Campaign Rules & Guidelines

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DDK
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Campaign Rules & Guidelines

Post by DDK »

Game Protocols

This is just a miscellany of guidelines for play in the games that I run.

1. In Character.

In character speech is to be preceded by the slash command “/me” and is sent to the Maptools channel whilst impersonating your character token.

2. Out Of Character.

Out Of Character speech sent to the Maptools channel is just normal text sent to the channel whilst impersonating or not. Thus any text sent without “/me” preceding it will be assumed to be OOC. Every player should choose an easy to read colour that is not black or red as their character’s colour. This helps me distinguish who is asking what at a glance when it is all mixed up with bunches of other text and I have to scroll back to find everything.

3. Skill Checks & Challenges.

No skill check, ever, will be considered unless it is preceded by an explanation of what the skill check is for and what you wish to accomplish by rolling it. Saying, “I roll a diplomacy check on the captain of the guard,” isn’t good enough. You need to specify what it is you want to get from rolling the diplomacy check and you need to roleplay the action behind the check, for instance, tell me OOC that you want to find out from the guard how to get an audience with his charge and then roleplay something along the lines of, “‘Nice weather we’re having. Have you seen the cherry blossom blooms around the orchards down south? You remind me of a friend I used to work the farms with down there. Good fellow. Proud and strong. Say, you wouldn’t happen to know how it is I could get an audience with that fellow you’re guarding, would you?”

The same goes for skill challenges. No roll will be counted towards success or failure of the skill challenge unless it’s accompanied by some sort of interactive action, whether it be roleplaying or explaining the concept behind your attempt BEFORE you roll.

4. Nicks and log ins.

Your character name is what you should use as your nick for logging in to the Maptools server. This should also be the nick you use for Teamspeak. This is so that I always know who is saying what and when. As for Skype, I don’t care what nick is used.

5. Token Preparation and Maintenance.

It’s really important that tokens be prepared and maintained on your OWN time. Coming to a game with an unprepared token is a huge no-no as far as I’m concerned. Levelling up will only occur between games so after the session, when I’ve posted the session report to the forum (usually within 24 hours of having finished the session), you must update the token in preparation for next session. Magical items will be given as macros that I can save directly to your token so these can be given out mid-game, but you may still have to adjust minor things to accommodate them. Also the silver (neutral), red (enemy) and white (ally) plain token rings from Token Tool are reserved for NPC's and monsters.

6. Character preparation, maintenance and familiarity.

The same applies to your character. Not only that, but I expect players to be familiar with what their character is capable of, their role in the party, and any rules that are specific to their play such as familiars, beast companions, ranged characters and cover/concealment rules, etc. The Wrath of DM shall be inflicted upon any player who utters the words, “Umm, I don’t know how that works,” in reference to their own character. There will also be a condition where all players will need a subscription to DDI at the start of the campaign in order to provide me with a character builder file. I will be maintaining this file to keep track of your character's progress for my own purposes.

7. Rules knowledge & adjudications.

This brings me to rules knowledge. I don’t expect any player to be an expert. God knows I’m not. But I do expect everyone to have a solid understanding of the way the game works. If there is a conflict during the game, I will make an adjudication on the spot in order for play to continue. This may or may not be entirely fair or unfair to you or your character. I DON’T CARE. Get over it and keep playing the game. The time for figuring out rules disputes is BETWEEN sessions, NOT during.

Now, it must be said that I do not mind being corrected or having other people correct others on rules matters. I do like to stick to the rules as much as possible. I simply don’t ever want the rules to interfere with the fun and flow of the game.

8. Character creation.

Creating characters is a really important part of the gaming experience… for everyone at the table. Your character affects everyone, not just you. Playing a character that is going to steal everyone’s stuff and stab them in the throat whilst they sleep is going to get you booted from the game so fast you’ll wonder why you can taste your own arse. Make characters that will work well as part of the party and that the party will WANT to incorporate as part of their little family.

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