Combat: PbP combat can drag out if done by-the-book, so the following rules will apply to combat in this game:

• Initiative is rolled for each side - all members of each side will roll and the average result is used for the entire side
• Players may post their actions in any order and I will resolve the actions as best as I can. If there is potential ambiguity due to what other players may be doing, providing an alternate action may help me resolve things without guessing or asking for clarifications.
• If a player does not post in time, I will choose their actions for them using their most likely options based on the situation and any past history as a guide

Multiple Spells in a Single Round: Barring a feat or class feature that says otherwise, on your turn you may cast more than one spell in a round if and only if one of those spells is a cantrip.

Skill Challenges: I quite like 4e style skill challenges and will use them. If you're not familiar with skill challenges, the way I run them is:

• There will be a set DC for each challenge, and there will be a target number of successes to make before a different number of failures are made to succeed the challenge
• Players roll initiative and follow turn order (you may post out of order, but they will be resolved in order)
• On each turn, the player will choose a skill to use that they have not yet used during the skill challenge and must make an in-character post justifying how using that skill will help in overcoming the problem at hand
• Players may not use any spells or abilities like guidance or bardic inspiration to gain bonuses on skill challenge rolls unless such spell or ability was already active prior to the start of the challenge
• Depending on how well (or poorly) things go, the end result of the challenge may be altered to reflect relative degrees of success or failure.

Posting Style:

• In-character posts should be written in present tense (e.g., "Bob goes to the stairs", not "Bob went to the stairs")
• When the character is speaking, include the spoken text inside double quotes, use the character's designated posting color, and bold the text. Use bold italics for emphasis
• When the character is thinking, do not include the spoken text inside quotes, use the character's designated posting color, and italicize the text. Use bold italics for emphasis [do note that technically thoughts are OOC and that other players shouldn't abuse their player knowledge, but it does help the fiction read better sometimes]
• Be descriptive and complete, but please don't write a novel on each post either
• For OOC mechanics (actions used, etc.), include as a separate paragraph at the end of the post in italics
• See example below

This message was last edited by the GM at 17:49, Fri 24 Feb 2023.

Additional rules to be aware of in this setting

Favors: The main currency of the Shadelands is favors. Promises are made and when services are rendered, there is always a cost, though that cost may be deferred. Patrons (and potential patrons) are everywhere and may offer to help at any time, as long as you're willing to pay.

Favors can take many forms, from performing a small task to swearing a pact to a patron (if you do so, your next level taken MUST be a Warlock level dedicated to that patron). Favors might be traded as well, so having somebody owe YOU something is never a bad thing to have.

Multiple Patrons: There really aren't rules for a Warlock to have more than one patron, so should this wind up happening, it will have to be dealt with on a case by case basis, coming up with some sort of hybrid set of warlock abilities.

Death: In most places, death is cheap due to resurrection magic. But that doesn't seem to work right in the Shadelands, at least not lately. So be careful out there... of course I'm sure that some patrons out there might be willing to save you from an early demise. For a price.

Replacing Players: We all know that PbP games are subject to players dropping out (with or without notice) due to real-life events or changes of interest. Because the campaign is designed as a series of chapters, when vacancies occur, they can typically be filled between chapters, writing out the departing character(s) and introducing the new one(s). Barring exceptional circumstances, an orphaned character will be NPC'd for the remainder of the chapter or until a logical place within the chapter can be found for the character to depart. I do not intend to recruit a new player to take over for an existing character unless it is unavoidably plot-critical, and then only for as long as needed to resolve that plot dependency.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:40, Thu 23 Feb 2023.