Keep these in mind and you'll do fine:

1. When in doubt ask.
   If you're stuck in-game or out-of-game, not sure how to react or feel like there is anything preventing you from posting, either drop a line in any OOC chat or send me a PM. If you don't get an answer within 24 hours, poke me in the GM poke thread. While I may not update every day, I do keep an eye out for PMs and questions.
   
   
   
2. It's your character.
   I spend my day trying to figure out plot lines and run encounters. I do not memorize character sheets. If there is important information pertaining to your character (like how you have dark vision so you don't get the dark penalties I posted) it is your responsibility to bring that up, not mine to remember it. You are the advocate for your character, it is your job to give them every advantage they can have. If you have questions, see Rule #1.
   
   
   
3. If you have to leave, drop me a line.
   If you're going to be absent for longer then a week, or your RL schedule means you're going to be busier then normal, or school is starting and RL has to be adjusted...whatever the case, drop me a PM before you disappear for longer then a week. If you haven't posted in a week I will view you as an AFK player. I will then begin to NPC your character if they are vital to the plot, finding a replacement player, or working them out of the story. If you disappear for two weeks without prior warning, don't be surprised to find that you no longer have a character. This doesn't mean I can't work you back in, but it would ALL be resolved much better with a bit of forewarning. Even if you don't KNOW but just THINK you might have difficulty posting, see Rule #1: When in doubt, send a PM.
   
   If you have not logged in for a couple of weeks I may mark you as (AFK) after your name. If you have (AFK) on your name I am NPCing your character through encounters and you are at risk of either being replaced by another player OR being killed off for dramatic purposes. To remove (AFK) all you have to do is come back and post.
   
   
   
4. If you take too long, I will advance the story.
   PbP can be slow enough without spending weeks/months trying to create a plan. I've seen this happen game after game after game where when the party has to make a decision nothing gets done and the game grinds to a halt while people just mill around without anything to do. When you are ready for the scene to advance you can notify that clearly by writing in an OOC line at the bottom:
   
   OOC: READY!
   
   This will signify to both me and the rest of the group that you're ready to move on. When the majority is ready (or I get bored :P) the game will advance. I will post a default plan and if the plan hasn't changed before then, then that is what you're going to be doing. If you don't like it you'd better speak up and get a new plan in the works before I get bored and hit the fast forward button.

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:19, Wed 23 May 2018.

Please note that this game is set to "Mature" and not to "Adult". While I expect absolutely terrible language and there to be some brutal violence I do not plan on this game going into "porn" territory of any kind (goreporn, tortureporn, porn porn :D).

I'm of the mentality that while the story won't shy away from "adult" concepts like hookers or senseless violence that it doesn't need to be explained in every filthy detail and personally I find the imagination of a "fade-to-black" much more immersive then anything people would actually type.

Therefore if we encounter a situation that would cross the line I/we will either take a step back and either fade-to-black or just describe things in a high level OOC way before getting back to the action.

So don't worry, you'll get plenty of hookers, get to perform a scene out of Reservoir Dogs, even have a romance or two if so inclined but for the extreme stuff that would require an Adults Only access you'll have to use your imagination to fill in the the blanks :P

Portraits are very important to me as a GM. I use that as the primary way of envisioning your character when I'm trying to describe a scene so if you don't have a portrait or have one that doesn't really fit your character it can impair my creativity.

THEREFORE if you can't find a portrait that you are happy with, let me know ASAP. One thing is that if you want to claim a portrait I've used for an NPC just let me know and we can hash out the transfer, otherwise if you're having problems finding something I can make some suggestions.

Another idea to pursue is to check the internet for a good image and then submit it for approval to rPol. It might take a month or two for it to be added but I really find getting a good portrait for your character is worth the wait.

I have a lot of experience with both photoshop and portrait submissions so if there's an image you like but don't have a way to capture it, just remember rule #1: Ask and I can help you out.

