Faalor, a NWN campaign world
Faalor mists

The Rules

1) Stay in character at all times while in game. This means trying to think like your character, act like your character. Most of the action (story) will come as a result of the character's background, motivations and consistent behavior. If you choose to play an evil character and the good people begin to hate you, then you've done well. Expect the world to react consistently and as realistically I can make it. If you need to make an OOC (out of character) comment, then communicate that through the chat system. Only use the chat system in emergencies, and make it as succinct as possible.

2) Maintain strict in-character/out of character separation. You are not your character. While you may know what your character knows, your character doesn't know what you know. Those who talk about their character in the first person will be summarily executed. Experience awards My experience running a couple AD&D campaigns ('91-'94 and '96-'98) has made me reevaluate how I give out experience points. In the earlier campaign, we would really only have one maybe two combats per 5-7 hour game session so I had to devise a way of adding to the experience totals. In the later campaign, I had the opposite problem: too many fights with little or no role-playing. In this campaign there will be an emphasis on character development, problem-solving and story. As the game rules only really provide for experience points to be awarded upon the successful defeat of an enemy, I will be augmenting the rules.

XP

Instead of giving out XP at the beginning of every session, you will receive XP as you go through the module.  Monsters will still drop some XP, but the slider will be set to 5%.  (Don't think you have to fight everything that's hostile to you; you may find it more expedient and safer just to avoid combat all together and move on.) The design here is to ensure a quick rise in level at the beginning of a campaign, and then make gaining a new level increasing more difficult as you advance.  If we were starting with level one characters, you'd have raised to 3rd level by only stepping on 2-4 triggers, i.e. finding a tavern, going into a new area, and completing a very simple 'quest'.  At higher levels it may take much more to advance.  Most areas will have at least one trigger.

Almost all XP will come from triggers placed throughout the module.  All XP triggers have a base value of 1000 XP.  These simple XP triggers are laid down in new areas; you will get 1000 XP just for exploring new territory.  At the end of every segment of the campaign, you will have an opportunity to gain a bit more XP.  Here is the complete end of quest script:

*

First, it will give you XP based on your pure stats, with an additional bonus for you Intelligence score.  Then, the script will give XP based on your class.  Single class characters get more XP (the other scripts will give XP based on pure level, and will not use multiple classes in any calculation). Finally, as you can see, XP is weighted toward 'RP' skills, but not to the point where pure combat characters can't gain XP.  Everyone gets a 5% chance of gaining some XP for each skill.  The way the system is set up, higher level characters get more XP than lower level ones, based on several criteria, while still being fair to all sorts of character builds.  You will also notice that there is an element of chance built into the system.

There is also a script that gives less XP in amounts between the end of quest script and the simple new territory script.  This is placed in safe zones, areas where it is safe to rest, namely taverns, safe caverns, camps and other places where it is logical for the party to gear up for the next leg of the adventure. Finding these safe places could be an important factor in party survival so I've given you some more motivation to find them. 

Your character may also gain XP from skill-check triggers.  These triggers can help your character to spot danger, interpret signs on a wall, avoid slippery areas, prepare for battle or simply give you a little bit of atmosphere.  

Finally, I may be handing out XP for superior play.  This reward will be no more than 1000 XP and you have to do something spectacular to gain this.  This will be for self-less play or IC choices that are actually detrimental to your character.

You will also notice that you could level up at any time.  Please, don't stop in the middle of what you are doing to level. Rather, find a logical place to do so (unless we're taking a break or you're not directly involved in the action). 

* Thanks to Jas for helping me get this script set up.

Death and other consequences 

Death in online games is a difficult issue to grapple with.  I am well aware that no one wants their character to die, but it often happens.  Death, though, shouldn't happen all the time.  I usually plan one deadly encounter each week, and a number of other encounters that COULD lead to PC death, only if they do something stupid.  That said, I will adopting a more lenient view of PC death.  What will happen most of the time when your character dies is this: I will heal your character but then give him/her damage enough to bring them to 1 hit point.  I'll only do this if, in my judgment, I have created an encounter that is too tough, you are having technical difficulties, the encounter was of such insignificance story-wise that death isn't warranted (continuing with the story may trump your bad luck).  If your character die again before it is healed or otherwise recovered, that should be considered permanent, unless there are extenuating circumstances.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't use your head, not try to bash monsters that are obviously too tough (and there WILL be a few of these), rush in an open trapped doors, etc., without fear of consequences.  This just gives me an 'out' in case either one of use mess up.

If you know me at all, you know that I put a great deal of emphasis on consequence. The choices you have your character make are final and the other PC's and NPC's will act accordingly and consistently as their own personality and abilities allow. I will expect that each and every player who participates in this campaign will understand this, will not become upset if they don't understand all the motivations of the other characters in the game (NPC and PC), will allow their characters to do whatever it is they will do according to their personalities and will accept the consequences of the actions of others as well as their own in a mature manner. I will not tolerate a repeat the stupidity that was a constant bother in my RP days on the Catskills shard of Ultima Online. Basically, I am demanding that each player play his or her character to the best of their ability, consistent with the known world. (As always, I will gladly address any problems, concerns or misunderstandings in a mature manner.)

In every pen and paper game I've ever played when a character dies, it's dead, baring the most extreme of exceptions. In one of my campaigns, we had a ritual in which the character sheet was ceremoniously ripped up and thrown into the fireplace. Taking into account the nature of online role-playing (disconnections, phone-calls, bathroom breaks, etc.), I will make exceptions for cases where a player dies through no fault of their own. I will also attempt to make PC death a relatively rare event so as to allow as fewest interruptions to the story. I will though let the chips fall where they may; player character death IS part of the story. If your character does something that you and the character knows is a high risk action and the player ends up dead, so be it. You will have to start up a new character in that case.

For all of you who played UO with me

It may go without saying, that the last year or so of being a 'leader' in an online community was one of the most stressful and un-fun things I have ever done while at 'play.' I got so tired of dealing with whiner children who didn't understand what role-playing was about (or at least what kind of RP I considered fun). The only reason I would like to run this NWN campaign is that I know that there is a core of players who enjoy rp'ing in the same way I do. If I knew you in UO, I am inviting you to play in my campaign because I believe we share some common beliefs about role-playing and good sportsmanship. I can imagine that perhaps some of the people who I have invited--if they played on Catskills and know some of the other invitees--may have some old issues with the other players. That may not be helped but starting this campaign will be a clean slate. Hopefully we can put the horrors of Catskills behind us and have some fun. If though, I even get the slightest hint of a silly, Catskillian problem, I will make some effort to correct the problem. But I won't work too hard at it (read: I won't hesitate to kick the offending parties out of the campaign).

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