Game thread:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=132580.0Lore Post:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=132330.msg4713960#msg4713960With the end of the Sahuagin Wars has come the start of a new Age of Sail. Exploration is at a fever's pitch, with new lands are being discovered constantly, and you, brave explorers one and all, have come to the newest and least explored of them all: The Yianmarese Jungle. Situated at the heart of the far western continent of Yianmar is a vast and unexplored wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see before dipping beneath the horizon. The only natural port in the region lies upon the River of Death, a malarial, piranha-filled serpent that winds its way down from the western mountains out to sea. At the mouth of that dread river lies a tiny enclave, Rivertown, that bares the honor of being the first and only speck of civilization in this otherwise untamed land. There is where you will find your fame, your fortune, your destiny and your doom.
Character GuidelinesRP Considerations:-Your character has recently arrived in Yianmar. How and why they got here is up to you, but they have to be fresh off the boat. For plot reasons, you cannot play a native.
-This campaign is focused on exploration. The rewards and XP are handed out for exploring, and characters who can't or won't explore should not be used in this campaign.
-This campaign is not very strongly focused on alignment, morality or religion. As such, your cleric can worship anything he or she pleases, I will not be paying much attention to whether your paladin is breaking his code of conduct and if you have to be a certain alignment to enter into a prestige class, I will waive that requirement if you come up with a good RP reason why.
-This campaign involves sailing up the River of Death in a canoe fairly often. A limited number of people fit in a single canoe. Furthermore, there are not per person rewards for missions, only a per mission reward to be split however many ways. Characters are allowed and encouraged to split into different groups and go different ways. Due to the format (see below) this is way less of an issue than doing the same thing in person.
Mechanics Considerations:-Characters start at Level 3 and have 2700 gold to buy equipment. In other words, standard WBL
-"Books" allowed are: the 3.5 SRD (as seen
here and mirrored
here) and anything available online, subject to GM Veto. This is so that people who own (or pirate) every sourcebook ever don't have an unfair advantage. Exceptions are possible, but don't be sad if I say no.
-The following feats are banned: Natural Spell, Leadership. You may recruit hirelings for money, but you cannot have a cohort.
-As mentioned above, XP and money are handed out primarily for exploring. Finding treasure, mapping out regions and completing quests are what get you XP, not killing monsters. That's not to say that you can't get money for killing monsters, but it would because there's a bounty or because the monster has valuable hides, not because it spews treasure out when it dies.
-You are required to post or link a character sheet and keep it up to date.
Format Considerations:-This is a Play By Post game. If you expect to have internet troubles for a week, tell us. If you don't post actions, and don't have a Marching Order specified (see below) your character will not do anything until you get back. If you don't post that you're going on a given trip, your character isn't going.
-I
strongly recommend require that all players submit a "marching order" for their character when they go on an adventure. This is their standard operating procedure on an adventure and must have the following information in it: Which canoe the character will be in (two medium sized creatures per canoe, plus either one large, two more medium or three small between them), where the character sits in that canoe (bow, stern, left, right or middle), where the character stands when walking down a corridor (front, middle, last, second to last, behind X, etc.), and the first three turns worth of actions the character takes if they suddenly find themselves in combat. You can revise this at any time, but if you don't send me one, you do not go on adventures. This is done so we don't take two weeks to go through a single combat round waiting for people to post one after the other.
-Although an ultra-basic "Shoot it with my crossbow repeatedly." is fine if that's what you really want to do, you are encouraged to have conditionals in the combat section of your marching order. Saying something like, "Turn undead if they look undead, Charm Animal if they're animals, stab them with my sword otherwise." is a perfectly reasonable answer, if a bit short. More than a thousand words is probably too much, though.
-A valid marching order for combats is "Let the GM pick something non-stupid." If you choose this option, I can promise I will do my best to have your character behave intelligently, but I cannot promise that I will make the 'best' choice. I'm only human.
-If want to deviate from your combat SOP for whatever reason, you have 24 hours from when I post the "You get attacked by <X>!" turn and when I post the first round of combat to tell me what to do differently. Likewise, you'll have 24 hours from the 1st turn to the 2nd turn, from the 2nd to the 3rd and so on and so fourth.
If you have questions, post them!