In general, I am not really into creating a bunch of House Rules for games I run. I would like to keep things pretty simple for this game, so the main focus of House Rules will be to speed up play in the Play-by-Post format. So, here are the rules:

Combat Sequence: At the beginning of a possible combat situation, I will determine whether either side is surprised, roll Initiative for both sides and post a combat summary at the top of the round. Once initiative is established for a given encounter, we won't roll initiative again unless there is a dramatic shift in the battle. So, no rolling of initiative every round.

The way this will work in practice is I will indicate in my posts, OOC: PCs are UP!. When this happens, players can post their actions at any time. No need to wait for other players to post, unless there is a tactical reason for doing so. Like wanting to wait for the magic user to cast a sleep spell before engaging enemies.

We also won't be using sequenced actions (i.e., movement first, followed by missile attacks, spells, melee, etc.) for this game. Players will take all of their actions for the round during their turn.

Combat Resolution: At the beginning of combat, I will post all the relevant stats players need to resolve their own attacks (e.g., hit points and armor class). The players will roll their own attacks and damage and post results during the turn. This format ensures players are not waiting around to determine whether they hit or not and greatly speeds up play.

There may be instances where I keep hit points hidden from players, but this will be the exception and generally only used for "boss" type monsters. In these instances, players will still be able to determine whether they hit ot not, just not whether they do enough damage to defeat a foe. For example, if you attack a monster that only has 6 hit points remaining and inflict 8 points of damage during your attack, you can assume the monster is dead and narratively describe how your character defeats the monster when you post.

Critical Hits and Fumbles: A roll of Natural 20 is an exceptional hit and deals maximum damage. A roll of 1 is not considered a fumble, however players are encouraged to roleplay the non-successful result in any manner they wish, to include "fumble" type results. Be creative with your successes and failures. It makes for a better game!

Character Death: Characters become unconscious and mortally wounded at 0 hit points. At the end of the first round a character reaches 0 hit points or less, the player must make a Death Ray saving throw. The player continues making Death Ray saving throw at the end of every subsequent round their character remains at 0 hit points or less. The goal (to remain alive) is to accumulate three successful saving throws before accumulating three unsuccessful saving throws. If three successfull saving throws are accumulated first, the character has stabilized and is no longer in danger of dying. If three unsuccessful saves happen first, the character is dead.

Other characters can stabilize a character by administering healing (potion, spell, etc.) to bring a character back to 1 hit point or more OR making a successful first aid check (Wisdom check). First aid does not restore any hit points, it just stabilizes the character and prevents them from dying.

If a character ever falls to a negative hit point value higher than their Constitution, they are dead.

Hit Points Regained from Resting: Characters heal 1d3 + level + Constitution bonus hit points/day.

Cleric, Elf and Magic User Spells: This game will use spontaneous casting, i.e., no need to prepare specific spells ahead of time. If you know the spell and have an unused spell slot, you can cast the spell.

Skill Checks: There are no skills in Basic D&D. We will use basic ability checks to adjudicate skills. Ability Checks consist of rolling a d20 and comparing it against your character's relevant ability score. Your ability check die roll may modified depending on task difficulty, backgroun, etc., but I will reserve modifiers to exceptional cases (e.g., attempting something insanely difficult). Rolling under (including difficulty modifier) is considered a success. Rolling over is an unsuccessful attempt.

Examples of Skills and Relevant Abilities
Strength - Athletics, Intimidation, etc.
Intelligence - Animal Lore, Crafting, Disguise, Engineering, Healing, Hunting, Knowledge, Mapping, Nature Lore, Professional Trades, Survival, Tracking, etc.
Wisdom - Animal Handling, Religion, etc.
Dexterity - Acrobatics, Mountaineering, Riding, Stealth, etc.
Constitution - Endurance, etc.
Charisman - Acting, Deception, Leadership, Music, Persuasion, Singing, Storytelling, etc.

Maximum Hit Points at 1st Level: Basic D&D can be a deadly game. To give players a fair chance of surviving, 1st level characters gain maximum hit points at 1st level. Players will roll hit points as normal for subsequently gained levels.

Experience Points: We won't be using by-the-book experience point rules for this game, instead using an accelerated XP model that I use in all my D&D themed games. Basically XP will not be parsed out and divided amongst the total number of players, retainers, etc. Everyone will earn full XP for encounters, treasure, etc. This system works really well for PbP in that your characters will level up over the course of a year's worth of play, and probably more than once! This is especially critical to keep players engaged with the game and doubly so because I tend to be a somewhat conservative DM with regards to treasure. Early versions of D&D assumed PCs would stumble upon mountains of treasure with great frequency. You will find treasure, but it will be more like molehills as opposed to mountains!

Ability Scores and Savings Throws: Ability score modifiers affect saving throws as follows:

• Strength: Modifies saving throws vs. paralysis and turn to stone
• Intelligence*: Modifies saving throws vs. mind attacks (charm, confusion, fear, feeblemind, sleep, etc.)
• Wisdom*: Modifies saving throws vs. spells and magical effects, but
  excludes breath weapons. All magical devices are included (wands, staves, etc., but not swords or other weapons)
• Dexterity: Modifies saving throws vs. wands and dragon breath
• Constitution: Modifies saving throws vs. poison (but not vs. death ray)
• Charisma: No modification to saving throws

* Combined modifier cannot exceed +/- 3
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:51, Wed 05 Aug 2020.