From Shahara

Contents 1 Policies 2 Creating Your Character 2.1 Available Materials 2.2 Statistics 2.3 Skills 2.4 Feats 2.5 Starting Wealth 2.6 Starting Above First Level 3 Player Conflict 4 Rules On Modern 5 Don't Be A Jerk 6 House Rules 7 Running Plots 7.1 Encounters and Required Knowledge 7.2 Dying 7.3 Who Can Run Plots 7.4 The Reward for Running Plots 7.5 Application For Plot 7.6 Submitting Logs

Policies

This page will contain a full list of policies for the game. All of these policies, as of right now, are in conceptual form. They are not yet approved.

Creating Your Character

When creating a character here, there are some things that should be borne in mind. All characters start at first level, except as described below. Character stats need to be filled in on a coded sheet, by a member of staff. Prepare a full sheet and email or @mail it to a member of staff.

Available Materials

When making a character, any material from a Wizards of the Coast 3.5 book, or from an approved 3.0 book, can be used. Dragon magazine materials cannot be used. Any 3.0 book which has been updated for use in 3.5, can be used.

Approved books from 3.0 currently include the Book of Vile Darkness only. It's notable that the flavor text from these two books does -not- apply, only the actual feats and other materials such as items and spells.

Books not published by Wizards of the Coast may not be used and will never be approved.

Statistics

We do not roll for stats. 28-point buy, as described on page 169 of the DMG, is utilized. See the index, for "Ability Score Generation".

Skills

Skill points are as normal. The addition of certain skills will be mentioned on the House Rules board, including alternate use of the Heal skill for surgery, and crafting of some modern items. It will also be possible to obtain a "Drive" skill for professional drivers who have to control cars or other vehicles in crisis situations.

Feats

Very few feats from the "Available Materials" list are banned. The only ones which are at current include Spellfire, and regional feats for Faerun. All other feats may be taken as they normally would be.

Starting Wealth

For first level, PCs receive the class' maximum gold. For example, 1st-level knights receive 240 gp.

Starting Above First Level

All characters start at level one. Those who wish their characters to start out higher must fulfill a few simple criteria.

Both of these criteria must be fulfilled:

• The new character may not have more than one class level starting out. Only templates or races may be applied to make up all of the player's ECL, minus one. A character of level 4 equivalent could be a level one Fighter/Half Dragon (LA 3), but not a level 4 Fighter. Furthermore, one must have achieved the level they intend to start the new character at. For instance, someone who levels from level one to level four has gained three levels, and so could start as a Level 1 class/LA+2 race character. It is also notable that one must purchase HD using levels in this way too. In short: One must have gained, from their starting level, enough levels to equate the number of levels above one that their new class will equate to.

• The character having achieved the level equivalent to be undertaken must be "retired" when the new character is created. This means the character vanishes from play, can be talked about, but never played again or revived except in extreme circumstances to be determined by staff. It is unlikely a character will be brought back upon request unless they've reached the level of "feature" character or another character of equal level were put into retirement to replace them.

The player must also do one of the following two things:

• The player must fill out the application detailed below, and it must be approved by a member of chargen staff.

• The player must submit to an interview by chargen staff, and possibly other staff members as well depending on the level of power the character will have, and the complexity. The requirement will be to demonstrate their ability to ably play the charcter.

The application:

Name: (Self explanatory)
Starting Level: (Self explanatory)
Classes/Races/Templates: (Give the templates, races, and classes you have, and their equivalence, level wise)
Character Background: (Two to three paragraphs about character's history)
Character Personality: (What's the character like, how do they react to being whatever they are? Show off your writing skill, make us WANT to give you the higher-than-first-level-ness)
Character sheet: (Affix your entire sheet. Including alignment, age, height, weight, physical description, and stats/abilities/whatnot. Try to indicate which things are influenced by your non-class features, as best you can)

You may also use email or @mail to request an interview, for those who don't feel like completing the application. You still need to have your full sheet complete to apply for this interview, as combat or some simple checks and rolls may be part. It will primarily be roleplaying based, and is used to demonstrate that you know how to play your character.

With any luck, we'll get back to you in a day or two. It's not like we'll make it rigorous, and if something's wrong, we'll always tell you how you can fix it.

Player Conflict

Player versus player conflict is regarded as an inevitability. It can add spice to plot, and occasionally one of you is going to get mind controlled anyway. During plots, the DM has absolute control but is generally advised to remind players that killing each other while in the middle of the enemy's lair, especially if that enemy is a necromancer who will revive the fallen, is a bad idea. Also it hurts your overall strength. However, outside plots there are very specific rules. During plots the DM decides if you die upon hitting -10 HP.

Under normal circumstances, consent must be mutual for one character to "kill" another. If a character is to reduced to -10 hp but has not consented to die, they are "stuck" at -9 and may need a hospital stay. In the event someone does something horrendously violatory of local law or custom, like killing a mess of children and doing... things with the remains, or punching the local king, they may be locked up until someone rescues them. Consent is not a shield or a blanket. It's a switch. You can turn it on or off, but it only turns on or off the lightbulb of your life. It doesn't prevent people locking you away.

