Hints and Decisions
- Try to describe your actions as detailed as possible, not just "I'll search the area", specify where exactly you want to search and how you want to search (e.g. do you open all the drawers or look around or walk into the dark corner and search it)
- Players do all the Ability Checks (Skill checks) rolls themselves, include the name of the skill in your roll, this makes it clear for me what you are aiming for (e.g. "get info from the enemy" could either be Persuation or Intimidation)
- At start of the combat (that is when at least one person wants to attack and can attack) I will do Initiative checks to determine order
- If you want to attack, roll both hit and damage depending on weapon used
- If you forget a roll and the next round is ready, I won't waste a round asking you to do a roll, I'll do the roll instead; if however the next round is not ready yet, I might post a hint that you still need to do a roll; if you have advantage / disadvantage I'll add the bonus roll (if it's clear feel free to already include it in your roll)
- If I notice you did a wrong roll and it's easy to recalculate, I'll use the dice result and add the appropriate modifier (make sure your rolls are verbose - check the guide on dice rolling on these forums and the dice roll testing thread); generally I won't be able check on all your rolls and stats on every roll so I'll have to rely a bit on you
- HP of the monsters will not be visible, but you can see how much damage you did already
- I'll list units in order of initiative, behind the units there can be certain markers: ">Goblin A" means you are in melee with Goblin A, there might be more hints on the position, but it'll depend on the encounter, melee matters the most due to opportunity attack when someone tries to get out of melee and penalties for ranged weapons
- You have not drawn any weapon by default, you can draw a weapon with your "Other" action, so you can use an "Action" (e.g. attack) on the same turn, make sure you state which weapon you are drawing; keep in mind that putting your weapon away also takes your "Other" action, so if you want to put one weapon away and draw a new one within one round you will need both your "Other" action and your "Action" and consequently can't attack on that turn; also keep in mind that you need one hand free to cast spells marked with S (somatic), so don't forget to mention that you put away your weapon (if you've drawn one) before you start casting, spells that are both somatic and material can also be cast with a magical focus without a free hand
- Ask questions! Just because the initial description doesn't include it, it doesn't mean it's not there. If you want to check on anything or clear something up just ask. In dark places without any light source my description might be very vague. If you want to use Darkvision to see further or create a light source, you need to tell me. You can also ask about information on monsters (nature, arcane, ...) and magic items (history, ...).
- Outside combat the acting order doesn't really matter, feel free to discuss with each other as much as you want, no need to wait for me. Outside combat I'll try to reply as soon as possible rather than waiting for everyone to do something. Though I might wait if a certain player didn't act at all yet and I want to see what he does.
- Inside combat the order is by initiative, but please all post directly what you want to do instead of waiting for me (unless the monsters act in between). It will just take too much time. You can use if sentences to tell me that you will do something else if a certain condition is met like "I'll do x. If Goblin A is dead, I'll do y instead". I'll try to check more often than once a day and if I see the next characters already posted, I'll play out their turns even if not all posted their actions for the round yet. That allows the others to already see the results and react better accordingly. Generally, if you haven't posted since my last post, you should post. I'll keep a marker to show who has the next turn.
- Per combat round you always have Move, 1 Action, 1 Bonus Action, 1 Other Action and 1 Reaction available (though no bonus actions are available by default); if you do not state otherwise (or don't post at all), your Action will default to "Dodge" and your Reaction will default to "Opportunity Attack with intent to kill"; bonus and trivial actions will only be executed when explicitly stated by you.
- Outside combat, please make sure to only do one action that requires a roll until I have posted again. Do not search multiple areas with multiple perception rolls, you can state you want to search multiple areas, but only do one perception roll (the more you check the harder to see anything at all). Also do not combine different rolls like survival and perception. You are either reading footprints/find an optimal path or you are looking for living creatures but not both at the same time. This does not mean you can only post once per round. I actually do encourage you to so some discussing on what to do before you even act, then add your action on a later post. If you just do an action and see everybody else is moving on, you can also add movement to your action. The moment I play out your action, you are free to do a new one.
- Only actively do stealth rolls if you know what you are hiding from. If not, simply state that you walk silently, stealthily or slow. In case you run into an enemy while doing so, I'll automatically roll stealth for you to see if you surprise the enemy or not. Everybody visible to the enemy at end of the round of the encounter needs to roll for stealth which is checked against the enemy's passive perception, only if all succeed, the enemy is surprised.
