House Rules: (more as I think of them, comments welcome)

1) Initiative: As it slows down play by post games, will be rolled once at the beginning of a combat and the same order used for the entire scene.

2) Posting rates: I'm shooting for a post every 1-2 days and I hope you can all commit to the same. If you can't, this may not be the game for you. I plan on handing out bonus exp for 4+ posts per week on the plus side!

3) Posting etiquette: Everyone posts at a different rate at different times. I ask that no one post more than 2 in character posts in a thread until everyone present in that thread have a chance to post at least once. Let's not let two people run away with a scene with 38 posts in a day. I'll pledge to abide by this as well, EXCEPT that I plan on posting a GM update once every day or two, whether everyone has had a chance to post or not.

4) Absence in combat order: Stealing this from a wise GM I played with in the past. If someone misses their chance to post on this schedule they'll be given a chance to take two turns the next round. If they miss more than I round I may NPC them. I'm probably less shy about NPCing your characters than most GMs, If you are not OK with that, this may not be the game for you. It will still only be after about five days of un-announced absence. If you plan on not posting for 5 days or more and know you are in a situation where the plot could be held up by your inaction, please let us know!

5) Dice: I will roll dice for you as needed for things like perception checks, saving throws, attacks of opportunity, and anything else that will speed up play. If you have abilities that manifest often during opponents action, I'll ask you to provide me with a blanket instruction set on how you'd typically use them. For example, if you have the ability to make an opponent re-roll and take the lower, you might tell me to use it whenever an opponent crits.

more as I think of them
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:51, Wed 20 June 2018.

My Pledge:

I will update this game at least once every 48 hours on weekdays. I may miss an update on weekends.

This update may take the form of something like 'sorry guys, got busy, updates soon!' but I won't leave you hanging, unless something crazy happens to keep me from posting a 6 word update.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:35, Thu 31 May 2018.

Hi all. Just want to make sure you're all clear, I'm accepting players tomorrow afternoon/evening EDT. I think I've mentioned to some that I'll be making decisions after the weekend, but that doesn't mean tonight! Don't panic if you don't have an invite, nobody does until tomorrow.

So still time to get me something if you've been thinking about it.

Invites will be going out shortly. A few comments both for those who got in and for those who haven't.

I got 26 applications and most were really good. I thought about forming two groups, but honestly I think I'd just burn out if I did, and that doesn't help anyone.

I think 5-6 is probably a good number for play by post Pathfinder groups. I'm going to take 8, as I suspect one or two will drop out in the next month or two and we'll be down to my ideal number.

I gave no consideration to class or role in the end when accepting people, just a judgement call on how well I think your style and my style will mesh. I want to be a little bit collaborative with character creation, so I hope you'll have some flexibility. That being said, play what you want! Or at least don't feel you have to play something you don't want! Don't let anybody, including me, pressure into playing a character you aren't thrilled with.

So, what next?

Have a look at the character creation thread and post as instructed there when you're ready. You can say hi or whatever else in the OOC thread as well, but try to keep random ooc banter to that thread, and character creation discussions to the other one.

If you didn't get an invite, I'm sorry, it's no comment on the quality of your submission. I was really trying to predict who'd fit best in the atmosphere I am planning for the game. With another game I might have picked differently. Good luck on your rpoling!

Character creation (crunch) rules

Now that we're kind of clear on concepts for everyone (I think!) let me tell you some of the character creation rules. Nothing too unusual, I don't think

Characters are created at the 1st level using only Paizo material (unless otherwise approved)

Ability Scores: 20 Point Buy

Race: As in your concept, any deviation needs approval at this point

Class: As approved in your concept. Any deviations need approval at this point

Traits: 2 (One must be from the Adventure Path, see the player's guide linked elsewhere), Up to 1 Drawback allows an extra trait, but never more than 1 of any type (magic, campaign, etc.). Traits and drawbacks are subject to approval and need to line up with character concept and backstory

HP: Max at First, Average Round Up Afterwards

Gold: Average for Class

Skills: I'll be using the background skills variant as outlined at http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...ackgroundSkills.html .  Basically, you gain 2 extra skill points per level, but they must be spent on a limited set of skills that primarily build flavor into the character.

