RULES SET
We will primarily play using Dungeons and Dragons, fourth edition rules.
In general, I wish to stick close to the rules as they are written, but there will be exceptions:
We will utilize some material from 13th Age, which is largely compatible with fourth edition D&D.
House rules for the D&D PbP game will be listed in this thread.
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.
EXCEPTION 1: Monsters may be altered significantly, and will be used without advance notice.
EXCEPTION 2: The titles of powers, feats, classes, and so on, may be changed.
The rulebooks currently used [subject to updates from time to time] are listed below. Some rulebooks may not be fully used; details will vary between the different adventure settings.
Player's Handbook
Player's Handbook 2
Player's Handbook 3
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 Fallen Lands
Heroes of the Feywild
Heroes of Shadow
Dark Sun Creature Catalog
Eberron Campaign Guide
Eberron Player's Guide
The Book of Vile Darkness
Demonomicon
Draconomicon - Chromatic Dragons
Draconomicon - Metallic Dragons
Manual of the Planes
Open Grave
The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea
The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos
Underdark
Dragon Magazine Annual
13th Age
I try to use WOTC's most current set of rule updates for the fourth edition, and consider them "in-play" as soon as they are released. Specific exceptions will be noted in this thread. Currently, the May 2012 Rules Update is in use, and as D&D has moved into its fifth edition, further rules updates are no longer expected.
Material outside of those rulebooks and official updates 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.
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 attempt to make a timely announcement when a new rulebook is added, but player-oriented content will have a higher priority than DM-oriented content when it comes to announcing additions.
PLAYER CHARACTER RESOURCES
Players must have access to the fourth edition D&D Player's Handbook or the D&D Essentials Heroes of the Fallen Lands rulebook. I don't care and am not curious what form this takes, but it must be the complete Player's Handbook 1 or Heroes of the Fallen Lands rules with proper page indexing. I expect and my default assumption is that this is a legitimate copy. I do not wish to hear otherwise, because once I have that knowledge, I have a responsibility to act on it.
Players are not required to have access to any other rulebook. [However, see Character Creation item #3.]
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.
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.
As with Player Character Resources item #1 (access to Player's Handbook 1 or Heroes of the Fallen Lands) I expect and my default assumption is that player access takes some kind of legitimate form and I do not with to hear otherwise.
COROLLARY 1: Players who wish to replace the Ritual Casting feat with Alchemy must have access to the Adventurer's Vault.
EXCEPTION 1: 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.
EXCEPTION 2: 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 the Player Character Background Option, 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.
CHARACTER CREATION AND PLAY
Characters will be created using Method 1 or Method 2 (player's choice) from the Player's Handbook.
Race, class, build, and power limitations are noted here:
Races are limited to those described in the Player's Handbook and Player's Handbook 2.
Classes are limited to those described in the Player's Handbook, Player's Handbook 2, and the alternate versions of those classes described in Heroes of the Fallen Lands. Rune Priests and Seekers from Player's Handbook 3 are permitted. Artificers from the Eberron Player's Guide are permitted.
Builds, powers, feats, and so on based on classes or races that aren't permitted are similarly not permitted.
Characters may be Good, Lawful Good, or Unaligned. Evil and Chaotic Evil characters will not be allowed. My interpretation of alignments is thus: alignments represent a contract between the player and the Dungeon Master concerning how the character in question will be run.
At a minimum, Lawful Good characters actively support the benevolent and just aspects of society and civilization, and work to the benefit of populations of sentient beings who are legitimate members of those societies and civilizations.
At a minimum, Good characters work to the benefit of populations of sentient beings who do not espouse repugnant values or engage in harmful behaviors. They are nominal members of societies and civilizations, provided such entities are not oppressive or malevolent.
Most unaligned characters are nominal members of societies and civilizations, provided such entities are not oppressive or malevolent. At a minimum, they will not willingly work to the detriment of populations of sentient beings who do not espouse repugnant values or engage in harmful behaviors.
