Styles of Play
The World of Ere supports kinetic, cinematic action; deep, twisting intrigue; gun slinging adventure; and everything in between. The variety available to play with as is varied and broad as the comics an anime it draws insight from. This section offers just a taste of the themes an Ere campaign can offer that are beyond the normal exploration, retrieval or treasure hunting campaigns.

Conspiracy
“That little bauble you picked up in Desdan may have more to it than meets the eye.”
People keep secrets; it is in their nature. But some secrets are bigger than others and some people and groups are willing to do more than others to make sure their secrets stay secret. In a conspiracy campaign seemingly simple jobs or benign conversations may draw the PCs into an ever thickening plot they weren’t even aware of.

The key element of a conspiracy campaign is the party finding out something or receiving something that some other party is willing to do them great harm (whether physical harm or harm to their reputation) to keep from coming to light. Often the party won’t find out what it is they supposedly know or have until they’ve already suffered in some way for it. Once they are aware of what threat they pose to the other party, they then have to find some way to either dismantle the conspiracy or expose it in order to resume living their normal life.

Variations and Examples:

• The Hydra – More than one group wants to stop the PCs from telling the local authorities what they know. In the beginning, the groups oppose one another, but as they grow more desperate, an alliance could form.
• The McGuffin – The PCs come into possession of a device that can ruin a powerful organization’s power base or schemes. Destroying this device or delivering it to someone who can use it for its purpose Is the only means the party has to call off the rival adventurers sent to retrieve it.
• Mistaken Identity – The PCs don’t actually possess the information the conspiracy wishes to suppress. In order to save their own lives, they need to actually find out what it is the enemy is willing to kill for and use it as leverage.

Enemy of the Week
“They just keep comin’ out of the woodwork, don’t they?”
Protecting townships from marauding monsters and bandits is all in a day’s work for adventurers. But on the World of Ere, spirit beasts, brigands and other monsters aren’t just a one time trouble for the people of outlying towns and villages. They attack on a monthly, sometimes weekly basis, with more violence and tenacity than poaching a few cattle and killing one or two farmers.

For this reason, many towns and farming enclaves hire adventurers to protect them full time. Merchants and innkeepers sometimes do the same in particularly lawless locales such as Ma’tang or Brisean. This is the basis for an enemy of the week style game; a campaign where the monsters and bandits attack the party’s home base rather than the party coming to them.

Here, the party has close ties to the community (or business) that hired them. They are local heroes or at the very least valued mercenaries that are recognized and generally well thought after. This, coupled with steady pay, cheap food and free lodging, gives the PCs ample reason to work to protect their adopted home from those who wish to rob or destroy it.

Enemy of the week campaigns can be both geared to hack and slash campaigns and heavy roleplaying sessions that involved copious interaction with the locals and the adventurers’ employer.

Variations and Examples:

• Bandit Kings – A brigand gang sends increasingly powerful fighters to attack a settlement to size up its defenses for the final assault.
• Deceit – The town elders have grown unhappy with the bad example the party has set for the children with their rough and tumble lifestyle and strange ways. They’ve arranged to hire a new mercenary group that they approve of, but the PCs are under contract and the only way to get rid of them without paying them extra is to arrange a series of deadly attacks on them.
• Land Grab – A land baron wishes to build a trade town where an independent farming enclave stands. He’s enlisted the help of a greater spirit beast to help him drive the farmers off.
• Monsters in the Woods – A small town is built on the edge of a forest teaming with spirit beasts and other monsters that routinely attack it. The PCs are local heroes, celebrated by the town for their many efforts to repulse the enemy.

Faction Conflicts
“Are you sure we’re on the right side here?”
Religions, business ventures, political groups and magical societies all have their individual agendas to push forward and these agendas often come into conflict with one another in ways not readily apparent. Even allies, such as the temples of the Greater Pantheon can compete for choice information or recently uncovered artifacts. Sometimes, they find themselves working at odds even with other groups within their own organizations.

When two or more factions find themselves clashing, special individuals like the PCs can find themselves pulled into a quarrel in which there may be no right or wrong. In these situations, loyalties may become strained or even shift as the reasons and means each side employs are revealed. Even when there is a ‘wrong’ side, it may not be readily apparent from the outset and the PCs may find out that they’ve been helping advance a nefarious plot!

The relationships between factions also come into play during conflicts. When a close ally is placed in danger, their allies can come to their aid, either in an obvious manner or covertly. In cases such as these, characters can find themselves fighting battles that they would not have normally become involved in and make friends and enemies that they never would have met otherwise.

Variations and Examples:

• The Double-cross – Unless they keep their heads about them, the PCs may find that they’ve been set up to take a fall by their employer who intends to reap all the benefits of their handiwork and leave them with all the consequences – most of which were totally unforeseen.
• Playing Politics – The Great Houses of Chordin, the Principalities of Novrom and the feudal lords of Minde Forme all jostle for positions of political power within their respective homes. The morality of either side is really as strong as that of the given leader, lieutenant, or advisor that is spearheading a given operation. The PCs may find themselves doing some innocuous spying one mission and dealing with deadly sabotage the next.
• Secret Wars – The temples of the Greater Pantheon fight against the Church of the Threefold Moon in secret to keep the population from falling into paranoia and violence. The PCs take their missions from one of these temples.