Keep these in mind and you'll do fine:

1. When in doubt ask.
   If you're stuck in-game or out-of-game, not sure how to react or feel like there is anything preventing you from posting, either drop a line in any OOC chat or send me a PM. If you don't get an answer within 24 hours, poke me via PM. While I may not update every day, I do keep an eye out for PMs and questions.
   
   
   
2. It's your character.
   I spend my day trying to figure out plot lines and run encounters. I do not memorize character sheets. If there is important information pertaining to your character (like how you have dark vision so you don't get the dark penalties I posted) it is your responsibility to bring that up, not mine to remember it. You are the advocate for your character, it is your job to give them every advantage they can have. If you have questions, see Rule #1.
   
   
   
3. If you have to leave, drop me a line.
   If you're going to be absent for longer then a week, or your RL schedule means you're going to be busier then normal, or school is starting and RL has to be adjusted...whatever the case, drop me a PM before you disappear for longer then a week. If you haven't posted in a week I will view you as an AFK player. I will then begin to NPC your character if they are vital to the plot, finding a replacement player, or working them out of the story. If you disappear for two weeks without prior warning, don't be surprised to find that you no longer have a character. This doesn't mean I can't work you back in, but it would ALL be resolved much better with a bit of forewarning. Even if you don't KNOW but just THINK you might have difficulty posting, see Rule #1: When in doubt, send a PM.
   
   
   
4. If you take too long, I will advance the story.
   PbP can be slow enough without spending weeks/months trying to create a plan. I've seen this happen game after game after game where when the party has to make a decision nothing gets done and the game grinds to a halt while people just mill around without anything to do. When you are ready for the scene to advance you can notify that clearly by writing in an OOC line at the bottom:
   
   OOC: READY!
   
   This will signify to both me and the rest of the group that you're ready to move on. When the majority is ready (or I get bored :P) the game will advance. I will post a default plan and if the plan hasn't changed before then, then that is what you're going to be doing. If you don't like it you'd better speak up and get a new plan in the works before I get bored and hit the fast forward button.

This message was last updated by the GM at 03:10, Tue 14 May 2019.

General Posting

For posting I will be doing the following:

• "Speech is bolded" to help make it pop. I know some people interpret that as always shouting but that isn't the case. The purpose is that if you're skimming the thread you can quickly pick out what is being said versus is thoughts or other descriptions.
  
• "Speech is colored by the target's opinion of you.". If someone is speaking to you as a friend or ally they will talk in blue. If they are hostile it will be in Red and neutral is just black.
  
• Out of Character is Orange Orange is a reserved color for OOC comments and mechanics. Battle damage, reminders about this or that, asking you or letting me know that you are ready to move on with the game etc.

For players I highly encourage taking up a color for speech so again when scrolling it is easy to pick up on but you can post however you would prefer. I will ask that you post in 3rd person format as that tends to be the norm and I find 1st person posts from different people to be difficult to read.

---

Combat Posts

So I'd like you to use the following format for combat posts:

Underneath your descriptive post I would like you to clearly spell out each action you are taking and what you're doing with it. If you take a Move and a Standard action it should go like:




If you do make an attack please append the AC that you hit and the amount of damage (as well as the damage type if it's doing something unusual like fire or cold etc.) Then append your dice rolls below it. For example:



All in all it should look something like this:



This message was last updated by the GM at 04:24, Fri 08 Mar 2019.

DO NOT WAIT TO POST IN INITIATIVE ORDER

Instead post whenever you are free to.

As for how I am handling order of combat Initiative will be used. Although you will be posting out of order when I proceed with updates I will adjust things to occur in initiative order. Generally this will be fine but on occasions due to unexpected events I may either make a minor tweak to your action (i.e. having you step forward before using your attack roll or redirecting to the next nearest enemy) but some events might result in greater tweaks and in those cases I might have you go back and "re-do" your previous turn's action.

