You will find the basic rules and answers to most of your questions here. If not, Private Message the GM.

1) Submit a Request to Join that includes the name of another game you play in, where I can find it, and what your character's name is.  If you do not play in any other games here on rpol.net start thinking of your sales pitch and it wouldn't hurt to include a little writing sample.  You are not compelled to include a character concept for this game but feel free to do so if you wish.

2) Once you are accepted into the game complete a character sheet according to the following guidelines.
DnD v3.5 rules

• Standard races only (No savage creatures, no ECL races)
• No material from Unearthed Arcana or Oriental Adventures
• No psionics
• PHB base classes only
• Maximum HP for first level
• Maximum starting funds based on character class
  
  1. Monk 20gp
  2. Druid 80gp
  3. Sorcerer, Wizard 120gp
  4. Bard 160gp
  5. Cleric & Rogue 200gp
  6. Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Barbarian 240gp
• Attributes must be rolled on this site’s die roller using 4D6 dropping lowest die and rerolling ones
• Forgotten Realms material may be used (Regional feats,  equipment, etc.)
• One Regional Feat may be taken so long as the Race and Region requirements are met.
• A creative though not necessarily extensive background must be written
• Must use and complete the character sheet provided

3) Once you have completed your character you must get it approved.  Send a Private Message to the DM stating you have completed the sheet and are ready to have it reviewed.

4) After receiving approval of your character begin posting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:10, Wed 20 Mar 2019.

There are links set up to various webpages and files that you will find useful throughout the course of this game.  Clicking on GAME INFO then FILE LINKS will allow you to view the links.  If you feel there might be a link of value not listed please Private Message the GM with the link.

Critical Hits
Critical hit damage will be determined by making multiple rolls of the normal damage.  For example, a character with a 12 strength making a critical hit while wielding a normal longsword (19-20/x2) would roll 2D8+2 not 1D8+1 and multiplying that result by two.

Required Sleep
Please apply the appropriate version based on the race of your character:

Characters are required to get 8 hours of sleep each gameday to automatically avoid fatigue.  Less sleep requires a fortitude save (DC 5, +2 per cumulative two hours less sleep) each day to avoid fatigue.

Elves are required to get 4 hours of reverie each gameday to automatically avoid fatigue.  Less reverie requires a fortitude save (DC 5, +2 per cumulative 1 hour less sleep) each day to avoid fatigue.

Natural 1s and 20s
For all rolls except attack rolls:  A natural one will be considered a -20 DM bonus to be applied on a second roll.  A natural twenty will be considered a +20 DM bonus to be applied on a second roll.  DM bonusses stack with all other bonusses/modifiers including other DM bonusses.

Experience points will be awarded in four distinct situations.

• As a result of an encounter
• As a result of great roleplay or an inspiring post
• As a result of solving or reaching certain plot points
• As a reward for quantity of posts

Treasure will be both randomly generated and placed for specific reasons or characters.

Character death will be a very real part of this game.  No I am not out to kill you and that will never be my intention but likewise it is not my intention to keep you alive no matter what choices you make.  The challenges will be of varying difficulty but I assure you that each presented to you will be surrmountable.

Should your character die (let's hope none do) I may not be able to allow you to create a new character and continue in the game.  I've mentioned that I did not intend for the group to be this big but, as players admitted to this game, I was blown away by your applications and found I could not turn any of you away.  That's good... and bad.  If it becomes difficult for me to provide a quality game to the players because of the quantity of you I will have to cut back.  The easiest way to do that is to not bring back new characters if the current ones should perish.  This is a difficult subject but one I feel I should be up front and honest about.  I want to stress however that I will NEVER put a character in a situation where they are doomed to fail just so I can get rid of them.  I was on the other end of that one time and I thought it was the crappiest thing in the world.

The division of treasure always seems to be cumbersome and problematic in an online game such as this.  In hopes of remedying some of the hassle I will handle it in the following manner.  Whenever group treasure is uncovered, such as after a encounter, I will provide a list of the items and a total monetary amount.  The treasure will be first-come-first-served as claimed by your In Character post.

I do not anticipate a problem since I know I have accepted a great group of roleplayers who won't abuse the system and become greedy.  However, should I feel my judgement of you all has erred and it is becoming a problem we will discuss a new system of treasure division.

In order to create some continuity in the reading, and to keep intentions clear, please adhere to the following posting conventions:

Please try to write the majority of your posts using third person as if a story was being told.  ie Brutus dodged and weaved his way across the open field as the arrows buried themsleves in the ground around him.

OOC Text should be in orange or in private lines.

Unspoken thoughts should be written in italics

"Spoken words should be placed inside quotes"

Any other conventions you use are fine with me so long as the intention is clear.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:44, Wed 20 Mar 2019.

