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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