In case of major updates (i.e. a player drops, a big new monster enters the fray etc.) I will pause combat at that initiative order and people can re-submit their actions to account for this dramatic new turn of events.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:20, Fri 24 July 2020.

I will be posting a combat tracker that will track things like AC, HP, abilities, buffs, spells, consumables etc.

This will be at the bottom of my combat posts and will provide lots of helpful information.

NPC HP
You will never know specifically how much HP an NPC has (unless via some magical effect). Instead I will post a description of their health ranging from Healthy to Dying. The specific ranges are based off of what percentage of their health remains.


So a monster that has 1 out of 4 HP remaining will be listed as Mauled. This goes for NPCs as well, including retainers/cohorts etc.

Buffs/Debuffs/Effects
There is a section on the tracker for tracking conditions and those will be noted at the bottom. Note that if an effect alters your combat stats (i.e. +1 to attack and damage) then that will be automatically reflected in the stats I list out. Do not re-apply any modifiers. That being said, if you don't understand why a modifier is listed let me know as I make mistakes sometimes, especially if there are a lot of conditions going on and off that alter stats constantly.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 04:23, Fri 08 Mar 2019.

I will be using some custom rules for using parts of monsters to craft magical items. Specifics vary going from monster to monster but in general this is the system:

• It will require a knowledge check (Nature or Arcana or Religion) to identify the parts you can use and then a Medicine check to recover it. DC depends on CR and what you're trying to get.
  
• In general the items that can be gathered are:
  
  • Brains/Organs/Fluids - to craft potions and scrolls
  • Blood - to craft poisons or monster-slaying consumables
  • Scales/Armor - to craft armor and equipment
  • Claws/Fangs - to craft weapons
  
  
  So if you kill a basilisk (a creature whose gaze turns things to stone then grabbing its eyes would allow you to craft scrolls of Flesh to Stone or Stoneskin. Meanwhile its saliva cures petrification so can be used to craft a potion of Stone to Flesh. Its blood can be used to craft Basilisk-Slaying magical arrows. Finally its skin could be crafted into a light armor that provides advantage against petrification attacks.
  
• You will need to find someone who can work the magical items. Typically this requires either a highly skilled artisan/alchemist/smithy, a tome that provides detailed instructions, or both depending on the strength of the item. This might be a quest or challenge in and of itself albeit one that will probably take place to the side of the main quest during downtime.

NOTE: That not every enemy you encounter will be usable like this. Humanoids are off limits for the PCs in terms of organ harvesting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:51, Fri 08 Mar 2019.

D&D 5E has a metric ton of optional rules so I will try to list out the ones I will be using here:

• Action Options (DMG p271) - As alternatives to just attacking you can: Jump on a larger enemy's back, attempt to disarm them, Overrun through their square, or shove aside as per rules.
  
  I will not be using Mark and Tumble is modified in that it isn't opposed by acrobatics but is instead opposed by a single melee attack. So basically they get an AoO on you and if you can beat their roll with your Acrobatics check then you evade the attack and reposition yourself. I have not tested the mechanics of this but thematically and cinematically it makes the most sense to me.
  
  
• Crafting Magic Items (DMG p128) - players will be allowed to craft magical items but the process will be much more involved than listed. Consumables (potions, scrolls wands etc.) will follow rules in the DMG but more involved and permanent magical items will be using a custom process that will mostly involve the usage of downtimes and offscreen adventuring.
  
  
• Equipment Sizes (PHB p144) will be enforced. This includes magical items although more powerful items will have the ability to automatically resize themselves or smaller creatures can wear rings like bracelets etc.
  
  
• Feats (PHB p165) will be allowed as alternative to ability score bumps. Some of the most powerful/least powerful feats may be altered to bring them in line with other picks. If there is a feat that you really need for a build idea please check in with me ahead of time so we have time to discuss it.
  
  
• Healer's Kit (DMG p266) - healer's kits are necessary to heal during short rests. It helps add a bit of realism back to the game and means that especially lengthy dungeon crawls can still end up taxing a team's healing abilities.
  