As a rule of thumb I want the players to make their own rolls for any conscious actions their characters take such as skill checks, attacks, damage, etc.  Those rolls should be made on the dice roller and then included as OOC Text in your posts for my reference.  There will be times however when I will make rolls for the players/characters, usually in situations where your character has not taken a conscious action such a listen check while sleeping or when the game action would be significantly held up were I to wait for the player to make the roll.

Ah, the best part of the game.  When you have earned enough experience for your character to advance a level please follow these guidelines:

• Think about your character concept, where you've been, and where you want to go.  If you wish to share ideas or discuss this please don't hesitate to use the Character Discussion PM I've set up for each of you.
• Decide what class, feat, skills, etc will best fit what you've thought about above.  I do NOT enforce the multiclass XP penalty so long as the multiclassing is done to further a concept and not simply to powergame.  If you have questions about whether a non-core class, feat, etc. will be allowed discuss it with the DM in your Character Discussion PM.
• List all changes you will make due to leveling in a reply to the afore mentioned Character Discussion PM.
• Roll HP using the die roller rerolling any ones.
• Make changes to your character sheet.

This message was last updated by the GM at 18:00, Wed 20 Mar 2019.

Strategy and tactics will come into play during encounters so the rules of the game will be more ridgidly enforced than during normal play.  Diagonal movement will be handled inthe following way for NPCs and PCs alike.  The first diagonal movement will cost 5', the second 10' for a total of 15'.  The costs will then repeat such that each odd number of diagonal movement squares cost 5' each and each even number of diagonal movement squares costs 10'.
DIAGONAL     EQUIVALENT
SQUARES        STRAIGHT
(5' sq)               MOVEMENT
1                              5'
2                             15'
3                             20'
4                             30'
5                             35'
6                             45'
7                             50'
8                             60'
...                            etc.

We will be using weapon equivalencies in this game for different sizes of weapons.  Below is a list of the weapon equivalents for each descending size category.
Greatsword      Longsword      Shorstword     Dagger
Heavy Flail       Light Flail
Great Club       Club                 Sap
Great Axe        Batle Axe         Hand Axe
Spear               Short Spear     Dart
Heavy Mace     Light Mace
Warhammer      Light Hammer
Shortbow          Longbow         Greatbow
Hand Crossbow  Light Crossbow Heavy Crossbow Great Crossbow
(Above list is subject to additions/changes)

Example:  Suppose a goblin's great axe is plundered by a group of medium size characters.  The goblin is a small size creature so to determine what is the equivalent medium size weapon find the great axe in the list and move one item to the right since small and medium size are one step apart.  You'll find that the goblin's great axe is equivalent to a human's battle axe and would function EXACTLY as any medium battleaxe would for a human.  Similarly, an ogre who is a large size creature could use that same goblin's greataxe but it would be treated as a hand axe for the ogre.


Similar to magic armor that automatically resizes to it's owner, magical weapons will resize for their owners.  In keeping with the above example, assume the goblin's great axe was anchanted with a +1 bonus.  In that case the weapon would function as an appropriately sized +1 great axe for the human and ogre alike.

I've noticed that the subject lines of posts in this game are rarely, if ever, changed and I think I may have discovered why.  I've come to learn that some DMs frown upon the practice.  I do not.  If you wish to change the subject line when you make a post feel free to do so.  My only caveat would be during combat when I like to keep straight what round we are currently posting for.

I adhere loosely to the character wealth table in the DMG but on a party basis.  For example, a party consisting of six 5th level characters will have found/gained/acquired 57,000gp in wealth, enough such that if split evenly each character would have gained 9,000gp worth of items and equipment.

The manner in which I assure this is by regulating the treasure earned throughout the game.  That's an important distinction from what is owned.  Once wealth is earned it may be spent/used/accumulated in any manner of ways.  For instance if a potion valued at 1000gp is found and then consumed that 1000gp is still counted toward party wealth even though it was consumed.  The PC decided to spend the 1000gp at a particular point in time to benefit from the potion.  Similarly suppose a character gambles with 1000gp and doubles it to 2000gp.  The party's wealth will still be based on the 1000gp, not the doubled amount.  A wizard who chooses to use funds to scribe scrolls into their spellbook does just that, chooses to spend their wealth on that just as another character may purchase a suit of armor or clothing.  That same wizard may scribe scrolls and sell them for a profit with wealth being based on the material costs, not the selling price.

While it is not possible to maintain strict equality in character wealth at all times it should remain close so long as each PC makes sure to lay claim to some things out of each treasure.  Some extremely valuable items may boost a particular character's wealth far above the guideline temporarily but rest assured that everyone will average out over time.  From time to time I do look over the character sheets to see if someone is falling behind and do what I can to place an item that logically makes sense for that character to claim and therefore bring them up to par.  I also encourage the player's use of the Character Discussion private threads to bring to light any particular deficiencies a character may have as well as any 'christmas lists' the player may have for the character.