When doing a homebrew campaign (such as my upcoming Gatekeepers game for PF2), I have long since given up having everything mapped out in advance. I want a few key things defined (and, if possible, graphed to maps), but only at the lightest level of detail. having done that at the island-level, I also want to put a few things in place for the starting town, Tidegate.

(The map I’ll be using for Tidegate. This is a great piece by DysonLogos.com, which he makes freely available for commercial purposes thanks to the support from his Patrons. I want to not only pick some of the vast resources I have linked to help have visuals for the Gatekeeper campaign early, but also pick those I can use in an actual produce later if I choose to do so. As locations, like the Smoke Pine Taven become important, I’ll mark them on a copy of this map.)

History
Tidegate is one of the oldest settlements on Kheysus Island, it’s original founding lost to history and firmly in the realm of myths and legends. It existed before the kingdom of Khetonnia, though in a much smaller form than its current borders. The two most common claims about its origins are that it was originally a temple to a lost sea god, where farmers and hunters would bring offerings to appease the forces of storm and tide. The other is that it was created as a trading post between aquatic species and land-dwelling ones, possibly by a family that included members of both. Of course, these two myths aren’t mutually exclusive, but there’s no real evidence to support either.

Eventually Tidegate was the capital of the Crosstimbers, a Cantref of Khetonnia. The Cantref had no ruling nobility, but was overseen by a Council elected by a vote of landowners (with each acre under production, and hundred acres patrolled but wild, counting as a single vote). Sometime before the Continental Empire conquered the island, the Crosstimbers “went wild,” and most of the nearby woods were ceded to the wild, with any remaining settlements within it independent and fortified.

Tidegate has been ruled by a Town Council ever since, elected by taxpayers with votes proportional to taxes payed over the past 10-years in a running tally. On the one hand, this means the richest people in Tidegate decide who is in charge. On the other hand, it discourages the rich avoiding the paying of tax, and much of how the tax money is spent is dictated by the Duchess of Tides laws on the matter.

The Continental Empire built the Old Keep to the northwest of the town, the Watchtower on the adjacent hill, and the Rampart Wall that surrounds Tidewall shortly after taking over, in preparation for an attack from some international foe that never came. They did so at great expense, and seemed more concerned with defending Tidegate than the larger city of Seagrace.

The defenses became important a century ago during the Bloodletter Wars, when the Bloodletter Dominion tried to conquer the world. They made numerous attempts to take over Tidegate, and it seemed to be their primary objective on Kheyus, though they also did extensive, unknown things on the western side of the island, beyond the Keystone Mountains. Tidegate was besieged several times and numerous defensive battles fought on its walls, but it was never seized by enemy forces.

Current State of Affairs
Tidegate is a fairly stable, prosperous town. It has a regular stream of small merchant ships coming to buy supplies, as well as provisions from and goods from Fishport. Violent crime is rare, work plentiful, and satisfaction among the population high. When there is a serious problem in town it can almost always be traced back to drunk sailors, old feuds between well-establish families, or someone (usually a visitor) acting weird and crazy during a full moon (which is just considered to be one of those things).

Tidegate is the economic, social, and security lynchpin of dozens of farms, outfits, and small settlements within a 2-3 days travel. If there is any regional problem (such as a pack of wolves, or an ogre, or active bandits), people bring the problem to Tidegate and expect the Council to deal with it. If there’s a major local problem a farmstead or thorp can’t deal with, it’s Tidegate they turn to for help.

Tidegate City Council
Not a complete list, just noteworthy members.

Daenen Thraes

Daenen Thraes is a skilled elven blacksmith who is pushing 500 years old. He dislikes talking about the past, but is known to have fought in the Bloodletter Wars and the Imperial Conquest and to have a standing invitation to visit the Duchess of Tides, which no one has ever seen him accept. He has no known family. He runs the only smithing shop in Tidegate, Iron Will Anvils, and makes sure to take new apprentices every few years. He rarely takes commission work himself anymore, and nearly all the work he does do it sold to traveling merchant marines or more mysterious, cloaked figures. (Image by Николай Акатов)

Hexer Hellaina

Hellaina is a gnome who runs the largest herbalism and alchemy shop in Tidegate. She is extremely skilled and well-known for being able to make custom infusions and poltice, and it’s not unusual for a customer to come from the Continent to commission a cure from her. Relations between her and Nana Cutthroat are cool, but not hostile, possibly because Nana knows herbal things Hellaina does not, and possibly because Hellaina has adopted and fully domesticated a few of the Smoke Pine cats, who don’t go there anymore. (Image by KOVALOVA)

