1.) Critical Hits will be worked out in the following manner: all initial damage dice deal their maximum, and you then roll the critical.

2.) Natural 1 ALWAYS Misses:  Roll again
   1     Weapon breaks, 1 round to draw a new weapon
   2-10  Weapon falls out of your hands and is thrown/kicked 2 rounds away.
   11-20 Weapon falls at your feet, round to pick/up or draw a new weapon.

3.) I roll one initiative for the adversaries.  Party members either go before or after that roll, depending on individual initiative. In critical fights with a major advisory, I might break out initiative in a more traditional way.  It then goes by 'POST' order, not INIT order for the party depending on whether you are a before or after order.

4.) Once combat starts, I run a 48 hour period between turns unless the entire party has posted.  At the end of 48 hours, I move out and assume those that didn't post panicked are fumbling through their gear, etc. (Obviously, if you've announced your absence, I'll play for you.)  Unfortunately, those that panic tends to draw the enemy to them the next round.  It's just a nice way to provoke character involvement or remove those no longer with us.

5.) I'm not caught up with encumbrance rules; I assume you drop all needless weight in combat.  The intent is to help combat move along and not let it bog down.

7.) Concerning Critical Success and Failure.

On any d20 roll outside of an Attack Roll that would result in a Natural 20 or 1, the following will occur:
20: Add 5 to your total
1: Subtract 5 from your total

8.)  Mulligan Dice Rolls.

Players have a number of Mulligans equal to their level at the start of each adventure. Treat these like free Inspirations, except they refresh between adventures. This is to offset the usually tricky Dice Roller and bad luck.

9.) Just have a great time. Please feel free to ask questions at any time. I am not always perfect. If you notice something that is not right ruleswise/ gamewise, please bring it to my attention. I want each of you to feel like it is not just my game but our game. I will reward you as players for contributions to the story and campaign with Inspirations, whether it is a new spell, adversary, or anything that improves/ enhances our overall story/ campaign. If you are having a problem with anyone, including me, please bring it up in a PM. Let's not clutter the OOC with such things. Thanks in advance! :)

From the Tal'Dorei book under House rules.

Accelerated Downtime
Certain adventures thrive on the adrenaline of the chase,
or the ever-present fear of ambush. As it stands, the need
to take a short rest can prove difficult during long dungeon
crawls, and this lends itself to a nice tone of personal stress
and risk-vs-reward. However, sometimes a rest is necessary
for the party to even continue, but the current rush of the
story’s clock won’t allow for a standard short rest. You could
consider lessening the required time to complete a short
rest to 30 minutes or less for the moment, or your entire
campaign, as an option. Another possibility is to allow the
party to take an Arduous Rally if they so choose.

Arduous Rally
The party spends 5 minutes to rally their resolve in the
face of coming peril, the adrenaline fueling their need
to push on. The party benefits from the completion of a
full Short Rest, but all healing gained by spending hit
dice is halved, and all rallying characters suffer 1 point of
Exhaustion (p. 291 PHB). Can not do it again until after a long rest.