's one of the major points of this. Yes, you may. Once an adventure is completed, it's essentially canon for the world. Any NPC or location encountered or every piece of lore learned is part of the world for the future.

As a courtesy, though, I would recommended talking to the original creator of whatever you plan to use before making any major changes to it (like destroying a location or killing/turning an NPC) both to make sure it fits with what they might have originally viewed and to ensure that you're not taking something that's already involved in that DM's future plans.

What can the adventure be?

Essentially, an adventure can be whatever you or your players want it to be. A dungeon crawl, an assassination mission, a monster hunt, a daring heist - all are possible assignments in the adventurer's guild and each might draw out a different cast of characters that believe they have what it takes to satisfy that mission.

Can I adapt an existing module into East Marches?

The two most common DM commandments I've read are "make sure everyone has fun" and "if you aren't stealing, you aren't DMing." Steal what you want. Borrow what you want. Adapt what you want. Just try to make it your own and ensure that it fits in the East Marches world.

How do I handle loot?

To keep things consistent between adventures and ensure that all characters can progress on relatively even footing, there will be loot rules in effect that will scale based on the level range of the adventure. These loot rules will establish a base sum of gold to be awarded on completion and an allowance for gold, loot, and magic items that can be found or acquired during the course of the adventure.

DM's Loot Guide

Can I run a multi-part adventure?

Sure, why the hell not? If you want to run a series of adventures with an over-arching story, you can do so, provided you give the opportunity for the party to return to the airship and restock or reshuffle the roster. I would avoid anything too long, as that's not the point of the East Marches campaign.

How do I create an adventure in Kanka?

Make use of DM Info - Creating an Adventure

This guide will go over how to create and manage an adventure in Kanka for players to join. Use this in conjunction with the AA_Sample Adventure to provide the necessary info to get a potential session set up.

For a rundown of how to write an adventure for the East Marches itself, see the DM's Adventure-Making Guide.

Step 1: Create a Quest

Click on the Quests tab in Kanka and hit the blue "+New Quest" button in the top right corner. In the boxes on the left-hand side, you will need to provide the following information:

• Name - The name of your adventure. Try to make this unique so that we don't end up with multiple adventures with the same name.
• Type - A brief word or phrase that summarizes what manner of adventure this is. Some examples: Heist, Dungeon, Infiltration, Combat, Exploration, Mystery, etc. Feel free to include more than one type (separated by commas) if they apply.
• Character - This should be the page that represents you (the DM) that you created way back in Step 2 of the NEW PLAYER GUIDE. Do not enter either of your created characters here.
• Image - Make the page look nice, you heathen.

Step 2: Fill out the Description

The entry box on the right side of the screen is where you will enter important info and requirements for your campaign. Please make sure each adventure you create has the following info based on the template below (refer to the AA_Sample Adventure for a finished example): 

[A description of your adventure. This can be as vague or as detailed as you choose, but it should at least convey what your players may do during the session and the overall goal. If your adventure is meant for beginners or meant to be punishingly hard, you may want to make a note of it here.]

Level Range: [Enter the level range of this adventure]
Number of Characters: [Enter the expected number of characters]
Expected Time to Complete: [Estimate how long a session may be]
Expected Number of Sessions: [Should almost always be one, but indicate whether there might/will be a second]

To join this adventure, click on the "Characters" tab below "Entry" to the left and add the character you wish to participate with. Please don't add a character if the adventure is already at the requested number of characters.

Please make sure to include the italicized text at the bottom of the description so that newer players know how to join your adventure. For the level range, you should stick to ranges of only a level or two, as character power level can vary even over small ranges. Also make sure that there are enough characters within the level range to actually play in your adventure.

In the event that you are using and adapting a module (official or unofficial), part of a module, or material from another public D&D campaign (i.e. using a dungeon from Critical Role), please note what module or material you are adapting at the bottom of your description so that potential players don't join into adventures that they may have already played before.

Step 3: Fill your Adventure

Once your adventure is finished, it's time to let the players join it. You can either sit back and let them come to you, or seek out players in the East Marches who you think may be interested in joining it. Advertise it as little or as much as you want.

Step 4: Schedule your Session

When you meet your expected number of players, reach out to them to schedule the session and provide them with any additional info they may need for the session or your adventure.

Remember that all the DMs are sharing a single Roll20 account. As a result, only one East Marches session can be played at a time. Please make sure your session doesn't conflict with an already scheduled session (and allow for some buffer time between sessions just in case your fellow DM's game runs long if you plan one on the same day/night).