Miller

Miller has a given name, but not only does he never use it, most folks in town have no idea what it is. He’s the town miller, as was his father and his father before him. The family clearly has some elven or similar ancestry, as they live 150-200 years apiece. The family has grown to be among the richest in Tidegate, and Miller himself employs more people in town (for his mill, but also to run a few outlying farms, act as porters, run bakeries, run warehouses, and so on) than any other single employer. Miller is known to have very minor magic ability, and his family have been building a collection of books that recently grew so big Miller took over part of the Rampart Wall to house it. (Image by diversepixel)

Lantern Siggurds

Siggurds is the head of the Tidegate Council. A locally-born human he left in his youth to travel the world on Circle Trade ships, and retired to the town roughly 20 years ago. He has military experience, and doubles as the town watchman when one is needed. He’s part investor in a number of small, fast merchant ships, and runs a ship-patching and supply business by The Big Dock. He’s seen as a stick-in-the-mud by a lot of locals, but also as a keen city manager and brave watchman, who often helps outlying communities when a child is missing, or a barn burns down, or a pack of wolves is spotted. However, the Siggurds family and the Dale family have been feuding for generations, and often people feel they must either get a Dale’s help, or a Siggurds’ help, not both. (Image by Algol)

Nana Cutthroat

Owner of the Pine Smoke Taven, Nana Cutthroat is believed to the second-oldest citizen of Tidegate, right behind Daenen Thraes. She’s run the Pine Smoke since before the Bloodletter Wars, and seems to have been around before that. She refuses to explain the mis-spelled “Taven” sign, though she sometimes seems wistful about it, and claims replacing it would be stupid because everyone knowns what it means.

She’s a venerable orc woman with a soft spot for strays and outcasts (leading to the Pine Smoke having a large number of semi-feral cats she claims aren’t hers, but no one dares harm), no patience for fools or liars, a surprisingly good hand with children, and an amazing skill at cooking and herbal medicine. Nana (or Goodmiss Cutthroat if she’s in a bad mood) is often torn between not wanting to get involved with affairs outside her inn, and not being able to stand people being stupid about solvable problems. She claims she doesn’t vote for herself to be on the council, and about half of Tidegate believes her. (Image by IG Digital Arts)

Pottage

A human often accused of having some halfling blood, as an infant Pottage was found as the only survivor of a shipwreck 30 years ago. Nana Cutthroat took him in temporarily, and ended up raising him. He became her cook, and then her manager, and then to her pride and annoyance, set up his own provisions business and general store, which has done very, very well. He’s considered a likeably doofus by most of town, still cooks at the Smoke Pine a few nights a month, and seems beloved by even the most grumpy of Nana’s semi-feral cats. He’s considered a likely candidate for who is voting to put Nana on the council, though she’s been on it since long before he came along. (Image by Lunstream)

Syrkin Dale

Syrkin is the patriarch of the mostly-human Dale family, who have very few members in town but are a large clan that run numerous farms, logging outfits, and some sheep in the surrounding area. No one Dale has much spare money, but all the clan’s trade is funnelled through Dale-owned businesses in town, giving those Dales enough tax money to pool resources and ensure the head of the clan is voted into the council. Syrkin is considered among the smartest, most skilled, most unpleasant clan patriarchs, and he seems intent on stirring discord between people who live within Tidegate proper, and families and settlements outside the Rampart Wall who are merely dependent on the town. He is deeply devoted to his family’s traditional dislike of the Siggurds, and seems to also personally despise Pottage (though no one knows why, and Pottage doesn’t seem to return the animosity). (Image by Zdenek Sasek)

Warden Ellicent

Warden Ellicent is the official representative of the Duchess of Tides to Tidegate, and a formidable tracker, hunter, and trapper. A half-elf she’s considered young for the position, which she has already held for more than a decade. Ellicent seems to dislike being forced to be on the council by ducal decree, and spends as much time ranging as possible. She doesn’t get along particularly with the majority of the council with the important exception of Nana Cutthroat. (Image by Daniel)

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When doing a homebrew campaign (such as my upcoming Gatekeepers game for PF2), I have long since given up having everything mapped out in advance. I want a few key things defined (and, if possible, graphed to maps), but only at the lightest level of detail. I do this for a few reasons. First, not every campaign I plan actually launches, and I don’t have time to spend months plotting out all the details of a world I may never run. Second, I like to see what early elements interest the players the most, and build on those in greater detail. Third, I’m really good at coming up with neat stuff extemporaneously, I I have learned to leave room to do that.

So, this is just a quickstart gazetteer, enough information on the starting region, and greater world events to let players namedrop stuff and decide where they are from, or to know they want to request/suggest elements not yet in existence for their characters.

STARTING REGION

The campaign will begin in the town of Tidegate, the third-largest settlement on the Island of Kheyus, a major but distant holding of the Continental Empire (which will eventually get a name).

