Korhan Guidebook

The Korhan Guidebook is a resource for all players of Korhan: Past the Frozen Divide to learn all homebrew rules and additional systems added.

Lands Past the Frozen Divide
North of the Frozen Divide and west of the towering Reghed Glacier is a frigid expanse few dare to explore, let alone inhabit. This icy land of windswept tundra recently became locked in a perpetual, dark winter without reprieve. Auril the Frostmaiden, the divine embodiment of winter’s fury, has withdrawn to this cold corner of the world to live among mortals. Further, she has cast a terrible spell over Korhan, to the detriment of most of its denizens.

Each night before midnight, Auril takes to the sky on the back of a white roc and weaves her spell, which manifests as a shimmering curtain of light—a beautiful aurora that illuminates the night sky and fades before dawn. This powerful magic prevents the next day’s sun from rising above the horizon, turning midday into twilight and trapping Korhan in winter’s dark embrace, with no sunlight or warmth to melt the snow and ice. Each casting of the spell leaves the Frostmaiden weakened, with just enough divine power left to barricade the mountain pass with blizzards and churn the Sea of Moving Ice with blistering winds. Such measures discourage travelers from approaching or leaving Korhan, further isolating the region. Korhan has thus been trapped in a different reality from the rest of the world, for though the sun never rises over the dale, it continues to rise everywhere else.

The people of Korhan know Auril’s wrath when they feel it, and they have a name for the unending winter she has inflicted on them. They call it the Everlasting Rime. No one understands why the Frostmaiden has imposed her will in this way or why the other gods refuse to challenge her. This prolonged winter, which has gone on for more than two years, threatens to doom not just the flickering lights of civilization known as Ten-Towns but also the indigenous flora and fauna that need sunlight and the change of seasons to survive.

Rules To Play By

 * The DMs will respect the players by running a game that is fun, fair, and tailored for them. The DMs will allow every player to contribute to the ongoing story and give every character moments to shine. When a player is talking, the DM is listening.
 * The players will respect the DMs and the effort it takes to create fun sessions for everyone. The players will allow the DMs to direct the campaign, arbitrate the rules, and settle arguments.
 * When a DM is talking, the players are listening.
 * The players will respect one another, listen to one another, and support one another.
 * Its not about overcoming the enemy or your character surviving. It's about telling a shared story with friends.
 * Experienced DMs and players will be patient with newer players and attempt to give them the push they need to shine.


 * Should a DM or a Player disrespect each other or violate the social contract in some other way, the group may dismiss that person from the table.

Principles of a Westmarch
Korhan: Past the Frozen Divide is whats knows as a Westmarch style game, meaning it follows these principles:


 * There is no regular time: every session will be scheduled by the players on the fly.
 * There is no regular party: each game will have different players drawn from a large pool.
 * There will be no regular plot: the players decide where to go and what to do.

A Westmarch Setting
The game was set in a frontier region on the edge of civilization (Past the Frozen Divide). There’s a convenient fortified group of towns that marked the farthest outpost of civilization and law, but beyond that is sketchy wilderness. All the PCs are would-be adventurers based in these towns. Adventuring is not a common or safe profession, so the player characters are the only ones interested in risking their lives in the wilderness in hopes of making a fortune (NPCs adventurers are few and far between). Between sorties into the wilds PCs rest up, trade info and plan their next foray in the cheery taproom of the Mead Hall.

Scheduling: Players Are In Control
The West Marches charter is that games only happen when the players decide to do something — the players initiate all adventures and it’s their job to schedule games and organize an adventuring party once they decide where to go.

Players send messages to the server saying when they want to play and what they want to do. A normal scheduling email would be something like “I’d like to play Tuesday. I want to go back and look for that ruined monastery we heard out about past the Golden Hills. I know Mike wants to play, but we could use one or two more. Who’s interested?” Interested players chime in and negotiation ensues. Players may suggest alternate dates, different places to explore (“I’ve been to the monastery and it’s too dangerous. Let’s track down the witch in Pike Hollow instead!”), whatever — it’s a chaotic process, and the details sort themselves out accordingly. In theory this mirrors what’s going on in the tavern in the game world: adventurers are talking about their plans, finding comrades to join them, sharing info, etc.