Alignments follow a principle I call "one act of evil." That is to say, good actions and evil actions are not weighted equally; one evil action can be enough to overwhelm all good actions up to that point, depending on the nature of the act. A simple example follows: a healer who has tirelessly and heroically saved countless lives poisons one patient because that patient expressed an interest in a fruit the healer finds revolting. Regardless of considerations of the healer's sanity, that one act is sufficient to label the healer as chaotic evil: evil, for harming an undeserving person, and chaotic for having a motivation that defies the rational norms of society.
Lesser evil acts do not necessarily result in an immediate change of alignment, but it remains the case that evil acts are considered to have a much greater impact than any store of good acts.
Evil characters are not irredeemable, but they must consciously reject the reasoning that led them to evil in the first place before any subsequent actions can be considered to have an effect on their alignment.
The in-game consequences of an alignment shift may vary, but the issue is one between myself and the player and may be resolved in the context of player participation. If the alignment shift was caused by understandable, and on some level, sympathetic, in-game circumstances, that is nowhere near the same as one which comes about by a breach of trust in terms of how I expect PCs to conduct themselves.
These guidelines are not intended to be laws that are picked over word-for-word. Where possible, common sense must prevail in their execution and interpretation.
Deities in PbP campaign 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 its appropriate thread.
Equipment may be purchased according to the normal rules, but coinage and currency will also be discussed in its appropriate thread.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
PARTY CONSTRUCTION
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.
In contrast to item #1 above, 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
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.
CHARACTER SHEETS
I will be tracking changes for my own records, but players are responsible for keeping track of changes to their characters. This is particularly true for treasure obtained, but also applies to expended items, physical load, and level advancement.
Players are responsible for supplying me with reasonably up-to-date copies of their character sheets. At a minimum, a new and complete character sheet should be presented every time a character gains a level of experience. Simply noting the differential changes to a character's abilities is insufficient.
While players may store character records for their own use through any means they wish, character sheets should be supplied to me in a form that can be stored without requiring Internet usage. In other words, they should be provided in a text or pdf format.
Character sheets should be complete, containing information such as languages spoken and physical load carried.
A reference should be provided, noting, at a minimum, the rulebook where each of the character's powers, feats, magic items, features, and other specifics comes from. Rulebook and page number would be preferred. It should be expected that there will be occasions when the original player is not available to play the character, so in addition to helping me, this information and that in point 30 above should be provided with an eye to making it easy for another player to run the character when needed.
THE PLAYER CHARACTER BACKGROUND OPTION
When you decide on your character's background, consider any worthwhile aspects of your character's birth, homeland, social class, childhood, occupation, or heritage. You may go as in-depth as you want.
Regardless of how complex your character's background is, the character will gain exactly one benefit. The benefit must be tied to an aspect of the character's background, but it need not be tied to the most prominent one.
In terms of game rules, the benefit will take one of three forms:
A +2 bonus to checks associated with a particular skill.
One additional skill added to the list of skills a character can potentially be trained in. (However, the character may still only gain training in the same number of skills as determined by race, class, and feats.)
The ability to fluently speak, read, and write one additional language.
Here are some simple examples:
You come from the northern tundra, where life is a constant struggle against the elements. Gain +2 to Endurance checks.
You are the dispossessed firstborn of one of the great Aucothian magnates. Your adolescence was fraught with intrigues between you, your siblings, and sycophants to the family. Add Insight to your list of trainable skills.
An orphan of another race abandoned at birth, you were raised in a dragonborn sept village. Gain fluency in Draconic.
As a tiefling, you traveled from the distant Realm of Erathis to try to earn your place among the Bone Lancers. You failed, but learned to play on people's assumptions that you are part of the Aucothian elite. Add Bluff to your list of trainable skills.
You served in a mixed-race mercenary company before setting out as an adventurer. You are no stranger to working side-by-side with bugbears, dwarves, orcs, and stranger beings. Gain fluency in Giant.
During your childhood, you liked nothing better than to listen to the tales spun by the wandering storytellers of the heroes who made Aucothia great. Gain +2 to History checks.