Take a look at this, and tell me if it makes sense and is suitable for the 1st post in a new "Guide to LEW" thread:
The Guide to Living EN World (Updated 05/26/04)
Living EN World is a community campaign setting where a large number of characters can interact in multiple different adventures, campaigns, and stories. Multiple adventures run simultaneously with their own DM and players. What happens in one adventure can directly affect another adventure, and what happens in all of the adventures affects what is happening in the world.
Everyone
First, all regular rules for the message boards are in effect. If there is any confusion on this, consult the FAQ or email Creamsteak or any other moderator.
In order to get started, a member needs to set their settings on the message board so that an active email address is available to other participants in the game. This can be done by going to the User Control Panel -> Settings -> and then selecting to accept emails from other board members. This is necessary so that relevant emails can be sent to your address readily. Allowing your email address to be made public is important because if your email address is private only, a moderator or admin would need to retrieve the email address and email the user to request if the user would like to receive an email from the individual player or DM. Adventures and characters will not be approved if your email address is not available to the other LEW community members.
Players
In order to play, you will need to create a character. A character is created using the guidelines defined in the Living EN World Character Thread. This official thread contains every character, whether approved or not, for Living EN World. Characters that have been approved will be marked as so in the 1st post in the thread, and dated. Characters are also alphabetically linked in this 1st post so that you can easily find any characters statistics. Characters must be re-approved when the level up.
In order to be approved, a character must have all information match the guidelines defined in the thread. Once a character is posted (and you should only use one character per post, and make only one post in the thread per character), email one of the judges associated with the character thread. That judge will reply to this email with any corrections they have once they get the chance. If your character seems to be taking too long to be approved, post in a general discussion thread to see if anyone can help. Approved characters will be dated in the 1st post in the thread, and you will need a recent approval before joining a new adventure.
Each player can have up too three different characters. You can only have 1 character at a given location at a given time. This means that your character cannot interact with another of your own characters. It is also incorrect to indirectly affect your own characters through a medium such as trading with one character in order to transfer an item to your second character. This rule is done both to discourage any form of “cheating” and to encourage players interacting with other players.
Once a character is approved, your character can go to the Red Dragon Inn. This thread is for characters in-between adventures. Both before starting and after completing an adventure, your character can go to the Red Dragon Inn to interact with other characters and form a party. When a new adventure is introduced, the Red Dragon Inn will be the most likely place to find the hook for the adventure. The Red Dragon Inn acts as the primary hub for adventures, though there may be additional taverns added later.
When an adventure begins, your character will both need to be approved to join, and be able to stay with the game. This means that you are required to warn the DM if you will not be posting less than once ever two-three days. If you do not warn the DM, they can penalize your character in any experience rewards for the game. Characters can level up after adventures if they have enough experience. Leveling up during an adventure is up to the DM, and because of approval issues it may not be a good idea depending on the group of players.
Approved characters need to submit for re-approval each time they level up. This is necessary to make sure that a character has the correct information. It may help to keep a back-up copy of your original approved stats.
Dungeon Masters
A Dungeon Master of some kind is necessary for any adventure, even an extremely short vignette. In order to start an adventure, the DM must request that the current judges in charge of adventure approval approve the adventure. Any adventure needs to submit the following information in order to be approved:
1) Who are the players: This can be a specific list or this can be a description of what kinds of characters are likely to fall in line with this adventure.
2) What is the background: Describe the setting, the people, and the motives that make this adventure.
3) What is the story: What is the story of the adventure itself? Who are the bad guys? What are they doing? How is victory achieved or defeat met?
4) What is the challenge: Specifically, what are the likely challenges the group will face? What levels of characters are expected for this adventure? What are the encounter levels of any combat that will be encountered? Will challenges be overcome through combat, stealth, skill, or diplomacy?
5) What are the rewards: What kinds of rewards are there to be found? Fame, money, magic, and experience should all be expressed here. Anything that can be a reward is important for the judges to see.
The judges may ask for detailed descriptions of the above, and it is important to establish whether this is a campaign, an adventure, or a short vignette. Experience in play by post may also be important (a new DM may be discouraged from trying to run a very long adventure more than a DM that has had success before). If there are any questions as to the DM’s reliability, they will be made by the judges (previously abandoning a game will limit the DM to doing a few Vignettes to warm up before taking on a new adventure, for instance).