Isle of Kheyus
The Isle of Kheyus, roughly the size of Kansas, is divided into east and west by the Keystone Mountains. The island was home to two independent kingdoms in Ye Olde Days: Eirsyus on the west side, and Khetonnia and the eat side. The two kingdoms were both very Northern European-themed lose confederations of allied nobles, with Eirsyus having a major focus on magic and runes and rituals, and Khetonnia on crafting, engineering, and smithing. They were rivals and often had border skirmishes and occasionally brush wars, but were not hateful toward each other.

The entire island was conquered by the Continental Empire (final name tbd) a couple of centuries ago. It was obvious early in the conflict that Eirsyus and Khetonnia could not defeat the Empire, even if they combined forces. Khetonnia responded to this reality by suing for peace under lenient terms, allowing them to become imperials vassals and keep much of their local laws and nobility. Eirsyus turned to a path of darker and darker magic to grasp for victory at any cost, and their kingdom collapsed.

Khetonnia became part of the Empire, though nowadays that mostly just means the Dutchess of Tides (local ruler over the island) sends a shipfull of taxes back to the Continent once a year.

More recently The Bloodletter Wars, about a century ago, involved a lot of fighting on Kheyus and in and around Tidegate. The Bloodletter Dominion was an expansionist eldritch force that used rituals blood sacrifices of sapient creatures to gain permanent magic powers, and intended to conquer the world to serve as endless cattle. The Band of Bloodletters is the last, sad remnant of that force, and they lack the rituals that impowered the original Dominion. Almost everyone agrees defeating the Bloodletter Dominion was a war of necessity.

Current State of Affairs
Since the Bloodletter Wars, it’s been pretty quiet around Tidegate. There are wolves and even wargs in the woods, ogres and trolls in the mountains, drakes in the wilds, and smugglers, thieves, and pirates in the streets and waters, and sometimes a more powerful creature comes over the Keystone Mountains, but actual attacks are rare.
In general, areas within bowshot of a major settlement are considered reasonable safe day and night, and minor settlements and even farmsteads are considered safe within sight of a building during the day, and within a structure at night. Roads are lightly patrolled, but don’t need much more than that, and groups of travelers who are big enough to maintain a campfire and at least one person on watch (or who have dogs or similar guard animals) are generally able to safely travel. The closer to the coast and roads you are the safer you are, and the closer to the mountains or deeper into the woods you are, the more dangerous it is.

Cities and Towns
Seagrace: The capitol of Kheyus is Seagrace, located in the middle of the southern shore where the Sweetwater River flows into the ocean. This is the home of the Duchess of Tides, current lady of Kheyus, vassal of the Continental Empire, and scion of the princes of old Khetonnia. It is the only true city on the island, the only place locally with drydocks and shipyards able to handle big ships, has the deepest harbor, and is an Imperial Fleet naval base in addition to being a major trade port.
Fishport: The second largest settlement on the island is Fishport, located on the northeastern shore of Tempest Bay. Fishport is a major fishing town, and the boats there can bring in much more than enough to feed all of Kheyus’s population, and export a tremendous amount of salt fish, kelp, shellfish, and a small volume of pearls to Tidegate, much of which then go by land to Seagrace. The tides in Tempest Bay can turn nasty even when the weather is nice, and trading ships avoid it though the locals seem to have a sixth sense for what days to not go on the water.
Tidegate: Tidegate is the third largest settlement on the island, a fair-sized town that was once an independent city-state before the Bloodletter Wars. It’s long since demilitarized, with its town walls dilapidated and in some cases converted to businesses, and farms growing up right up to its borders. Tidegate is a much more convenient (and less expensive) port of call for ships traveling along the circle Trade Route, but it’s a shallow harbor that can only handle mid-sized ships and lacks full shipyards and such. The combination of tradewinds and regular, calm currents allows ships to maneuver in and out of Tidegate in less than an hour, while any seatrip to Seagrace takes at least a day to get in, and a day to get out. Those smaller ships that can manage Tidegates waters and don’t need greater services stop here for fresh water and supplies, often leaving the same day they arrive but the volume of trade remains far below what is found at Seagrace.

Trade
There is a massive Circle Trade between the five Great Powers of the world, the timing and direction of which is heavily influenced by the Tradewinds. The Empire on the Continent is one major leg of this Circle Trade, and four even-more-distant kingdoms represent four other major segments. Each leg is an area rich in a major, strategic resource that is rare in the other regions. Beginning with Iron on the Continental Empire, the trade goods are then Firestone (needed to make explosives and gunpowder), Steelweave (silken cloth that is resistant to fire, tears, and wear, making the best clothes, sails, and rope), Black Sugar (an alchemical material that can be processed into sweeteners, spices, and drugs), and finally Spell Salt (able to be used to fulfill any consumable crafting or spell component cost). This means there’s a regular influx of Spell Salt into the Continental Empire, including Khesus, making mastercraft materials, toolkits, medicinals, and consumable magic items fairly common. However, since Firestone has to go all round the world before coming the the Continental Empire, bombs and firearms are much rarer on Khesus (though not unknown).