Character sheets: I don't really care what you use. I'm going to copy everything into my own personal format I think, but it's a messy table I stole from another GM, so I don't expect you to edit it! Get the sheets to me however you like, if there's anything missing I'll let you know!

So I haven't been enforcing rule 3) above in the prologue posts since they're mostly just character development. I'm fine with a few characters chatting it up in prologue posts. But I am going to ask people abide by it when I start making plot-advancing posts. But let me expand on it a little for clarity

3) Posting etiquette: Everyone posts at a different rate at different times. I ask that no one post more than 2 in character posts in a thread until everyone present in that thread have a chance to post at least once. Let's not let two people run away with a scene with 38 posts in a day. I'll pledge to abide by this as well, EXCEPT that I plan on posting a GM update once every day or two, whether everyone has had a chance to post or not.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:51, Wed 20 June 2018.

Downtime rules

See https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamem...ther-rules/downtime/ for (much) more details!

I plan on incorporating time between adventures to allow your characters to do many things. Pathfinder has rules to allow this.

So for example let's say there is a week between the goblin raid and ... whatever major event happens next. During that week characters can do things. Eliza might begin repairing her home, Ophilia might craft some potions, Jasna might earn some coin cooking, and so on. The downtime system helps manage that time.

Downtime Activities

A few examples of what your character might do during downtime (see link above for many more examples):

- Add Spells to Your Spellbook
- Construct Buildings
- Craft Magic Items
- Craft Mundane Items
- Earn Capital (capital is used in constructing buildings and other tasks)
- Promote a Business
- Replace Your Animal Companion
- Replace Your Familiar
- Research Facts and Lore
- Rest!!!
- Retrain

and many other options.

Construct Buildings

Characters can have buildings build during downtime (and while they're out adventuring as well). Buildings can have all sorts of benefits like providing a base of operations, a source of gold and etc. Buildings require capital to build. There are four kinds of capital; goods, influence, labor and magic. If the required capital is available, a building can be built, though it takes some time to be finished.

For example, let's say Eliza wants to rebuild her alchemy shop. It's totally destroyed and burned to the ground. In the link above you'd see an alchemy shop needs certain rooms;1 Alchemy Lab, 1 Bedroom, 1 Garden, 1 Kitchen, 1 Lavatory, 1 Sitting Room, 1 Storage, 1 Storefront. Each of these requires a certain amount of good, influence, labor and magic to construct. Each takes a certain amount of time. If we put it all together, Eliza's shop will require  48 Goods, 2 Influence, 41 Labor, 1 Magic. It will take 108 days to reconstruct if the goods/etc. are available. you can reduce construction time by a factor of 2/3/4 by paying 2/3/4 times the goods cost.

Earning Capital resources:

As for acquiring these resources, there are 3 primary ways to do it. You can buy them outright, 20 g for a unit of goods/labor 30 for influence and 100 for magic. Adding that up, buying everything for Eliza's shop would be 1940 gold to buy all the resources outright.

You can also earn resources by 'sweat equity'. Much like crafting you can get resources half price by working for them. So you can acquire a point of goods for 10 gp, if you use a relevant skill.

Goods: Appraise, Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (dungeoneering, engineering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility, religion), Profession, Sleight of Hand, Stealth.

Influence: Appraise, Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), Linguistics, Perform, Profession, Ride.

Labor: Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (local), Profession, Ride, Survival, Swim.

Magic: Appraise, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, nature, planes, religion), Linguistics, Profession, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device.

You roll a skill check for each day (it's fine to take 10 on it) and earn the number of capital points equal to the roll divided by 10 (rounded down).

OK, enough to digest for now!

Also, I've taken to using an estimate of remaining enemy hitpoints. Lightly wounded (or lightly hurt) means 80-100% hitpoints remaining, injured or wounded or words to that effect mean between 50 and 80%, severely wounded 20-50%, nearly dead 0-20%.