If an adventure is approved, then the DM can begin recruiting if necessary. The Red Dragon Inn is the place to go to find a party of adventurers. The DM can choose to disallow characters from joining, as they need to. It is their adventure, and they should have the right to decide who can play. After the adventuring party is formed, the DM needs to find a judge that is not playing to watch the adventure. This judge will help the DM where necessary, but most responsibility falls on the DM to run the adventure.
After the group is filled and the adventure thread starts, the DM will need to record all awards information as the thread progresses. After every point where experience should be awarded, the DM needs to email the judge that has offered to watch their game. The judge will keep these notes on experience and treasure, and will use them to award the party at the end of the adventure (or if the adventure ends prematurely). This is done because it is very important that the judges have ready access to the DM’s notes in order to deal with a missing DM or other problem.
After the adventure is completed, the DM will give final awards for experience and treasures, and resolve how the PCs leave the adventure if it is site based. If there is an option for a continued adventure, it is important to plan for some players to be able to leave and for new members to join a group, because this is the nature of the forum.
World Building
The world of LEW is changing as it grows. There are three different areas of world building that LEW is concerned with. The small scale is left mostly in the hands of the individual DM, and consists of NPCs, small groups, minor sites such as those related to a specific adventure, and the effects of an adventure on articles contained therein. The second tier is the interface between an adventure and the rest of the world including other adventures and the interaction of all things that take place in the world. The third tier is the meta-tier, related mostly to the game itself, but not the story.
The creator decides the difference between 1st tier and 2nd tier content in what they create. As an interactive part of the setting a DM or player needs to decide which parts of his content is available for others to “interface” with. Information that is considered to be available for any other character or DM to interact with is called “PUBLIC” while information that cannot be affected by anyone without judge approval is called “PRIVATE.” Here is how you define what is PUBLIC and PRIVATE:
Information in a characters BACKGROUND is considered PRIVATE unless the player of the character chooses to declare it PUBLIC by stating so. PRIVATE information in a BACKGROUND is to be read, but not touched. You cannot change the private information in another characters entry, and you cannot use it to springboard an idea. So, in a PRIVATE entry, if a character is chasing after someone because they murdered their brother, a DM does not have permission to create that murderer and have them interact with the character. However, the DM can always request that a PRIVATE entry be made PUBLIC for the extent of an adventure by emailing the content’s creator. Any DM could use PUBLIC entries, as they feel necessary. In other words, if a DM sees a public entry, they can choose to interact with it however they want, just so long as they don’t change the public information. So if the murder note above was declared public, any DM NPC could choose to know the murderer or to know them personally, or even to have a similar relationship with this created NPC (thus leading into a possible adventure).
Inside of a game thread, all information is considered PRIVATE until a DM decides to set up an interface. Interfaces can be sites, NPCs, or anything else that the DM would enjoy having interaction with. To declare an interface, the DM needs to post the relevant information for the interface in the first post of the thread. For instance, if a DM declared an Interface for “the ruins outside Ignussus & the three keys to the demons heart which were lost to time, which the players in this game are looking for” then another DM can put that information into their active adventure by having their group find one key, and seek to bring it to the other adventure. Interfaces are only important while an adventure is running, however, because a completed adventure leaves everything behind as PUBLIC content. A completed adventures location, surviving NPCs, left over treasure, and anything else is available to other DMs to use in their own adventures. Incomplete adventures are ripe pickings for a new hook.
All other content that takes place outside of character interaction (such as deities and legends) is considered PUBLIC by default. Anyone can interact with these hooks as they are created. This sort of world building requires special approval though; any content that wishes to be added to the world building, as a whole needs to be approved. In order to get non-adventure related world building material approved, the content must be proposed in it’s own thread. Once proposed, it will be added to the list of unapproved content, and will be examined by the judges in charge of approving non-mechanics related content.
Third tier content, such as mechanics, is a special variety. There are strict rules about what can be proposed through this. First of all, the content must be Open Game Content or be an original creation. You cannot propose published material that is not OGC, because we cannot accept it into our setting. If a proposed prestige class, race, monster, magic item property, etc. is OGC or homebrewed, it is entitled it’s thread will be viewed by the judges in charge of approving mechanics related material. The judges that approve this material will examine it, and comment. Once a particular item is brought up for vote, it has one week for the judge’s votes. If it does not receive at least 3 approval votes, it is rejected, and will be re-examined only if it is re-proposed after revision.