I gathered my responses from my survey from last month's column. While my friends are willing to play other games I've been told three times they would prefer to finish Pathfinder.

You may be wondering, if you haven't been reading this column for long, why it took three times to get me to really understand that they really like Pathfinder. Well, in the bad old days I would just have cancelled the campaign and started a new one--which when done too many times without any kind of reasonable reason pretty much made me a jerk. I've tried to give up being a jerk, so now I ask my players before messing with the campaign. I learn things this way.

What I've learned is, don't mess with what works. What works right now is Pathfinder. So without any further prattling, here is a new campaign setting called Cursed Earth, set on my own world of Kruvil, and launching with the Extinction Event adventure path.

I'm going to start right at the beginning, with the player handout I sent to my players. Many campaign settings by professionals start out with a section about what the campaign is all about in the big picture--likely to entice a GM to buy it. Since I'm already in and this is a homebrew, I'll just start with the players. Also, I'm not a professional. Feel free to try this at home.

We started out playing Carrion Crown and ran through part one. We then moved south to the Mwangi Expanse for adventures of my own devising. Now, we're moving to my own setting as well as playing mostly in adventures of my own devising. Therefore, the Extinction Event adventure path starts with 6th level characters.

Also, a note about the pre-death statement below. There were some casualties last game. Half a party kill so I'm letting those characters into the new campaign as a one-time freebie. I'm getting soft in my advancing years.

The spell cursed earth is from Ultimate Magic.

Extinction Event Player Guide

Player Books

Core Rulebook
Advanced Player's Guide (no hero points or traits but see below)
Ultimate Magic (no words of power)
Ultimate Combat (no optional rules)

GM books

Bestiary
Bestiary 2
Bestiary 3 (forthcoming)
GameMastery Guide
Others

Character Creation

1. The current reality breaks. Some PCs are hurtled into a new world.

2. Character level is 6th with 23,000 XP and medium progression.

• You may play your current character (pre-death if desired). Drop existing gear.
• You may create a new character which must have six levels in the same class.

3. Ability scores use the 20-point buy method.

4. Hit points (going forward at 7th level for existing characters) use the following amounts:

• D6 hit die gets 4 hit points a level
• D8 hit die gets 6 hit points a level
• D10 hit die gets 8 hit points a level
• D12 hit die gets 10 hit points a level

5. Spells: see class description for number of spells to choose per level for arcane casters.

6. Treasure: every PC has class granted items/creatures and 16,000 gp which can be spent on any mundane gear or to buy one item from each bullet point below:

• 1000 gp: cloak of resistance +1, a pearl of power 1, OR muleback cords
• 2000 gp: amulet of natural armor +1, a handy haversack, a horn of fog, OR a +1 enhancement to a weapon (must pay the masterwork weapon cost in addition)
• 3000 gp buys horseshoes of speed, rope of climbing, cauldron of brewing, OR 500 gp and one of the following items (bag of holding 1, cloak of elvenkind, eyes of the eagle, OR goggles of minute seeing)
• 4000 gp: +2 armor or shield (must pay the masterwork armor/shield cost in addition), a belt or headband of (ability score) +2, OR a pearl of power 2
• 6000 gp: boots of striding and springing and 500 gp, helm of comprehend languages and read magic and 800 gp, horseshoes of a zephyr, vest of escape and 800 gp, or combo pack (necklace of fireballs 2, all tools vest, assisting glove, bandage of rapid recovery, campfire bead, key of lock jamming)

7. Connect your character into the setting below.

Extinction Event

A thousand years have passed since the Backlash, a violent eruption of uncontrolled magic, killed 90% of any creature with a shred of spell-casting power (and anyone around them) and wrought havoc on the lands of the world. A magical ice age descended on a world once teeming with jungles and choked with spreading deserts, covering parts of the world in glacier and ice but leaving others still covered in steaming rain forest and burning deserts.

Dinosaurs returned in the aftermath of the Backlash, giants grew bold, dragons (somehow shielded from the Backlash) expanded in number, and the tunneling monsters hiding in the depths of Darkearth opened new tunnels into the ruined settlements and dark corners of the world. Survivors banded together and fought savagely to defend their lives and territory. With magic being suspect, those rebuilding also turned to gunpowder for protection along with a renewed interest in mundane weapons.

Worst of all, though, was that a curse fell on the entire world. This affliction affects the entire world. It works like the spell cursed earth, but poisoning the entire planet. All regions suffer either from a lack of food, disease, or zombie infestation. The ground is cursed. If a cruel caster actually casts that spell, a region is affected by a second cursed earth effect.

Your league of survivors lived in Gunwurks, a large village, surviving by guarding caravans, scavenging for magic and food, raiding monsters for supplies and magic, burning the dead, and surviving. A band of netherway hounds lead by a brain taker leveled Gunwurks, slaying or enslaving nearly everyone and razing it to the ground.

Were you there and were left for dead? Did you get captured and escaped or bargained your way out, perhaps owing the raiders a future favor? Where you away trading, raiding, or scavenging?

Did you lose anyone important in the raid--if they were killed perhaps you want revenge, if captured you may want to someday free them. Was your home destroyed? Did you lose family?

With some fellow survivors you must decide whether you want to track down the brain collector for revenge and/or to free any captives. Or you could head south to the settlement of Bend's End and begin a new life of freebooting. Finally, rumors claim a ruined keep along the nearby Lake Mere contains a portal to another world, a planet whose earth is not cursed, life is not a fight for survival, and the Backlash never undid the magic of men and demihumans.

If you write a short background of your character and tie it into a least one other character you may pick a campaign trait from those listed below. If you and your league decide to join together and pick where to take the campaign, your league gains the Flagbearer ability below.

Next Month

Campaign traits and faiths of Cursed Earth.

Fight Another Day (survivor farewell),
Charlie