The main hard rules on scheduling are as follows:


 * 1) A DM has time available that day.
 * 2) The players have to tell the GM where they plan on going well in advance, so he has at least a chance to prepare anything that’s missing. As the campaign goes on this becomes less and less of a problem, because so many areas are so fleshed out the PCs can go just about anywhere on the map and hit adventure. The GM can also veto a plan that sounds completely boring and not worth a game session.

Races
All Races are approved, excluding Variant: Elandrin, Orc of Exandria, Leonin, Variant: Aasimar, and Kalashtar.

Eladrin are allowed, however they must remain in the Winter season so long as Auril's curse remains on Korhan.

Equipment

 * 1) Roll for starting wealth in #bot-commands and ping a DM.
 * 2) Purchase equipment using prices listed in the PHB
 * 3) Magic items cant be purchased this way, however Potions of Healing can.

Uploading Characters

 * 1) Make your character on D&D Beyond or Google sheets following the rules in #character-guidelines.
 * 2) Post a link to your character sheet in #character-submission, a DM will reply with a ✅ or an X for approve or unapproved. If it is unapproved, fix the issue and resubmit.
 * 3) Part 3: Once you receive a ✅ you will be given the “@✅Approved” role allowing you to connect your character to “@[.] Avrae” in #connect-characters. To connect your character type the command ".beyond "

Variant: Encumbrance
he rules for lifting and carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for determining how a character is hindered by the weight of equipment. When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table. If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet. If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying capacity, you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.

Variant: Attunement
Attuning to an item takes 1 action and 10 minutes to un-attune, instead of one hour each. Once an item is attuned to, no one else may attune until either the creature dies or if the creature spends 10 minutes to unattune.

Healer’s Kit Dependency
A character can’t spend any Hit Dice after finishing a short rest until someone expends one use of a healer’s kit to bandage and treat the character’s wounds.

Variant: Goodberry
Up to ten berries in your hand are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one berry. Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day. The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell.

* - up to 10 high quality berries costing 1 sp a piece.

Searching for Berries
In order to find berries you may actively search for 1 hour. Over that hour roll an Wisdom (Nature) check with the DC depending on the amount of foliage nearby. On a success roll 3d4 and add your Wisdom (Survival) bonus, you obtain that many berries.

Downtime
Downtime activities are tasks that usually take a workweek (5 days) or longer to perform. These tasks can include buying or creating magic items, pulling off crimes, and working at a job. A character selects a downtime activity from among those available and pays the cost of that activity in time and money. You, as DM, then follow the rules for the activity to resolve it, informing the player of the results and any complications that ensue.

Consider handling downtime away from the game table. For example, you could have the players pick their downtime activities at the end of a session, and then communicate about them by email or text, until you next see them in person.

Resolving Activities
The description of each activity tells you how to resolve it. Many activities require an ability check, so be sure to note the character’s relevant ability modifiers. Follow the steps in the activity, and determine the results.

Most downtime activities require a workweek (5 days) to complete. Some activities require days, weeks (7 days), or months (30 days). A character must spend at least 8 hours of each day engaged in the downtime activity for that day to count toward the activity’s completion.

The days of an activity don’t need to be consecutive; you can spread them over a longer period of time than is required for the activity. But that period of time should be no more than twice as long as the required time; otherwise you should introduce extra complications (see below) and possibly double the activity’s costs to represent the inefficiency of the character’s progress.

Complications
The description of each activity includes a discussion of complications you can throw at the characters. The consequences of a complication might spawn entire adventures, introduce NPCs to vex the party, or give the characters headaches or advantages in any number of other ways.

Each of these sections has a table that offers possible complications. You can roll to determine a complication randomly, pick one from the table, or devise one of your own, and then share it with the player.

Using Downtime
Downtime can be used to perform any actions listed in Chapter Two of Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Chapter Six of the Dungeon Masters Guide.

Obtaining Downtime

 * A day of downtime is awarded to any player who makes 1000 characters worth of edits on the Dungeons and Dumbasses Wiki with any page related to Korhan: Past the Frozen Divide. This day of downtime can be used on any of the player's characters.
 * A day of downtime is awarded to any player who doesn't attend a session, this downtime can be used on any of the player's characters.
 * A day of downtime may be awarded to all players who intend on playing in a session that gets canceled by the DM within 24 hours of the agreed time. This downtime can only be used on the character that would have been played.