You know, I really thought that would be true (about exploding over another game), but the pace is still quite comfortable for me. Combat rounds are the only thing that take bloody forever. When there is combat, then things can start feeling burdensome. Happily, the PCs are heroes for a reason and the combat is usually soon over.
Wystan, with regard to the setting, let's make it homebrew. I know my own setting well enough to be able to think on my feet on the fly, which is a timesaver in a PbP environment. I'll edit in my homebrew info into this thread's originating post.
There are no class or skill restrictions for this setting. About the only thing I could tell you with regard to possible restrictions is that because I personally don't seem to enjoy playing monks, I haven't built much monk support into the setting. Monks do exist, but in my mind they come from a "land, far, far away."
If someone were to want to play a monk and they didn't want to be that well-traveled, I would need to accomodate them by building in a network or networks of monasteries, orders, or the like. I could certainly do that, but I haven't to date. After that, someone wanting to play a cleric would definitely benefit from combing over the setting's pantheons. I'll post those too, probably more for completeness and flavor than for anything else since you're wanting to play a rogue/bard.
Let me know if you would like help with how gestalt works. Not sure if you have Unearthed Arcana, the sourcebook containing gestalt info.