Weather
Modeled New England/Northern Europe. Cold winters, storms not uncommon, hurricanes rare but known, tornadoes extremely rare, warm-to-hit summers but rarely dangerously hot, lovely springs, wet autumns. Storms can be serious.

TOMORROW: TIDEGATE GAZETTEER
Much like this quick look at the island of Khesus, tomorrow I present a quickstart gazetteer of Tidegate, the town the player characters all begin in.

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Furthering the discussion of my new PF2 campaign, “Gatekeepers,” I want to discuss some of the themes and baseline setting ideas the players and I settled on in Session 0. This isn’t a detailed rundown of the world (I haven’t even named the “Continental Empire,” yet), but it’s supposed to give my players enough of a feel they can figure out how their character concepts fit into the starting area of the campaign.

STARTING POINT
Players all all 1st level and likely not yet proper “adventurers,” though they are seen as competent and skilled for their age group and social strata –someone neighbors and friends may go to for help if overwhelmed. They are all from the same town (“Tidegate”) and may or may not be friends, but they are at least all familiar with one another. Players can expect that simply being basically good people of reasonable bravery and competence is going to get them involved in the campaign — the opportunity to put their foot on the path of adventure will come to them.

BASE OF OPERATION
While there isn’t anything definite set up yet, the players noted they’d enjoy having a base of operations to work out of, and I promised to accommodate that in time. So while individual adventures may take them anywhere, the players can expect to get to a place they think of as a fairly safe home both often and regularly with downtime activities an option there.

TONE
Mid-high fantasy. Minor magic and consumable magic items are fairly commonplace. Permanent magic items are more rare. In part this is a nod to the optional rules in use — with automatic bonus progression, the campaign doesn’t need easy access to runes for weapons and armor, and I don’t expect to have magic shops of weapons, armor, crystal balls, and so on. However, alchemists, herbalists, and wizards are considered scholarly experts and may well have talismans, tinctures, potions, scrolls, and other consumable magic for sale. But a magic sword? If they really exist, you may never have seen one. And anything that seems very well-crafted or lucky may be described as “magic.” Old Matron Coglie, who always wins the prize crop awards at the autumn faire? Her plow is described as ‘magic,” with varying degrees of being serious about it.

SOCIETY
The campaign’s starting point, Tidegate, is a minor stop on a major trade route, and has grown to be a diverse and liberal settlement. It contains numerous different ancestries, and while individual assholes may well have weird hang-ups, there are no societal biases against any ancestry, sexuality, gender presentation, or ethnicity. There are biases against some specific groups of choice — for example the Band of Bloodletters may see themselves as a positive force for keeping populations and kingdoms strong, but are seen as murderous psychopaths locally and anyone associated with them (even if, for example, your brother became one and you didn’t) is likely to be mistrusted in Tidegate.

The baseline culture will be Northern European in inspiration, but tons of elements from other societies are known, and some have taken root to be considered typical or even “local.” Further, different cultural norms aren’t automatically looked down on just because they are different — Tidegate has benefited from adopting a lot of foreign people, concepts, tools, and even philosophies, and is open to learning more.

LANGUAGE
There are no languages, or cultures, tied to a specific mortal species. “Common,” as a language, is a trade tongue that has developed due to a world-spanning trade system. The Continental Empire happens to have elves as its Imperial Family, and thus the language spoken throughout their lands is “Elven,” but anyone from the Continental Empire likely speaks Elven, and elves native to the major world power that happens to be united under a dwarven king likely speak “Dwarven” rather than “Elven.”
Planar and magic languages are a different matter, and things like Abyssal and Necril are actually innate magical forms of communication specifically suited to expressing the concepts common to the entities that instinctively undertsand them. These tongues can be learned by mortals, but it is time-consuming and difficult.

GODS AND RELIGION
The baseline is the default gods of the Second Edition Pathfinder Core Rulebook, who are common among all five the world’s Great Empires and six Lesser Kingdoms, and became “standard” during the Bloodletter Wars of a century ago. They are thus all called the Modern Gods. All those gods that are not evil are generally welcome in all those nations, and even some acknowledgement and appeasement (rather than “worship”) of the evil ones is generally tolerated.

There are Ancient Gods… but most people don’t know the names of any. They’re largely seen as being irrelevant anymore. They mostly get mentioned when someone is cussing (“By All The Ancient Gods!”).

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