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Sins of the Mirror

Overarching Rules & Structure

These rules sit above every book. Local exceptions are called out inside the book folders.

Intended systems

Written for Pathfinder Second Edition, with notes that translate cleanly to PF1e. Custom mechanics are system-light on purpose: they should survive a conversion to another d20 game without collapsing.

Suggested start: 1st level — or 3rd if you want the party already competent. The scaler does not care. Type the levels you have.

Suggested end: 17th–20th level. Seven 2-level Courts from a level-1 start land near 15th. Book 8 is a 3-level finale.

Because the first seven books can be run in any order, do not treat Book 1 as “low level” and Book 7 as “high level.” Open Your Table, enter the roster, open the Court. The module fills to that APL.

The full math lives on the Scaling page. The spine every book is written on lives on the Module template page.

Party size and table contract

  • 3–5 player characters is the sweet spot; 6 works; below 3 is lonely and swingy.
  • Session 0 must include the Inward Contract (below).
  • Lines and veils are mandatory. Lust and Wrath in particular require a clear safety tool (X-card, Script Change, or equivalent). This campaign goes after the character’s nature, never the player’s.

The Inward Contract (Session 0)

Each player secretly writes one true thing their character will not admit — to the party, and usually not to themselves. Seal it. The GM reads them. They are ammunition for the Inward Gaze, not gotchas for cheap shame.

Also collect, openly:

  • what kinds of harm are off the table
  • whether romance between PCs is welcome
  • how hard the table wants the moral screws turned (bleak / bittersweet / redemptive)

How a book actually runs

  1. Enter or update the party on Your Table (count, levels, optional class).
  2. Open the Court. Numbers on the page are for this table.
  3. Play. Milestone: +1 level mid-book, +1 when the seal breaks — or track the listed XP.
  4. Record echoes. Break the seal only if the Court’s conflict is resolved.
  5. Update the roster to the new levels. Open any remaining Court.

You do not need the party to exist yet. Preview size and level will fill every module so you can write, print, and plan. When the real characters arrive, replace the preview. The book upscales in kind.

Travel and time

The Courts are weeks apart by ordinary road, days apart on the Grey Roads (old pilgrim paths that have begun to shorten themselves as the Master’s attention grows).

Time passes between books. Let it. A season in Goldwake should change what Vaelspire looks like when they return.

Do not run the campaign as seven disconnected one-shots with a finale glued on. The land is one body. The Courts are organs.

Seals

The party carries the Seven Seals of the Reckoning, whether they want them or not. Completing a Court breaks that Court’s seal.

Track seals in the open. Players should always know how many remain. Book 8 is visible as a locked door from the first session. Mystery is for who the Master is, not for whether the structure exists.

Echoes

When a book ends, record:

  1. How the Court was resolved (Reckoned / Claimed / Bloodied / Unfinished)
  2. Which PC was most changed
  3. One NPC who lived
  4. One NPC who did not (or did, and shouldn’t have)
  5. Any Sin Marks gained or confessed away

These five lines are the raw material of Book 8. Keep them. The companion app’s notes panel is built for this.

Death, failure, and walking away

Characters can die. The campaign can be failed. The party can refuse a Court and live with the seal unbroken — which means Book 8 never opens, and the Master’s thesis goes unchallenged.

That is a legal ending. It is a bleak one. Tell the table it exists. Do not force them toward it, and do not take it off the table.

What you never do

  • Never introduce a literal magic mirror as the campaign’s metaphor made flesh. The inward turn happens through people, choices, doubles who made the other decision, and questions the character cannot dodge.
  • Never skip the Inward Gaze at the climax of a book. If you are short on time, cut a fight, not the looking.
  • Never run Book 8 early “just to preview it.” Read it yourself. The table meets it when they have earned it.