As far as the players will be concerned.....they will begin with no prior knowledge of ANY of the other players or npc's (except outside of a reputory fashion, if chosen as an advantage)
Background stories will not effect the metaplot in a signifigant way but aspects of them may become apart of the narrative WITHOUT warning...so choose your origins "carefully".
You can create ANY character you wish.
(No template restrictions outside of extra-planar existances...i.e.: no undead or demons....though demonic hertitage may be permitted via Unusual Background.)
There is NO classical choice of alignment per-se....the advantages or disadvantages you select will determine that for you!
The races available should be such that they could be "reasonably" found in any desert surrounding.....i.e.: no polymorphed or shapechanged white dragons amongst the players......no penguin farmiliars, etc...
Even though the arrival of a 4th player to the thread MIGHT have the effect of creating an impass to game setting...(i.e.: The new player wants to play Horror and the count becomes 2 vs 2 for setting of choice)...the assembled players, so far, should begin to formulate the approximate type of character or personae they wish to portray and throw the ideas out there in the thread for the benefit of the others.
Some of you may have prefered templates or lens'.....some of you may not have a preference at all but if we are aware of the base composition of the party it will make design a LOT easier and less cumbersome with respect to covering skills or areas of expertise.
(1) "Healer" type is a must
(1) "Ranged" attack master
(1) "Close" attack master
(1) "Thief" type is pretty much essential.
Any ONE or more of those above mentioned MUST have competant desert survival skills....(this is a non-negociable aspect)....preferably MORE than one....i.e.: avoiding the "If the guide dies we ALL die" situation.
This is a pretty good breakdown of a decent party dynamic but that is not to say there can be no other.
Its all about YOU guys.....so run with it!
Also after looking at Dungeon Fantasy volume 1, I think characters should be created on a minimum budget of 300....but I defer to your choices.
In my past experience with converting TSR or WotC source material that the leveling mechanic of D20 systems approximately works out to 50 character points per level of experience as a good guideline for PC survival...i.e.: a module for levels 4-6 means 200-300 charcater points....while this is still a "guesstimation" it has yet to serve me wrong in the past.
I may or may not be lurking so responce time may vary.
Peace & Light
