In Play
Contents
Cost of Living
Rather than forcing you guys to track expenses for food and lodging we will be playing with a Cost of Living applied monthly. Starting characters (levels 1-2) have a cost of living of 100 gold per month. Levels 3-4 of 200 gold a month. This cover lodging, food while in town and assumed taxes from found treasure. All PCs begin play with one month's cost of living paid.
Death and New Characters
If a character dies during play a new one can be created and introduced as soon as possible. This new character will start three levels below the current average party level, with the minimum needed to be at said level. However, we will also be using the XP reserve rules from ACKS, with a slight modification. 50% of the gold spend on frivolous activity (such as throwing a festival for an entire town to celebrate just how awesome the PC is or having a statue built to honor the PC's glory) is converted into reserve XP that can be added to the new character's total. Therefore, if the PC spends 3000 gp throwing a party they would add 1500 XP to their reserve.
Initiative
I will ask for players to declare actions before I roll for initiative. Those who declare will be given a +1 bonus to their initiative roll. However, in such cases the action is "set" and will occur regardless of what has already transpired (in other words, you run the risk of attacking an already dead monster, for instance). If you prefer you can hold your player's actions to better respond to contingencies. In such instances a -1 penalty is applied to the initiative roll. For instance "Ugod waits to see what happens. If the ogre resists the mage's spell he will attack, otherwise he ignores the ogre and attacks the nearest goblin."
I will roll initiative for each round. I roll for each player, in alphabetical order, and specific groups of monsters (such as "goblins" and "goblin king").
Critical Hits/Misses
A natural 20 results in the attack doing maximum damage. A natural 1 results in:
- 1. -4 penalty to next attack
- 2. -2 to the character's AC for the subsequent round.
- 3. The character leaves himself open to a free attack from one opponent.
- 4. The character obstructs a companion in such a way that the companion suffers a -4 penalty to their next attack. Note that this has the potential to disrupt a spell.
- 5. The character makes a second attack roll against a nearby companion.
- 6. The character takes 1d4 points of damage from the botched attack.
- 7. The character's weapon breaks.
- 8. The character's weapon becomes stuck.
Note that the above will apply to both PCs and NPCs.
Missile Fire
Once melee is joined it becomes impossible to fire into melee. Note that there are subclass features that allow a PC to do this. In such cases, they only risk hitting someone who is not their target on a natural "1". This target will be randomly determined.
Shields Shall be Splintered
To make shields more viable in addition to the AC bonus a character may "sacrifice" her shield in order to negate the physical damage caused by a single attack. Afterwards the shield is considered ruined. Shields can also be sacrificed to protect against spells or magical effects, provided a)the effect allows a saving throw and b)the effect could reasonably be blocked by a shield (for instance, a lightning bolt or the breath of a red dragon, but not the chlorine gas attack of a green dragon).
If this option is used with a magical shield it loses one "plus".
Tasks and the Wiki
Each player is expected to maintain their character sheets and that of any mounts/henchmen within a reasonable timeframe (say, 48 hours). However, I am offering two "jobs":<r/>
- Mapper. Players that keep maps of dungeons/areas of interest will gain a 5% XP bonus, provided the map is kept up to date; accuracy is not an issue.
- Logistics. If someone volunteers to maintain the group wiki (adding plot hooks, distribution of treasure, etc.) they will earn an additional 5% to their XP. Note that this is essentially a job for one person, whereas mapping can be done by multiple individuals.