My favorite part about Baldur's Gate was how most of the magic items felt unique, and had special tales to go along with them. In addition I find that treating magical items like any other piece of equipment really takes the fun and...well...magic out of the item so I tend to impose a few house rules when it comes to magical items:

• For towns I will be generating magic items lists and using the rules as written around purchasing limits in cities.
  
  
  quote:

  There is a 75% chance that any item of this value or lower can be found for sale in the community with little effort. If an item is not available, a new check to determine if the item has become available can be made in 1 week. A settlement’s purchase limit is the most money a shop in the settlement can spend to purchase any single item from the PCs. If the PCs wish to sell an item worth more than a settlement’s purchase limit, they’ll either need to settle for a lower price, travel to A larger city, or (with the GM‘s permission) search for a specific buyer in the city with deeper pockets.
  
  
  
• Gold can be spent on building up contacts and acquiring recipes for powerful magical items. For example you might want a +3 Flail of Frost but in order to do that you have to find three +1 flail heads that have been scattered through the wilderness. You can use your gold to give quests to other adventurers to go out and find your recipes or needed ingredients and then assemble.
  
  
• Magical items are created more then crafted. It may be possible that ordinary or lesser magical items in your possession may become magical or more powerful based upon your deeds and encounters, and perhaps even your misfortunes. Get hit with a critical lightning bolt while holding a mundane sword? Don't be surprised if it suddenly picks up a bit of that magical energy and now does +1 electrical damage. The more powerful then encounter or event, the more powerful the end item. Divine intervention can also create and imbue magical properties into items.
  
  
• Do not plan on being able to pick and choose your equipment on a level by level basis, you will need to learn to use the items you get in the most effective manner possible. I reward good role playing, not memorization of indexes and mathematical computations.
  
  
• More powerful magical items will have cooler effects and have lengthy histories. I would greatly enjoy if you want to flex your creativity a bit and come up with some heroic origins for magical items you acquire. Like in Baldur's Gate many of them will have unique appearances and histories to make them feel more magical.
  
  
• Item Creation feats are worthwhile if you want to be able to create your own custom magic items however it will not be so simple and straightforward of "Spend X gold and Y days and get item Z".

Again I'm not trying to punish anyone but I am trying to restore a bit of a mistake that has happened in the past. In normal rules if you get a magic item that isn't on your optimal build as soon as you can you sell it off and convert gold into stat bumps. I would rather if you acquire a powerful magical item to try and wrap your character around the item instead of the other way around. In addition the normal rules make Item Creation feats not worthwhile to acquire.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Wed 23 May 2018.

Skinning is the idea of taking a set of rules or mechanics and applying a new "skin" to it to provide a new and unique experience for the purposes of roleplaying.

For example:
A tiefling ninja that generates the ninja's ki pool from his infernal heritage instead of the traditional Eastern flavor.

A Samurai class rebranded as a Knight wielding a bastard sword instead of a katana

A dog familiar that is a chicken or a goat or pretty much any animal.



I am all for skinning and rebranding as long as it follows the following guidelines:

1) It must have a good reason with some solid reasoning from the player. I'm not going to let you reskin your generic 15gp long sword as a negative energy blade just because you want to pretend to have a level 20 character at level 1.

2) The underlying game mechanics are unchanged.
In the above example the tiefling's "infernal" pool is still impacted and follows all the same rules as the ki, the bastard sword has the same stats, cost, and proficiency requirements of the katana, and the chicken providing the benefits of the dog familiar will find itself hated by every goblin it meets.


So if there is a feat or power or spell or whatever that you really want to use however the aesthetics attached to it aren't your style just let me know and we can work on re-branding it into something you can really dig but doesn't unbalance the game or alter the mechanics.

This might be a bit premature but I am planning on allowing the Leadership feat at 7th level. Given the enormous power level of this feat I think it bears discussion earlier then later to avoid any confusion.

1. The final decisions on all NPCs is up to me. While I will take requests and considerations from players in mind, rules as written do not say the player has any say in building the cohort. I will ultimately be designing the cohorts with your input. This will be balanced against story needs and party balance.
   
