Character sheets:  A character sheet can be requested from me.  I will also accept Core Rules Expansion 2.0 character sheets.

Equipment Be sure to include a detailed equipment list. The rule is going to be that if you don't have it on the most recent character sheet equipment list I have, you don't have it. This will be enforced more strictly later on. I understand that it is hard to think of everything to start with so if you provide me with a reasonable argument as to why you have something that you don't have listed, I may accept it. It's not going to hold water multiple times, however. If I notice any grand discrepancies in starting equipment lists, I will point them out to you, but I very well may not notice. As for starting gold, I am going to severely limit everyone's starting money. Choose your equipment and keep it reasonable; you all know what your character's background is. If I think something you have choosen is unreasonable for a first level character of your background to have, I will question you about it. Again, reasonable arguments will go a long way with me, but only to a point.

Equipment lists-It would be very helpful to me if everyone would send me an equipment list with nothing else in the message. In the subject, put (character name)-equipment. I will be able to keep this for easy reference and it will be easy for you to keep current (be sure to keep a copy for yourself). Again, this will be more significant later in the campaign, but it would be a good habit for us to get into now.

Spells and spellcasters: Mages will start with 5 1st level spells of their choice in their spellbooks, in addition to read and detect magic. Cantrip can be taken as a NWP, if so desired. I will be using some optional rules for spellcasting, but I am going to set it up so that mages and priests do not have to use them if they do not wish to. I prefer to give a bit more freedom than is gained with strict memorization and prayer for certain spells. Spellcasting characters can choose to memorize or pray for all of their spells if they wish. These spells will be guaranteed to work. If the spellcaster wishes, however, spells do not have to be memorized or prayed for. Daily studying of a spellbook and the complex patterns therein will allow the mage to attempt to pull a spell from memory. Simple spells have a better chance of working this way. The ability to cast a spell in this manner requires a successful int check with a penalty of the level of the spell attempted.

So if Fred the 1st level mage wants to try for a magic missile he didn't memorize and his int is 15, he must roll a 14 or less on a d20 to pull this off. When you send me your list of memorized spells, make sure to let me know if you choose to leave a place for an unmemorized one. If you have all of your spells memorized, you cannot try for this. This works essentially the same way for priests, but the roll will be based on wis and it will be granted on the basis of an immediate prayer rather than one that took place earlier in the day. This has worked to my satisfaction thus far, but I reserve the right to change it later in the game.

Spellcasters are required to get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to regain spells the next day.

Spell lists-Much like the equipment lists, I would like for spellcasters to send me a separate list of their memorized spells. I know that at first level, the array of spells is hardly impressive, but you will go up in level and get more spells per day. Again, this will be a good habit for us to get into for later on. Spellcasters are also expected to keep up with the number of pages they have used in their spellbooks.

Combat: This game will contain a fair amount of combat and I am going to have to experiment to find the best way to handle it. Currently, the entire group is cc'd on one round of actions and I (the DM) receive actions for the next rounds. I then progress the action as far as I can before posting a summary of the results and the current situation. This is repeated until the combat is concluded. As we get into more involved combats, I will probably change the way that this is done.  I am currently posting the results of one round every 24 hours when we are in a combat situation.

Critical hits and fumbles:A critical hit occurs on an attack roll of 20. I am using the critical hit charts in PO:Combat & Tactics. A critical fumble occurs on an attack roll of 1. I am using a critical fumble chart devised in my face-to-face gaming group. Both critical hits and critical fumbles have the potential to be very nasty.

A house rule that I use when dealing with level draining undead:  a hit does not automatically drain a level.  The character is allowed a saving throw vs death magic to avoid level loss.  In the cases of some "special" undead, this rule may not apply.

Injury scale:The following scale will be used to report the severity of wounds of PCs in percentage of hit points the character has remaining.

 1-20% of hp- critical wounds
21-40% of hp- major wounds
41-60% of hp- serious wounds
61-80% of hp- minor wounds
81-99% of hp- light wounds

Unconsciousness and Character Death:When a character goes below 0 hit points, he is unconscious and dying. Hit points will continue to be lost at a rate of 1/round until the character is stabilized, magically or otherwise. If the character reaches exactly 0 hp, he receives a saving throw vs. death magic. If successful, he remains conscious. Characters who are rendered unconscious by going below 0 hp remain unconscious, even if healed, for a day. At -10 hp, the character is dead. Characters with high constitution scores get a saving throw vs. death magic at this point. If the character successfully saves, he remains alive until reaching -con. If the character loses more than half of his hp and is reduced to negative hp, both in a single round, the character must make a successful system shock check or die.

Anyone can stabilize a bleeding character if they take a round to do so. We (my gaming group here) affectionately call this the band-aid proficiency. We have instituted this policy because lots of PCs have a habit of dying before someone with healing can deal with them. The unconscious PC does not regain any hp from being stabilized, whether the character stablizing him has the healing proficiency or not. The only exception to this is if someone with the actual healing proficiency gets to him within one round. On a successful healing check, the PC gets back to 1 hp (no matter where the PC was in negative hp if not already dead).

I have decided to revamp my house rule on unconsciousness when a character goes below 0 hp. There is still a chance that said character will remain unconscious for 24 hours. However, I will allow a chance every three hours after the character has been healed to 1 hp that the PC will awaken. There is a 12.5% chance per 3 hrs, and it's cumlative....