- Don't loot enemy's weapons and armor unless you want to use them for yourself, they are worth nothing on the market
- You always attack with the intend to kill unless you state otherwise (note: only melee attacks can knock a non-PC unconscious)
- If any of your feats apply on any roll, please mention it, don't expect me to know everything out of my head
Resting:
- Short rests can be done any time when the PCs did at least one battle since the last short rest, players decide when to do a short rest
- Long rests can only be done when an adventuring day was finished, the DM will tell the players when doing a long rest is possible, players can still decide to keep going
- When resting in a violent environment there is the risk of being attacked, the risk might increase if you rest too frequently
- General guideline: 2 battles between short rests, 6-8 battles between long rests
- Keep in mind that you can also be attacked while traveling, so leaving the dungeon after every battle to rest safely in town is usually not possible
Inspiration:
- There are two or three parts in the adventure where you can earn inspiration based on your adventure hook
- Other than that I grant inspiration for intentionally doing a suboptimal action resulting in a disadvantage because it fits better to your character's personality
(This prevents that you feel forced to always min-max your actions, ignoring your PC's actual personality.)
(Sometimes it might not be so obvious that you are doing it, so try to be clear so I don't miss out on giving you the bonus.)
- Keep in mind that you can not accumulate inspiration, you either have it or not
PC Death / Creating a new character:
- To make PC death something you want to avoid at all costs, the penalty of actually dying without being revived is harsh
- A new character will always start at level 3 with 900 XP
- A slightly modified "catching up" AL rule applies:
a) When a PC reaches level 4 and all other PCs are level 5 or higher, he instantly levels up to the start of level 5
b) When a PC reaches level 10 and all other PCs are level 11 or higher, he instantly levels up to the start of level 11
- There might be exceptions to the rule if it fits into the story, but don't rely on it
Rule decisions:
- Monster HP will be fixed
- Monster damage will be rolled
- MaxHP increase will be rolled, if it really occurs that a character does multiple really bad rolls in row, I might give him a blessing and allow him to reroll
- Warnings will be given, but only if really necessary and without revealing any information (e.g. "Are you sure?")
- Challenge will be as hard as written in the campaign, I won't make it easier for you
- Money will automatically be shared, other items are up to the players to discuss
List will be expanded as we play and notice something isn't clear.
Status
At the end of my post might be a "status list". It's mostly for my own information, but if you want to use it too, here's an explanation.
The status list could look like this:
Heran HP 6/9 Used * [North] > Goblin A
Thorpe HP 8/12 Used *
Hawk HP -3 [Air]
Slyberos HP 8/8 MP 1/0 Used *
<----
Goblin A HP -6 [North] > Heran
Goblin B HP ? [???]
Novonod HP 12/12 Used SW [South] > Slime
Flinn HP 7/11 MP 2/0 Used * [South]
Slime HP -3 [South] > Flinn
Units are listed in their acting order (decided by initiative rolls at the start of a combat, the same type of monster acts together). The arrow pointing at Slyberos indicates that his turn is next (so the Hawk was the last one who acted). Player names are in bold so you can quickly find your own line.
For players you see the following information:
HP - current HP and max HP (e.g. Heran has 6 of his 9 HP left)
MP - available spell slots, first number is first level spell slot, second number is second level spell slot and so on (e.g. Slyberos has 1 first level spell slot left and no more second level spell slots)
Used - here all the "once until next rest" abilities are listed that have already been used and consequently can no longer be used (e.g. Novonod used Second Wind in the example above), * means nothing used yet
[] - vague explanation of current position, varies on the encounter, if it takes more than one round to go from one position to the next (>25-30 feet distance), I will tell you in text
> - melee combat link, meaning you are in melee range of that unit (usually because you just melee attacked it), this is relevant because moving out of melee range without the disengage action can provoke an opportunity attack, if you target a different monster than that attacks you, you create a melee chain, meaning you are in melee with multiple units (e.g. Slime is in melee with Novonod and Flinn)
Differences for monsters:
HP - you only see ? or HP substracted already, you have to conclude max HP yourself
[] - if you don't know the position (e.g. because the monster is hidden) it shows [???]
Campaign Text
When I quote text straight from the adventure book, it'll be written in italics.
When I post OOC in the campaign thread, it will be in green text colour.
Everything else is written normal and in black.
When someone talks, I'll put that in "".