  
• Hero Points (DMG p264) - I will not be awarding inspiration however you will receive hero points. You start with 5 and earn more as you level up. You can spend them as written (Ie. add 1d6 to a 1d20 roll) as well as using them to convert a failed death save into a success. I will also allow you to spend hero points to "downgrade" injuries (see below). As per HP you will roll 1d6 and add it to the results however anything less than 0 is treated as a 0 so you can always downgrade your injuries with hero points. You can also spend multiple hero points on it so if you REALLY don't like injury rules then this will let you get past quite a bit of them per level.
  
  
• Injuries (DMG p272) - Injuries will be possible whenever you are critically hitor reduced to 0 HP. There will be some caveats on how this will be handled however as the eventual system will be something like 1d20+CON score - Damage dealt with more than 20 being the injury is resisted and a 0 or less means two rolls on the injury chart. TBD for now.
  
  
• Mixing Potions (DMG p140) - If you are under an effect from a potion and quaff another one then something strange, dangerous, or wonderful might happen. Yes that includes healing potions while under some other effect so keep that in mind.
  
  
• More Difficult Magic Item identification (DMG p126) - You will need to either experiment or cast Identify or do research to discover the properties of a magic item.
  
  
• Multiclassing (PHB p163) will be allowed on a conditional basis. I will evaluate each request in terms of game balance, how complicated it will make character maintenance and how well it reflects the RP choices of the character since the game started.
  
  
• Planar Effects (DMG p50) - Going to other planes will introduce new hazards to the environment. I will be using a variety of personal and published sources for these but you can always attempt to research to find out what the hazards will be ahead of time.
  
  
• Scroll Mishaps (DMG p140) - If you fail to cast a scroll something wonderful or terrible might happen.
  
  
• Training to Gain Levels (DMG p131) - You will be receiving periodic HP updates throughout your adventures but to unlock new abilities/advance proficiency etc. you will need to go back to civilization and train. This means also possibly needing to find a teacher which will occupy your downtime efforts at higher level.
  
  
• Variant Humans (PHB p31 will be allowed but I reserve the right to veto any feat pick for game balance reasons.

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:15, Sun 10 Mar 2019.

Additional House Rules will be listed here:


Strongholds
I will be doing some custom stuff with strongholds. Basically the jist is that if you build a stronghold you can attract followers, cohorts, armies and unlock special bonuses for your character like creating custom spells for magic users, receiving divine blessings for divine users, and increasing the effect of your abilities and proficiency for other characters.

Strongholds are very expensive though and probably won't be discussed further until around level 5 or 6


Lucky Feat
The Lucky feat I feel is a bit too powerful by its nature and I will instead be altering it to adding a single d4 to a d20 roll. This will allow your luck to let you turn a close miss into a hit but won't dramatically alter things. You can stack this with a Hero Point.

Critical Initiative
If you get a natural 20 on Initiative rolls then either your first round gives you an additional 50% of movement OR your action taken that round gains advantage.

If you get a natural 1 on initiative then your movement speed is cut in half AND your action taken has disadvantage (if applicable).

Critical Hits
If you get a critical hit, enable the "reroll 1's" option on your damage roll.

Level Up HP
When you level up you will receive the average HP (round down) + 1d(1/2 your HD). You will receive the average HP amount at regular intervals as you level (as per training to level up as above) and will roll the die when you train. For example if you have a d6 HD then you will receive 3+1d3 HP per level.

I want to encourage people to be creative in their combat posts. Feel free to narrate different scenes with the NPCs you're fighting to help flex those creative muscles.

One thing to consider is that an attack roll does not always mean you took a swing and a miss doesn't always mean you didn't hit.

For example any of the following could represent a "failed attack"





Huge epic combat posts aren't a requirement. I understand that between referencing character sheets and maps and rolling dice it can really suck your time away but if you find yourself feeling like combat is dragging on or you're tired of writing "I swing and I miss" over and over again consider the above as a way to help make combat a bit spicier not just for you but for your fellow players as well.