This page details rules applied to all games run in the worlds of Dawn, the Six Bladed Planes, or the Deeper Planes.
Note that some rules behave differently depending on which of the above worlds a character lives in.
This uses the Kirthfinder ruleset, a modification of the Pathfinder ruleset, with the following exceptions. (More accessible copy available here, though access permissions must be granted manually.)
A character still provokes attacks of opportunity for moving out of each threatened square, instead of out of a character's threatened area.
All characters gain each of the feats from the following list as bonus feats as soon as they meet each feat's prerequisites: Power Attack, Piranha Strike, Deadly Aim, and Two-Weapon Fighting. A character also gains Deadly Aim, ignoring its prerequisites, when they gain Point Blank Shot or Precise Shot. Finally, a Barbarian may take any combat feat at 1st level instead of Power Attack, but they must still meet the feat's prerequisites.
The ancestors have reined in and bound the vast chaotic powers which were once loose upon Dawn. By this barrier of sunk potential, we are free to live our lives as mortals.
Creatures on Dawn cannot progress past 8th level. Instead, they gain 4 feats for every level they would otherwise gain. These feats are not converted to levels upon ascending to the Six Bladed Planes; instead, they are unavailable until filling the new level capacity, as if their prerequisites were not met. In addition, 4th level spells and higher are long lost to Dawn; casters who gain 4th level spell slots memorise lower-level spells into such slots, or add metamagic to reach an effective spell level of 4.
Creatures bound to the Six Bladed Planes cannot progress past 14th level. Instead, they gain 4 feats for every level they would otherwise gain. These feats are not converted to levels upon ascending to the Deeper Planes; instead, they are unavailable until filling the new level capacity, as if their prerequisites were not met. In addition, 7th level spells and higher are long lost to the mortals of the Six Bladed Planes; casters which gain 7th level spell slots memorise lower-level spells into such slots, or add metamagic to reach an effective spell level of 7.
Creatures living in the Deeper Planes cannot progress past 20th level. Instead, they gain 4 feats for every level they would otherwise gain. In addition, 10th level spells and higher are long lost to the mortals of the Deeper Planes; casters which gain 10th level spell slots memorise lower-level spells into such slots, or add metamagic to reach an effective spell level of 10.
Creatures cannot enter the Six Bladed Planes, except temporarily by the hand of a lesser deity, until 8th level. Creatures cannot enter the Deeper Planes whatsoever, even by the guidance of a lesser deity, until 14th level. Creatures which enter the Deeper Planes may never return to the Six Bladed Planes, and creatures which non-temporarily enter the Six Bladed Planes may never return to Dawn. A creature which does manage to escape the Planes to a more bound realm suffers various permanent torments, including a damaged soul, which may never be repaired, even by the powers of the lesser deities.
Moving to a new such area (from Dawn to the Six Bladed Planes, or from the Six Bladed Planes to the Deeper Planes) is referred to as ascension, and is typically marked by a brief period of the messengers of deities bargaining for aid - the lesser deities, for the first ascension; and the radiant and decrepit deities, for the second ascension.
Dawn and the concentric circles of Planes around it work on a different system of alignment.
All: Fey Nature
All characters are either Seelie, Unseelie, or Horrific; this is their fey nature. Horrific creatures are instantly identifiable as such, though Seelie and Unseelie are generally indistinguishable without the aid of magic, in the same manner as are all alignments in other settings, such as that of Golarion. However, Seelie and Unseelie have more of a benign rivalry than seen in the deep enmity of the Golarion alignments; the ascension-specific alignments (below) take this place.
Unintelligent creatures are Seelie if they default to flight and Unseelie if they default to fight. As a general guideline, an animal is always Seelie if domesticated, generally Seelie if herbivorous or a scavenger, generally Unseelie if predatorial, and usually Unseelie if feral. This fey nature rarely changes.
Intelligent creatures are Seelie if they prefer to relate to others in ways relating to mental statistics (such as conversation, study, or conning), or Unseelie if they prefer to relate to others in ways relating to physical statistics (such as drinking, gymnastics, or pickpocketing). Dramatic life events may change this fey nature. Intelligent creatures are instead Horrific if they have damaged souls (see Ancestors Guide Us).
