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00:27, 20th April 2024 (GMT+0)

Disclaimers & House Rules.

Posted by The Dungeon MasterFor group 0
The Dungeon Master
GM, 2 posts
A Terrifying Overlord.
Loves kittens and hugs.
Sun 25 Sep 2011
at 09:06
  • msg #1

Disclaimers

There are MANY disclaimers for this game.

First of all, I WILL make mistakes.
Second, I might NOT fix them.
Third, if I make a mistake that affects your character adversely, and don't correct it, I will try to make it up to you in another way.
Fourth, I WILL fudge rules.   I might round off the amount of XP you get, or just give a round number that is WAY too low or WAY too high.    This game will be more of an artform than a science, and like most artists, I'm a little weird.  Just saying.

The most important thing is that everyone, player and DM, have a good time.  If you're not, please tell me.
I will either rush over and make it more fun for you, or I'll laugh and keep doing what I'm doing.  Which ever is more appropriate.

Even though I have a story arc in mind that if full of "plotty goodness", I'm also planning to steal shamelessly from old modules and adventure plots in various publications.   So be prepared.

I'll probably mess with them a little or a lot, and switch certain things out, but you might recognize certain encounters or entire adventure arcs.
That being said, I hope that anyone who does will be a good sport and not metagame.
To compensate you for this, I offer a wager.

If you recognize a certain "module" or storyline, and PM me with your guess, I'll buy your silence with XP, ranging from 1 to 1000 XP, depending on the difficulty, obscurity, and accuracy of the guess.
If you guess correctly that the current storyline is "From THE GHOST IN THE WINDMILL adventure from Dungeon Magazine #3", then I'll probably give you a lot.
If you say "this reminds me of the movie Krull, in the ice cave", and that's not what I intended, I might give you 10XP just to be nice.    Frankly, a lot of what I do has almost certainly been done before, so pointing out that I'm accidentally plagerizing isn't what I'm looking for.

I'm going for an entertaining game, not one that's publishable, after all.  If someone more creative than I has ideas that you kids will enjoy, I'm swiping it.   I'll give credit to the creators or source, certainly, but I'm swiping it.


Another disclaimer.  This game will be VERY primative.  I don't have the skill, patience, or temperment to use or learn to use map programs.
When combat happens, I'll probably describe where everyone is, and possibly make a very crude map showing relative positions, like this:



                    orc orc
                      ftr           MU orc


              orc orc                 tree
                clr                     rog

Or this:
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k   l   m   n   o   p   q
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
1  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
2  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
3  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
5  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
6  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
7  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
8  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
9  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+



This will probably be our "map" system.   I'm too much of a megalomaniac to let someone else do the maps for me, so please don't offer.
This probably makes me a bad DM, but that's the way it's going to be.

Finally (for now), I give my standard disclaimer for all games I run.


I can't promise that this game will be entertaining.
I can't promise that this game will be enlightening.
I can't promise that this game will be educational.
What I CAN promise, however, is that this game will be..... time consuming.
The Unseen One
GM, 7 posts
Mon 25 Mar 2024
at 00:08
  • msg #2

Disclaimers

Narrator:
There are many ways of running combat, including "meticulous attention" and "winging it".
I tend to be in the latter school of thought, despite trying to be in the former.

What I'll do, when combat looms its ugly head, is have everyone roll initiative, then post the combat schedule.  We'll go in that order.
I'll give someone 24 hours to post thier combat actions, then I'll NPC them.

If there are any questions, please post in "Game Discussion".


Narrator:
Regarding combat:

When you state your actions, simply state what you're attempting to do.  Please don't say anything about the results of your actions.

For example:
If you attack a goblin with a sword, say "Sir Realism swung his longsword at the goblin, trying to fell the nasty creature."
Not "Sir Realism stabbed the goblin in the spleen, then swept off its head expertly."

I don't care if you roll a perfect hit and to 5 billion points of damage, please don't assume what your actions will do.
I'll take care of that.