You can attack other players, not just NPCs. However, doing so means they may attack you back likely without fear of repurcussions, and there are IC consequences. There are no restrictions on who may attack who, but remember: if you are constantly picking on people much lower in level than you, we will come down on you, hard. Consider what your actions OOCly look like too. If they look like bullying (It's not a fair fight, you do it for no reason other than to ruin their play experience), we may have to start restricting PvP actions. Or we may just have to restrict you specifically.

Rules On Modern

We know that intelligent players will attempt to apply their knowledge of modern equipment, conveniences and chemicals in an effort to defeat the enemy with cunning rather than brute force or the numbers. We like this. But something so crude as injecting an air bubble into someone's veins, or bringing chlorine and ammonia with you everywhere so you can mix them to make handy poison gas, is unwise. News gets around, and you don't know how air bubbles will effect non-human physiology, frankly. Be clever with modern items, but if a tactic seems more powerful than it should be, don't do it too much. Once in a while in an appropriate setting (the empty syringe trick in a hospital, the gas trick in your kitchen) is great! But think of unique stuff, so we won't have to pull out the administrative veto stick, please? As of right now, no ban on such tactics exists. Don't make me write one, my fingers hurt. When in doubt, ask. We'll always answer about whether or not a particular idea is good to use routinely. As to what's available, like it says on the Theme board, it's cutting edge technology. We'll have equipment lists for modern stuff, with costs and stats, though. So don't feel left behind if you're not good at modern equipment, you can always ask us.

Don't Be A Jerk

Basically, it says admins always have the final say, and while we don't like putting our foot down, will. This could be done to prevent harassment in game, to interpret the consent rules and what is or is not going too far, and generally to state categorically that we won't approve of one person ruining the game for another. It really is a way of adding: "Don't argue with us just because you don't like the call, understand that we have to be responsible for the whole game's balance and rules, but will always discuss the reasons for our calls before imposing them."

Example: Casting Quickened Silenced Stilled Five Turn Delayed Seething Eyebane through a handshake upon meeting someone for the first time, then leaving, without reason. Watching the acid, via scrying, splash on his beer buddies. We'd come to the scene, and you'd be in trouble.

House Rules

Be sure to read the House Rules board, it's vitally important. If curious about any given house rule, just ask. House rules may change, or crop up at random. They will be announced prominently. If you have a proposition for a house rule that you feel would ameliorate some observed unevenness in the game, let us know.

Running Plots

Encounters and Required Knowledge

Please have read the DMG. While material from any D&D 3.5 book published by Wizards of the Coast, and any 3.0 book we approve, is allowed, this book is paramount. Its details on experience distribution, rewards for quests, and so much else, are useful for creating plots. Of course, a DM can write a good plot with or without these guidelines, but try to stick to the rules for character development and advancement mentioned in the DMG (Including how much exp and loot is to be awarded by level, if at all able), and most importantly, have fun.

Dying

When a character is reduced to -10 hp in a plot or otherwise rendered dead, they die, at the DM's discretion, like in normal plots. Consent is not necessary. DMs are encouraged to give people the opportunity to be resurrected via some test or quest if possible, or else at a cost to characters.

Who Can Run Plots

Anyone on plot staff can run plots, and also anyone who fills out the following application and is approved by plot staff. The reason for the application is so one can be sure that the plot is suitable and meshes with current history. Even among plot staff, the plot application must still be filled out and submitted alongside the log, for the records.

The Reward for Running Plots

The reward for running a plot is half of the amount of XP the players got! That is to say, total up ALL EXP awarded to all players, and you get half that amount. Note that you can't "double dip" by having your own character involved in the plot, and also running it. You get the same amount of experience irregardless of your character's own level. If they're level four and your chosen character is level one, you may just end up jumping a couple of levels at once. You may choose the character to apply your experience to after the log has been reviewed and put up on the wiki.

Application For Plot

• Name For The Plot: (Name the log will be under on the wiki)
• Plot Summary: (Give a summary of what is to happen, the likely conclusion(s) which are possible, and key points including antagonists and allied npcs)
• Plot Location: (If new, give complete description. If existing locale, name it)
• Number of expected encounters: (A range is acceptable here)
• CR of plot: (The average challenge rating of all challenges. All challenges should be within one above or within two below this rating, or else they should be considered trivial. Character's party average should be this number or close to it)
• Estimated gold piece value of final treasure: (A rough estimate of what you're giving out)
• Estimated experience per character:
• New recurring NPCS: (Any villains you plan to have become part of the world's ongoing plot in this new place, or who will be recurring in your plots should be presented with an NPC statistics block as described in the DMG, here. You need only list them once in such an application.)
• New or special magical items: (Any magic item which is not standard (From a book), must be fully described and approved here.)
• Other notes or considerations: (Anything else you can think of.)
• IC Time Period: (How long is this plot, what days does it take place over. We need to know for item creation system purposes.)

Submitting Logs

In order for XP and items to be awarded for a plot, it must be logged in its entirety. Submitted logs can be emailed to darkriftwalker@yahoo.ca.

Logs should be free of all chatter except directly pertinent OOC commentary, and need only contain the actual RP and sessions in the main body of the text.

Awarded XP, and what it was awarded for, as well as awarded items, should be broken down alongside total number of encounters, at the bottom of the log. The name of all players involved should be listed, and the original application for the plot must be appended to the log. Only after this has been reviewed and approved will XP and items be awarded. Expect a day or two of turnaround.