Aberrations, Constructs, Oozes, and Undead are always Horrific. Animals and Vermin are never Horrific. Dragons, Fey, Humanoids, Magical Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids, Outsiders, and Plants are sometimes Horrific, depending on their description.
This has the following effects: Effects which function against evil instead function against Horrific creatures. Effects which function against good instead function against intelligent Seelie and intelligent Unseelie creatures. Effects which function against chaos instead function as if against evil, and effects which function against law instead function as if against good. Horrific creatures are instantly identifiable (there is no Detect Horrific); Detect Evil effects instead Detect Unseelie, and Detect Good effects instead Detect Seelie. A positive energy Channel Energy still heals living and damages undead (depending on selection on activation). Finally, there are no alignment restrictions on any classes, most notably including the paladin, the barbarian, and the monk.
(In general, this does not equate law and good, nor evil and chaos, for all settings; it merely indicates they are subsumed by relative similarity for the purposes of They Watch Over Us.)
Dawn: Allegiance
A creature of Dawn owes allegiance to one of the ten Nations of Dawn, or to the Hirat Federation. Allegiance to the natural world is represented by Allegiance to the Ishana Collective. Horrific creatures generally have allegiance to the Hirat Federation.
This represents nationality, though it may not be exactly such; one may be a citizen of a given country, and not be averse to the given place, but still find another place to feel like "home" (in which case that would be where one's true allegiance lies); or, a character might find allegiance with a foreign faction that has a high presence in their current area, even though they've mostly experienced life in another nation, for the foreign ideals mesh more with the character's own.
Six Bladed Planes: Radiance
A humanoid creature from Dawn living in the Six Bladed Planes gains a gem corresponding to one of the seven colours of the prismatic wall (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), set into their forehead. This represents their affiliated plane, as below.
Red: Ruby. The Red Plane.
Orange: Tourmaline. The Plane of Flesh.
Yellow: Topaz. The Plane of Light.
Green: Emerald. The Plane of Fugue.
Blue: Turquoise. The Unseelie Plane.
Indigo: Sapphire. The Seelie Plane.
Violet: Amethyst. Deities.
A character with Radiance gains +2 to Sense Motive checks with natives of the given plane, except Violet characters, who gain a +2 to Sense Motive checks with deities and those who speak on behalf of deities (but not all divine characters; only those specially chosen).
Deeper Planes: Embodiment
The armour check penalty (ACP) for wearing armour for Disable Device and Ride is removed if using appropriate gear. (For Ride, this would entail using a saddle. For most uses of Disable Device, this would entail removing gauntlets or gloves. Removing gauntlets and/or gloves is a standard action; donning gloves is a move action; donning gauntlets is a full-round action.)
The armour check penalty (ACP) for wearing armour is halved (rounded up) for Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Fly, and Sleight of Hand.
Skill checks and ability checks are made by rolling 3d6+bonuses, not 1d20+bonuses. Other rolls (such as saving throws and attack rolls) are still made with 1d20+bonuses.
Long jump results are a number of feet equal to the skill check result minus 5. (Normally, long jump checks are equal to skill check result with no subtraction.)
In this variant, each player creates two characters instead of one. However, at each game session, they only treat one of these characters as their active character. Inactive characters are busy handling other tasks, like guarding camp, delivering speeches to the citizenry, training the guard, researching spells, finding good prices on magic items for the party, investigating another path down into the ruins, ...
Characters of a particular player share experience point totals (if XP is in use). A player with a dead character may only play the remaining character until a new character is introduced or their old character is brought back from the dead.
The GM is encouraged to use troupe play to abstract away "split the party" missions, and to tell a more epic tale akin to that of Tolkien's famous works. Increased interaction with other groups, like the city in which the players live, is encouraged.
Troupe play is appropriate for longer, epic campaigns. A single story arc of a few sessions almost certainly doesn't need the added complexity of troupe play.
Canonically not used. Presented as an especially optional rule or for use in other settings.
A character does not gain iterative attacks unless they gain at least +6 BAB from any set of classes (1 or more) which grant full BAB at every level (such as Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Prestige Paladin, and Ranger). This does not apply in the Six Bladed Planes or the Deeper Planes.