   
   
2. Custom NPC cohorts will be built off the basic NPC statline (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8.) Keep that in mind that for spellcasters this creates an upper limit of 3rd level spells before equipment. Cohorts are meant to supplement the PCs, not replace them and their stats will reflect that limitation.
   
   
   
3. NPC cohorts can be drafted from the ranks of NPCs that you have encountered. If so there is a chance they will be more powerful than a custom NPC by nature of already being better integrated into the story.
   
   
   
4. If you are planning on taking this feat I would like to be notified by Level 5 so we have plenty of time to discuss who and what you're going to take and I have a full level where I can work in a custom NPC cohort if necessary. While I will be building it I hope to work very closely with you to create a cohort everyone can be happy and thrilled about.
   
   
5. I will give you control of the NPC however in true Harbinger fashion I may assume direct control if it either suits the story, the character, or if this power is abused. Your cohort is loyal but is not a mindless robot. This does mean you will get to see the cohort's character sheet and you can direct their actions in combat so long as they are in line with the established personality.
   
   
   
6. For combat you have two choices: 1) You can control the NPC but your PC and NPC will move on the WORST of your two initiative rolls. I'm not stepping into the quagmire of trying to divide up your post into two different actions on opposite ends of the initiative spectrum, especially if the party has 3 or 4 cohorts running around. This represents your PC or cohort delaying so they can act in tandem. The other option is that I control them but then you can't decide what their tactics will be.
   
   
   
7. Followers may be faceless in their large numbers (i.e. I'm not creating 30 1st level NPCs for you) but they are not just resources. Like cohorts you do not get to automatically dictate who decides to pledge service to you. You do not snap your fingers and 30 1st level wizards magically appear and begin crafting scrolls nonstop. I have developed random charts by class to roll on. In general this means that
   
   
   • The majority of your followers will be NPC classed
     
   • Most of your followers will probably be of similar orientation (martial, divine, arcane). Wizards attract experts, Fighters attract warriors, Clerics attract acolytes etc.
     
   • Followers are not profit engines. No magical sweat shops here.
   
   
   
8. If your cohort dies there could be a considerable waiting time before a new one is attracted. This is going to be a very subjective rule based heavily on how and why he died. If your cohort died making a noble sacrifice and your character did everything they could to preserve their life and try and bring them back afterwards the waiting time will be far less then if you used them as a suicidal rearguard or distraction when there were other options available. In general the primary milestones for getting a new one are:
   
   • Going up a level
   • Gaining enough leadership score increase to offset the -2 from the cohort dying
   • Completing a major milestone in a quest
   
   Followers work the same way but they will trickle back in at a faster rate so that you're back to maximum by the above milestones assuming no more get horrifically slaughtered.
   
   
   
9. If we are doing a custom cohort then I expect considerable effort into establishing a back story and personality, no less then what I would expect for a PC. For followers the highest levels should have names and at least a sentence description. In general if there is less then 5 followers at that level I'd expect at least a paragraph per. If there is between 5-10 then a sentence will do. 10-20 and a name will do. 20+ and it's fine to just refer to them as "your followers" as they're pretty faceless at that point.
   
   
   
10. While followers will not gain levels per se when your leadership score increases and you can attract a higher level of follower I will allow you to "level up" some existing favorites. I do not have any hard rules for this at this time.
    
    
    
11. In general, Familiars are treated a bit differently (if you want them to be in combat. If you want to actively use your familiar in combat, it will default to your initiative score so you can mentally command it if possible. Out of combat in general you will control it but I may step in now and then.
    
    
    
12. Animal Companions/Mounts - I will allow the player to control their animal companion/mount in combat HOWEVER you have to use the Handle Animal rules. Your companion/mount has tricks and those tricks have rules and you will need to follow those rules. The limitations in animal companion intelligence is a drawback that is built into the game balance. At low levels especially the mounts/companions can be powerhouses in combat if allowed to have human level tactics.

