“The D&D game has neither losers nor winners, it has only gamers who relish exercising their imagination. The players and the DM share in creating adventures in fantastic lands where heroes abound and magic really works. In a sense, the D&D game has no rules, only rule suggestions. No rule is inviolate, particularly if a new or altered rule will encourage creativity and imagination. The important thing is to enjoy the adventure.”

Tom Moldvay
3 December 1980

GAME SYSTEM & FANTASY WORLD
This is a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game set in Dark Sun. I will mostly draw from the original boxed set version of Dark Sun, though I will freely pull from the revised boxed set, the 4th Edition books, and any random bits that I think will fit the world of Athas. Kalak lives and Tyr is under his heel. Fair warning, I run most settings with at least some amount of influence from weird fiction so there will be influences from Call of Cthulhu, Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos, Grim Hollow, and Darkest Dungeon.

This will be a player-driven sandbox game with no predefined plot that takes place in a persistent world. I will fill the world with plot hooks and adventure seeds and it’s up to the players to engage with the ones they find most interesting. If interest is low (up to seven players), then that will be the regular group. If interest is higher (eight or more), then we will have two groups. My limit is 12-14 players in two six-to-seven person groups.

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GENERAL RULES
All of the rules and decisions made by the DM are in the interest of having fun. We’re all here to have fun.

This is an action-adventure, fantasy, and horror game with a fair dose of combat and weirdness. Bad things will happen to your character. Sometimes funny things will happen to your character. If you can’t accept that, don’t play.

BEHAVIOR
Don’t Be A Dick. Wheaton’s Law is always in effect. Things I consider violations of this rule include, but are not limited to: power gaming, min-maxing, metagaming, rules lawyering, and anything that prevents others from enjoying the game.

Fantasy First, Rules Second. We’re all here to have fun telling interesting and engaging stories. That’s infinitely more important than the rules. The rules are important, but they are guidelines to facilitate us having fun. Don’t worry about optimizing the mechanics or making the perfect tactical choice, focus instead on playing your character, having fun, and telling an interesting story. Just remember: “the object of the game is to have fun by playing roles, stupid or weak characters can be as much fun as smart, powerful ones—if the roles are played well.”

Respect. Always be respectful to your fellow players. IC, play your character’s personality, but be respectful. Characters can be disrespectful if the scene calls for it, but be sure you separate character actions from player actions.

Problems. If you have problems with another player, remember we’re all adults and bring it up with that player privately. If you can’t resolve the issue, bring it to me privately.

Rating. This game is mature, not general or adult. Keep gore to a minimum and any sex will fade to black.

Instant Kick. Nothing will get you booted from this game quicker than: racism, sexism, homophobia, and disco. No, I’m not kidding.

POSTING GUIDELINES
Real Life First, Always. Real life will get in the way. All I ask is that you drop me a message to let me know something’s up.

Frequency. In-character posting frequency of at least once every few days (48 hours). If you haven’t posted by the 48 hours mark, I will skip you. Two skips in a row and I will remove you from the in-character group. If I don’t hear from you and you haven’t logged in for a week, I will write your character out in a genre-appropriate fashion.

Weekends & Holidays. Most games slow down on the weekends and around holidays so those are a gimme. You are free to post on weekends and holidays but they are not counted against you for being skipped or kicked.

Description. Always use standard prose formatting for in-character posts. Keep your posts interesting and entertaining. Please use present tense (ie “shoot” “run” “kick”) rather than past tense (i.e. “shot” “ran” “kicked”). It feels more immediate.

Push for evocative descriptions as they add to the tone, drama, and everyone’s enjoyment of the game.

Dialogue Color. Pick a color for your character’s dialogue. It helps avoid confusion when writing out conversations.

IC vs OOC Text. Unless you have to invoke game mechanics your post should be free of OOC text. Any OOC conversation should be in the OOC thread, not the IC threads. If you have a rules question about something happening in game, ask it in the OOC thread.

Please write all out-of-character text at the bottom of your post in orange.

Rolls. When posting an action or reaction, please list what you are rolling as OOC text in orange at the bottom of your posts. For example:

OOC: To-hit with a sword: +2. The DM rolled 8 using 1d20+2 ((6)).

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REQUEST TO JOIN
Please pitch two or three characters concepts you’re interested in playing. Be prepared to play any character you pitch. I will pick which characters come into play based on what would make for an interesting group and to avoid repetition. Ranking your picks in order of preference is a good idea. If you’re not prepared to play a character, don’t pitch them.

Any class or background that’s official D&D 5th Edition is fair game. Dark Sun has a different roster of character races than other settings. The playable races are: dragonborn (dray), dwarf, elf, genasi, goliath (half-giant), half-elf, halfling, human, lizardfolk (ssurran), mul (half-dwarfs), and thri-kreen. If you don’t see a race listed here it either never existed here or was wiped out long ago.

A character concept can be as simple as a name, background, race, class, and general demeanor.

I also want you to list the things that will get you instantly kicked.

Don’t send character sheets or backstory write-ups. We’re using only brand new characters and you can develop your character’s backstory as you play.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:02, Fri 02 Apr 2021.