Character and Rules Guidelines

[Umiushi]

(Updated April 9th, 2013)
RULES SET
1. We will play using Dungeons and Dragons, fourth edition rules.

2. In general, I will stick close to the rules as they are written. I will try, but not always succeed, to inform players of any significant changes I make to the rules. I'll be the arbiter of what counts as "significant," but I will listen to your feedback. EXCEPTIONS: Monsters may be altered significantly, and will be used without advance notice. Also, the actual names of powers, feats, classes, and so on, may be changed.

3. The rulebooks currently used [subject to updates from time to time] are as follows:

• Player's Handbook
• Player's Handbook 2
• Player's Handbook 3 (partially utilized, see post #44)
• Dungeon Master's Guide
• Dungeon Master's Guide 2
• Monster Manual
• Monster Manual 2
• Monster Manual 3
• Adventurer's Vault
• Adventurer's Vault 2
• Arcane Power
• Divine Power
• Martial Power
• Martial Power 2
• Primal Power
• Heroes of the Feywild (partially utilized, see post #44)
• Draconomicon - Chromatic Dragons
• Open Grave
• Dark Sun Creature Catalog
• Manual of the Planes
• Demonomicon
• Underdark
• The Planes Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea

4. I try to use WOTC's most current set of rule updates, and consider them "in-play" as soon as they are released. Specific exceptions will be noted in this thread.

5.Material outside of those rulebooks will not be accepted, except that which I determine to use, personally. In other words, don't expect me to readily agree to use any inclusions from various sites or even other official D&D material. As of the most recent update, the only inclusion I have agreed to is the "Wish Upon a Star" article from Dragon Magazine #366.

6. I may add additional rulebooks to those in use at any point during the campaign. I will make the determination as to how much, if any, player characters can benefit from new additions. I will announce when a new rulebook is added.

PLAYER CHARACTER RESOURCES
7. Players must have access to the Player's Handbook. I don't care what form this takes, but it must be the complete rules with proper page indexing.

8. Players are not required to have access to any other rulebook. [However, see Guideline 13.]

9. Players will not be penalized for demonstrating knowledge from other rulebooks, including the Dungeon Master's Guide or the Monster Manual. Player advice will be welcomed, but player knowledge will not trump my rulings.

CHARACTER CREATION
10. Characters will be created using Method I or Method II (player's choice) from the Player's Handbook.

11. Characters will begin at the level of experience specified by the game (games on hiatus are italicized) they join. As of the most recent update:

• Aucothian Campaign - 4th level
• Romance of a Fallen Country - 2nd level
  
• Istao Mission Adventures - 2nd level
• Dispositio Diabolum - 12th level
• Order of the Green Lion - 5th level

12. All race, class, build, and power combinations from the included rulebooks may be employed.

13. A player may use any allowed race, class, build, or power combination, provided the player has access to the complete rules for them. The complete rules mean more than just the mechanical information, and include the full description of the rule in question, such as specific limitations on feats or the alignment restrictions for divine classes based on their deities. I realize there are some issues of fairness here, but my rationale is that a deva invoker should not be any more powerful than, say, an elven ranger. Therefore, players who only have access to the Player's Handbook are not at a disadvantage. If you wish more options, you must have access to the appropriate material. In essence, players must have complete access to the information of any ability they seek to incorporate into their characters. Using such online aids as D&D Insider is acceptable, but the information must be available in full, not as just a summary, and readily accessible to the player.

14. Similarly, players who wish to replace the Ritual Casting feat with Alchemy must have access to the Adventurer's Vault.

15. Players may use any of the mundane equipment presented in Adventurer's Vault without needing access to the rulebook. I will present a list of allowed and affordable equipment upon request. Mundane equipment from other sources, such as the Heroes of the Feywild book, will require access to the rules in question.

16. All players should make use of the special Character Background rules from the Player's Handbook 2. A summary of those rules is given in post #3, below. Please remember that you are not limited to the list of backgrounds presented in any rulebook, so you should never choose a background just for the "allowed" skills.

17. Characters may be Good, Lawful Good, or Unaligned. Evil and Chaotic Evil characters will not be allowed.

18. Deities in The Unquiet Lands are as listed in the Player's Handbook. Non-divine characters do not need a patron deity, but may choose one (or more) anyway. Divine characters must have a patron deity who is Good, Lawful Good, or Unaligned, and whose alignment is compatible with the character's according to the rules for that character's class. The specifics of religion will vary depending on the game. There may be in-game repercussions to certain selections, and these will be discussed in their appropriate threads, such as the Deities and the Empire thread for the Aucothian Campaign.

19. Equipment may be purchased according to the normal rules, but coinage and currency will also be discussed in different threads depending on the game, such as the Adventurers and the Empire thread for the Aucothian Campaign.

CHARACTER CONCEPT
20. Be as creative or as straightforward as you wish in developing your character's background. Imagination may be rewarded. Doing it "by the book" will not be punished. However, be prepared to come to a consensus with me concerning how your character fits into this world. There are certain constraints that must be observed, and I will try to list the major ones below. However, I will make a sincere effort to accommodate your desires. If, in the end, we cannot agree and you go elsewhere, it will be my loss.

21. Your character must be able to functionally work with the other characters, just as you must be able to cooperate with the other players. Please keep that in mind as you develop your character's background.

22. Your character is a hero, or is about to become one. This is not a story about the cook, the woodcarver, and the diplomat, unless they are also the rogue, the shaman, and the warlord. In particular, when the party is beset by zombies on the shores of the Haunted Lake, for instance, you need to be able to hold your own.

23. As your character makes his or her way in each setting, they must be able to function in a variety of environments, just as an adventurer needs to be able to deal with a variety of dungeons. A character who cannot show their face in a city, or one who must automatically commit an execution-worthy offense in a magnate's hall, may not be usable from the start. Even a tribesman from the remotest mountain village should be assumed to have enough common sense and have heard enough vague stories about the world at large to keep their head out of the hangman's noose during the course of a dinner with the local aristocrat, if the player allows it to be the case.

24. Do not lift an existing character wholesale. Even if drow were allowed in the campaign, a drow ranger named Drizzt would not be. I don't mind characters that are homages to existing characters, but woe betide the player who sneaks an exact replica past me, if I come to find out about it later.

PARTY CONSTRUCTION
24. I will gladly accommodate unbalanced parties. If everyone chooses to play a half-orc warden, so be it. In one of the better campaigns I played in, the party consisted entirely of human fighters, through no reason other than coincidence. No matter what else may happen, that will at least give us something to talk about.

25. However, I have no objection if players wish to make their characters with an eye to characters already developed. To that end, players may freely look up the race and class, but not the alignment, of any already-made character.

CHARACTERS WHO HAVE LOST THEIR PLAYERS
26. If you leave the game, I will retain the use of any characters you have submitted to me. While the character is of course yours, their existence in the game world is mine. At my discretion, I may give them to other players to run, use them as NPCs, or dispose of them. As a matter of general courtesy and simple maturity, I will never use a player's character to somehow "get back at" a player who is no longer in my game.