This message was last edited by the GM at 05:29, Sun 03 May 2020.

I am not opposed to players joining Factions. This, like Leadership, should be discussed before hand to see if/when/how a faction can be introduced into the campaign.


I am also not opposed to players forming their own faction because of the nature of this game. Again that will wait awhile but as always any major character paths or developments should be discussed earlier rather then later.

So I'd like you to use the following format for combat posts:

Underneath your descriptive post I would like you to clearly spell out each action you are taking and what you're doing with it. If you take a Move and a Standard action it should go like:

Move Action: blah
Standard Action: blah


If you squeeze in a swift or immediate or free action again please clearly state you are taking X kind of action and you are doing Y with it. You do not have to call out talking as a free action, however but a common tactic might be to switch from a bow to a sword, for example so it would look like:

Free Action: Drop bow
Move Action: Draw sword
Standard Action: Attack Bad Guy #1


Finally if you do make an attack please append the AC that you hit and the amount of damage (as well as the damage type if it's doing something unusual like fire or cold etc.) Then append your dice rolls below it. For example:

Move Action: Pass
Standard Action: Scorching Ray at Bad Guy #3 hitting touch AC 15 for 5 pts of fire damage.


All in all it should look something like this:



This message was last edited by the GM at 03:56, Thu 18 Dec 2014.

I will be using and encouraging the use of Unchained classes (Monk/Barbarian/Rogue/Summoner).

All of those changes are available online and mostly are just a rebalancing of the existing classes. Barbarians get more straight forward abilities and better rage powers, Rogues can inflict status effects with their sneak attacks and get skill unlocks, Monks get completely revamped, and Summoners get a bit of direction so you don't end up with a blob with 10 tentacles coming out of it.

In addition Stamina Pools will be given to Fighter as a free bonus feat. Other characters are free to take Combat Stamina
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:31, Wed 23 May 2018.

IF we go down the route of using crafted magical items (not consumables like wands or potions but things like arms & armor, rings, staves, rods, and wonderous items) then I would like to use the Dynamic Magic Item Creation rules listed in Pathfinder Unchained.

The summary is this:

You (and potentially a buddy) are faced with a series of skill challenges based off of DC 15 - 30 and sometimes additionally modified by item's CL.

For example, the very first task is always to Prepare the Vessel:




So right away it becomes more interesting. A single person cannot do both tasks so you will need a "partner" and you can use different ones for different parts of it. You can use an NPC smith to craft the item, the rogue to use UMD to basically bluff your way past the activation words and the Bard to shoo away a distracting visitor who keeps bothering you at inopportune times.

Perks can be generated by succesfully completing the challenges and range from having lighterweight items to providing additional minor bonuses to a random skill or glow when a specific type of enemy is around. These perks will be partially random, partially based on the item and partially based on the owner. For example, if a ranger is involved and he HATES orcs then the item might glow when orcs are around.

Quirks are non-mechanical quirks that make items more interesting and with particularly bad luck you might get a flawed items. Flaws are not curses per se but do have minor drawbacks to their use, although you generally have to be very unlucky to get a flawed or cursed item.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:48, Wed 23 May 2018.

NPC's will have colored dialogue based upon their attitude:

Helpful is blue

Friendly is green

Black is neutral/indifferent

Unfriendly is orange

Hostile is red

For a PC there are two ways to do hit points:

One is to take the average (round DOWN). So 3 for a d6, 4 for a d8, 5 for a d10, 6 for d12

The other is to straight up roll. No "rerolls for 1s" etc, you get what you get.


HOWEVER every odd level past the first you gain a bonus hit point.

So for a d6 it would go like this:
Level 2: +3hp
Level 3: +4hp
Level 4: +3hp
Level 5: +4hp.