I feel much the same way about non-combat encounters.
If you walk into an Inn, you can say "Sir Realism entered the place like he owned it, his armor sparkling like the sun and his footfalls thudding loudly as his powerful body strode to the bar."
But don't say "Sir Realism walked into the tavern, and everyone in it instantly knew that a true hero was now among them, and every man, woman and child felt unworthy of the honor, even as the bartender offered him a free drink."

Again, I'll take care of how NPCs react to people.

We haven't had any problems with this in this group, and I hadn't anticipated any, but I wanted to make sure I put this on the rules section, just in case.

The Unseen One
GM, 8 posts
Mon 25 Mar 2024
at 00:11
  • msg #3

Disclaimers

Narrator:
The Adventurers' Guild:

Up until about a decade ago, there was no such thing.  "Adventurers" were just a glorified name for mercenaries who did the odd jobs more exciting than caravan guarding and searching for lost people in the woods.  The kind of adventures that usually got memorialized in song and verse were usually started haphazardly with being at the right place at the right time.
This changed, mostly, due to a recent innovation by Lord Morgan, a middle aged man in fancy, if slightly worn, clothing who claimed to have been a former Adventurer himself.   He began organizing a sort of guild that connected adventurous souls with those in need of willing warriors who had the coin to hire them.   It made such "connections" easier for all involved.  As a concept, it was slowly spreading across the land.


The Copper Coffer:

There are many inns and taverns all across Tarroth, it being the sign that your town is an actual city, rather than a collection of hovels in the woods.  But none are quite like the Copper Coffer.  For one, it's the first and only "franchise" in the world, with branches and locations in every major city and quite a few minor ones.  Well known for its homey atmosphere and good service, the Copper Coffer tries to be identical to all other locations (to help travelers feel more at home), though there are more streamlined versions in remote locations and a few upscale locations in richer areas.   There is also something odd that many people have noticed: All the bartenders, who are also the managers of the place, look exactly alike.  An amiable and burly man named Phred the Innkeeper.   No matter what location one is in, in any city, there seems to be a Phred the Innkeeper behind the bar, smiling a welcome to all comers.   No one really knows why this is, and Phred isn't saying much.

The Unseen One
GM, 10 posts
Mon 25 Mar 2024
at 00:52
  • msg #4

Disclaimers

Narrator:
For most purposes, the big differences are probably nothing.   But my own world of Tarroth uses different gods, and there's slightly different variations on several classes and races.

For example, in Tarroth, half-breeds, like half-orcs and half-elves, are rumored to be a little unstable, and possible a little crazy.
Half-beings aren't openly discriminated against, and are not truly persecuted, necessarily, but being "a little off" is a stereotype they must endure, like "blondes are dumb" and "Hispanic people are hot-tempered".
There are a number of them that fit the stereotype fairly well, but you never know if it's because they are like that, or because people have treated them like that all their lives.
(known in Psychology as "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy")


Also, I have one set of gods for everyone.
Granted, there are a fair number of them, but there are no "Gods of the Elves", or "Gods of the Gnomes" and so on.  Everyone worships the same gods, though they generally just think that one, or more, of them is "one of them".
For example, Orcs don't worship Grummsh One-Eye, Patron God of Orcs.   They traditionally worship Avtek, God of Cruelty and Domination, Patron of Conquest.   They, of course, consider him an orc, who created the other orcs.  Other orcs can worship other gods, but it's not encouraged.


There are a few other differences as well.   But not that many that will affect your character directly.

The Unseen One
GM, 18 posts
Mon 1 Apr 2024
at 16:33
  • msg #5

Disclaimers

To keep things organised during combat or when appropriate, could we all add an orange coloured OOC section at the bottom of each of our posts?? I know that most of us are already doing something similar, and some are including it in their BIO lines as well, but it helps to keep track of hit points, spell effects and other notables.

It doesn't have to be much, for example:

Example:

AC: 21
HP: 34/49
Bear's Endurance (3 of 6 rounds)
Paralysed (1 of 5 round)


I also note that some players like to copy and paste the effects of spells and feats when they use them. That's fine, (and is quite useful) but could all such posts be hidden behind a Private Line inside the post??

Thank you all.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:25, Mon 01 Apr.
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