3 hrs: 13% chance
6 hrs: 25% chance
9 hrs: 38% chance
12 hrs:50% chance
15 hrs:63% chance
18 hrs:75% chance
21 hrs:88% chance
24 hrs:100% chance (automatically awake after 24 hrs)

I have also decided to allow the 'nap' spell (priest, 2nd level, ToM) to aid in this. Essentially, since nap allows 8 hrs rest in 1 hr, it gives the unconscious character two rolls to see if they awaken (13% then 25%) after the hour duration of the spell, followed by another roll (38%) one hour later (which would technically be the 9th hour). The unconscious character do not regain any hp from this rest.

InfravisionThe demihuman ability of infravision will be treated as night vision, not as heat source vision. An unexpected bright light will temporarily blind a character using infravision. An unexpected plunge into darkness will do the same. Once the eyes have had time to adjust (typically one round, but not always), either day vision or infravision, as appropriate, will be functional again.

Posting: I post regular, non-combat turns twice per week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays unless I let you know otherwise. Player post deadlines are Tuesday midnight and Friday midnight so I will have time to get my post together. Every player is required to post once per DM post (that is, twice per week). I expect characters to interact with one another in addition to this, but the once per my post rule is written in stone. Missed posts will always result in loss of xp granted for posting, no matter what the reason. Two missed posts with no reason given to me will result in an xp penalty. Three missed posts without valid reasons will result in removal of the character from the game. This is a long term game and I need to know that I can depend on people to post and help me keep things moving. I have the job of storyteller, judge, and bad guys. I need you to handle the good guys part for me.

All posts should be written in third person past tense, like you are writing a book. Attempts to make your posts detailed will be greatly appreciated. I don't want a lot of one line posts. I would prefer everyone to write a paragraph or two whenever possible. Posts should all include the letters NB in the subject line as well as your character's name and the move number. Almost everyone in this game is familiar with this convention, but those of you who are not will catch on soon enough

example subject line from me:
NB:1.0 Obligatory Bar Scene
The first person to respond is Fred the mage and his subject line reads
NB:Fred 1.1
When someone responds to Fred they will send
NB:George 1.2 and so on. As I said, everyone will get the hang of it.

When posting, do not quote the entire post (or multiple posts) that comes before your post. One paragraph, or even a few lines, is sufficient for all of us to keep up with where we are in most cases. This will cut down on the amount of repeated information in posts. In conversations between PCs, use your judgement on what needs to remain in for it to be understandable.

When posting out of character, put ooc somewhere in the subject line if there is no new in-character information in your post. This will make things a lot easier for me when assembling the turn summaries.

Experience Awards: Experience will be rewarded based on role-playing as well as combat, treasure, and 'story' xp rewards. In a PBeM game, role-playing is the most important aspect of keeping interest going, in my opinion. Players who do their part to act in character and interact with others in whatever way will be rewarded. Players who act consistantly out of character or who abuse out of character knowledge will be penalized. A "sort of" breakdown of how I award xp follows:

Monster xp:goes without saying

Story xp:when one of the goals of the adventure is accomplished, the characters receive a certain amount of xp. This will also include things that you do to further the game, in terms of the plot that we are pursuing and also in terms of interactions with other characters. That is as much a part of the story as anything else, and it makes things more enjoyable for everyone.

Class xp:using your class abilities for the betterment of the game. This includes in combat as well as out of combat. The more creatively things are employed, the more xp that is received. This also includes using your proficiencies (weapon and nonweapon) although many of them aren't necessarily class specific.

Posting xp:as I mentioned when we started the game, characters are awarded xp for participation

Roleplaying xp:After I add up all of the other xp, I add a percentage of it back in based on how well you are roleplaying your character. This is based on personality and background, class, and things that happen to the character in the game.

I will occasionally add a bonus to xp if you do something exceptional in any of these areas. There will also be situations where xp penalties are applied. These will be made scaled to the "crime" that they are meant to punish. You will usually receive a warning about whatever it is before a penalty is given. I will not issue warnings, however, when it comes to use of ooc knowledge and the like. It's just a pet peeve of mine.

Level Advancement: I do not typically use the optional training rules when characters advance in level. I assume that your PC has been practicing these new skills in his or her 'free time' while adventuring, mainly because this makes things easier for me and makes things go more smoothly in play. Some exceptions are mentioned below.

In the case of some NWP, this does not make sense. Use your judgement in those cases. If you choose a NWP that I do not believe your character could have mastered in the situations that he has been in (something like blacksmithing that requires special equipment or learning a language that no one in the group speaks), I will tell you. Also, if you work on your NWP in character as we play (such as making a point to learn elven and practicing with an elven speaking character), you will earn extra xp. It is also possible that some NWP learned on 'your own' will require a penalty to the NWP checks when they are required. Learning things from someone else is easier than trying to learn it on your own. I will never penalize a character who wants to seek out someone to train with, and in fact, I will very likely reward this behavior. I do not want to require it, however.

A mage gains one spell of the next level when he obtains the power to cast spells of the next level. All other spells must be found or bought. A fighter may become proficient with a weapon or specialize in a weapon without training. Anything above specialization requires studying the weapon with a weapons master or grand master and is no trivial task.

When a character advances in level, the appropriate die should be rolled on the Irony site for hit point increase. Rolls of 1 should be rerolled once.

Character desriptions and pictures: I need everyone to send me a public description of their characters and a picture if you have one you'd like to use so that I can put up a web page on the game. I will post turn summaries and player maps and the like there as well.