Re: Character creation and other general guidelines
Posting and game conventions:
-As mentioned before, be polite, and no declaring other peoples’ actions, whether PC or NPC. (Exception: Animal companions and summoned creatures are under your control except in exceptional circumstances.)
-If you’re a prepared spellcaster, make sure you’ve noted on your character sheet what spells you have set up; we’re not starting out with a rest period. After that, when you do rest, please private me whether you’re changing your prepared spells or not.
-Feel free to color your dialogue or not. Please do make some kind of OOC note when you’re not talking or acting in character, like for dice results. Also, if you’re specifically trying to avoid the ears of your fellow party members by talking in a foreign language, private it to me and I’ll private it back to those that can understand it; otherwise, just go ahead and note the language you’re speaking in and let the others decide for themselves whether they understand or not.
-Be very specific in the dice roller. Make clear what you’re doing and who you’re doing it to. Also, please copy the results into your post, rather than just leaving them there for me to look up.
-Feel free to use titles for your characters, but keep in mind they’ll be self-assigned and likely perceived as such. Everyone is starting on an even social footing. (Well, technically, everyone is starting with the same social ceiling and some people elected to go below it.)
-I’ll be rolling Spot and Listen in secret for you, since I’ll assume you’re always being alert. I will not be rolling Sense Motive for you; I’ll leave it up to you when you want to be suspicious of someone.
-There’s a few things worth noting about my no-railroading policy. First, just as a matter of necessity in a play-by-post, there’ll be times when I assume what you’re doing to keep things moving. I’ll try to keep it to minor stuff, but if I accidentally step on an action you’d intended – for example, I describe walking through a town with beggars in it, but your character always stops and throws coins to beggars – SAY SO. We’ll back things up as necessary. Similarly, shooting a villain as soon as he starts a speech, even though I already typed the whole thing out, is perfectly allowable if your character would have done so under the circumstances.
-On a related note, unless I have specific orders to the contrary, I’ll assume that anyone can speak for their group in terms of things like moving around and entering initiative, since otherwise we’ll have to get group consensus on a lot of things and it’ll bog down. You’ll need to get in an objection quickly if you have one, since I can’t really rewind over the party seeing an ambush in the next room or something.
-As a more general no-railroading matter, never assume that because you’ve been presented with a potential adventure hook/plot item/NPC party member, I want you to take it. My job is to impartially arbitrate whatever actions you guys want to take.