Step 5: Play the Damn Thing

Get your ass into Roll20 and play your adventure. Enjoy it!

Step 6: Completing and Recording Your Adventure

Once your adventure is complete, go back to your created adventure in the Quests tab, open it up, and click the blue "Update" button on the left side of the screen. Click the "Completed" checkbox to mark it complete and save the adventure.

DMs are encouraged to provide a summary of what happened in their adventure as well as any major loot like magic items that was handed out and which characters received them. If you wish to be more detailed, that would be greatly appreciated. One of the easiest places to put this info is in the "Entity Notes" tab found along the top of your quest page. Simple put any relevant info into that and save it so that we can properly update the East Marches world and keep track of each adventure as it gets completed.

Death is a part of any D&D campaign, and characters in the East Marches are just as susceptible to it as any. However, the East Marches doesn't have one consistent party with the same goals and same progression. The "pick-up" nature of this campaign necessitates some changes to the rules regarding death and revival.

The process of dying remains the same as always. Three failed death saving throws results in the death of your character, and all other rules or spells that result in instant death will be adhered to as normal.

The process of reviving a dead character is going to change significantly. Using hundreds or thousands of your character's own hard-earned gold to revive a companion who you might have only played with for a single session may feel like a waste, but playing as a healer and reviver shouldn't be discouraged. As such, the material component costs for the following spells have been eliminated:

• The 3rd-level spell Revivify
• The 5th-level spells Raise Dead and Reincarnate
• The 7th-level spell Resurrection
• The 9th-level spell True Resurrection

All other workings and limitations of the spell will remain as written. If the spell requires a body or body part, that component must be present, whether the spell is cast during the adventure or during downtime on the airship (meaning the surviving members of the party must return with the body or body part).

The trade-off is that a penalty will be imposed on the character who died instead, to represent the seriousness of death. Typically, the more powerful the spell, the less the penalty becomes. The penalties suffered by the dead character are as follows and are assessed at the conclusion of the adventure:

• Revivify* - Loss of 5 credits
• Raise Dead - Loss of 7 credits
• Reincarnate - Loss of 6 credits
• Resurrection - Loss of 4 credits
• True Resurrection - Loss of 3 credits
• Wish - No penalty

*Note: Revivify's credit cost is lower than more powerful spells like Raise Dead and Reincarnate because of the inherent limitation of the spell which requires it to be cast one minute or less after the death of the target character as opposed to the 10 day limit for Raise Dead and Reincarnate.

A character may also be revived using either the Revivify, Raise Dead, or Reincarnate spells by the presiding guild cleric or druid at the airship's temple, provided their companions brought back the requisite body or body part. This method of revival results in the same credit penalty but also an additional penalty of no resting credit/gold rewards for the next three adventures that the character does not participate in, as the guild attempts to recoup its costs.

For the purpose of handling the passage of time in such a fragmented campaign, the following rules apply:

• In the adventure that the character dies in, time is counted as normal. A day in the adventure counts as a day against the time limit for all resurrection magic. At minimum, an adventure will count as one day towards that limit.
• Once the body is returned to the ship, one day will pass for each adventure completed by the guild.

Credit Loss and De-Leveling

Loss of credits may result in deleveling if the deceased character does not have enough credits to pay the revival penalty. If such an event occurs, the character will delevel enough to pay the remainder of the penalty, but will keep the leftover credits from that delevel.

As an example, a level 7 character dies and only has two credits and is brought back to life with a Revifify spell at a penalty of five credits. The two credits that the character has are subtracted plus an additional three from the character's previous level up. The result is a level 6 character with three credits (as it normally takes six to level up to 7th level).

A character may only delevel a maximum of one level per death.

Removal from the Active Roster

A character who dies and is not revived before either the end of that adventure or the beginning of the guild's next adventure is removed from the active roster and placed into a separate roster for retired and deceased players as shown in the EAST MARCHES EXPERIENCE/CREDITS TRACKER. While the character is removed from the active roster, the following applies:

• The character ceases to earn any passive credits or gold from adventures completed by the guild.
• The character does not count against its player's number of allowable characters, meaning the player is immediately free to create a new character and add it to the active roster.

In the event that a player creates a new character (thus filling that active roster spot) and then chooses to revive the deceased character, the player will need to retire one of their characters from the active roster to make room for the character they are reviving. Alternatively, the player can choose to retire the revived character immediately after it is brought back to life.

Permanent Death

A character who is unable to be resurrected is considered permanently dead. A player may also elect to declare their character permanently dead rather than pay the penalty and deal with the potential of falling a level.