This bonus HP happens whether you roll or take the average as a way to keep both systems fair. The only exception is that if you roll max HP then you don't get the bonus HP...be happy with having rolled a max HP for your level :P

---

For animal companions, cohorts, NPCs etc then the only option is to rolls. They do not get the bonus PC hp every other level. this does mean that animal companions/purchased mounts etc. might be weaker or stronger than normal and that is to be expected.

Skinning is the idea of taking a set of rules or mechanics and applying a new "skin" to it to provide a new and unique experience for the purposes of roleplaying.

For example:
A tiefling ninja that generates the ninja's ki pool from his infernal heritage instead of the traditional Eastern flavor.

A Samurai class rebranded as a Knight wielding a bastard sword instead of a katana

A dog familiar that is a chicken or a goat or pretty much any animal.



I am all for skinning and rebranding as long as it follows the following guidelines:

1) It must have a good reason with some solid reasoning from the player. I'm not going to let you reskin your generic 15gp long sword as a negative energy blade just because you want to pretend to have a level 20 character at level 1.

2) The underlying game mechanics are unchanged.
In the above example the tiefling's "infernal" pool is still impacted and follows all the same rules as the ki, the bastard sword has the same stats, cost, and proficiency requirements of the katana, and the chicken providing the benefits of the dog familiar will find itself hated by every goblin it meets.


So if there is a feat or power or spell or whatever that you really want to use however the aesthetics attached to it aren't your style just let me know and we can work on re-branding it into something you can really dig but doesn't unbalance the game or alter the mechanics.

I want to encourage people to be creative in their combat posts. Feel free to narrate different scenes with the NPCs you're fighting to help flex those creative muscles.

One thing to consider is that an attack roll does not always mean you took a swing and a miss doesn't always mean you didn't hit.

For example any of the following could represent a "failed attack"





Huge epic combat posts aren't a requirement. I understand that between referencing character sheets and maps and rolling dice it can really suck your time away but if you find yourself feeling like combat is dragging on or you're tired of writing "I swing and I miss" over and over again consider the above as a way to help make combat a bit spicier not just for you but for your fellow players as well.

Travel
The first chapter when this was all wilderness included a "rations" mechanic where you had to keep going back to Oleg's to stock back up on supplies. Now that you run the kingdom and have access to bags of holding that is no longer an issue (except for perhaps some extremely specific narrative situations).

Time
In the first chapter time was a big issue as well as you were put on a direct "clock" to tame the lands before Brevoy did. That too is gone and now for ease of bookkeeeping and my own sanity we are going to relax the "time" aspect.

Instead you can now pick a hex and just "go there". Or you can go home. As you explore hexes in the field, court events will accumulate. As you deal with court events, exploration events will accumulate.

Instead of tracking days and weeks etc. instead the events will be put on a "clock" mechanic. See below

Clock Mechanic
When a timed event triggers I will assign it a value, ranging from 2 to 16. Every time you do "something" (i.e. do the court events or explore hexes or resolve exploration events) I will tick down the counter by 1. When it hits zero it is resolved automatically by the NPCs of your court, your army etc. Sometimes this is perfectly fine. Not everything that comes up NEEDS to be resolved by the heroes specifically. If there is a "failure" condition then it will be resolved via a die roll to see if your advisor or army or whatever resolved it successfully or not. Finally it could be an "auto-fail" if it NEEDED PC intervention.

Hopefully by the descriptions you'll be able to figure out the high priority stuff from the waste of times. I don't intend to use this mechanic to trick you or "gotcha" you, instead it is intended to represent a new kingdom without a robust bureaucracy so you will feel "stretched."

---

EXAMPLES



<a minor event> - No roll is needed. The army goes in and secures the area. Nothing lost, nothing gained.





<a major event> - A roll is needed! The army has a 50% chance of succeeding. If it succeeds then the bandits are routed and everyone cheers! +1 to resources! If it fails the bandits evade the army, -1 to resources as they continue to pray on supply caravans and their clock is reset to trigger again and again until they are finally dealt with!



<a critical event> - The army is wiped out! This kind of event can only be solved by the heroes!

---

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the OOC and I can clarify there.