Curabel Campaign Addendum to House Rule Document

Campaign Addendums and Notes

Final Notes on Character Creation

1. Players of human PCs should decide if they are descended from imperial colonists or the native island population. There is no mechanical difference in terms of attributes, but it may impact NPC reactions in some circumstances.
2. If the party intends to do any exploration of ancient ruins, it might be useful if at least one character has studied the ancient dwarf writing system/language. It is not uncommon for magic-users to be interested in this language. [Edit – I think some of you have already taken care of this; keep it in mind if we need more characters.]
3. Be sure to check the effects of age category on ability score in the DMG; while the penalties cannot bring you below class/race minimums, the bonuses can be very helpful. [Edit – I think everyone except Larry and Brian got these during character creation.]

Technical Issues

1. We are using G+ hangouts with the Roll20 app for this campaign. In order to reduce lag in our session, everyone should lower their bandwidth usage in the hangout to the minimum – this automatically turns off video, but that can make a big difference when there are seven or eight players logged in at once.
2. If you log in through Roll20 but not the G+ hangout, we won’t be able to hear each other. I will send out invites at the scheduled session time. I think you can also access the hangout from the event page. If you accept the invitation to the event, G+ will send you a reminder when it’s starting. If you’re unfamiliar with or having trouble with G+ hangouts, make sure we work that out before the first play session.
3. We have a large number of players – which is fine; apparently Gygax himself often had a table with ten or more players at it. However, we’re going to have up to seven players interacting via what amounts to a conference call. Here are some suggestions to keep things manageable:
   1. During exploration: I will describe what everyone sees and then ask what the party is going to do (turn-by-turn in dungeons; whatever is appropriate elsewhere). Eventually, you’re going to have a situation where there are passages to the left and right and a decision needs to be made. Please consider ahead of time how you are going to make that decision (vote? Rotating party leader role?). Also, for individual rather than party actions, keep in mind that it may be difficult at times to get a word in edge-wise. The chat window may be a way to get around that problem.
   2. During combat: I will go down my list and ask each player at the start of the round what their intentions are; this will determine your initiative modifier and cannot be changed once initiative is rolled. Please be familiar with the speeds of your weapons and spells in case I need to ask you for a reminder – filling out your character sheet completely and keeping it updated will be essential to this going smoothly.
   3. While the house rules indicated we would be using group initiative, Roll20 actually makes individual initiative easier via macros that pre-package the roll and speed factor numbers. I will post a document with sample macro code for both rolling initiative and attacks.
   4. Related to the last point, if each character has a token and can select it, using the initiative macro will automatically add your initiative roll to the turn order list. I will provide default tokens that we can use for this and marching order depiction, but feel free to send me a image of your choosing.

Book-Keeping / Organizational Matters

1. While Roll20 is an excellent virtual tabletop application and venue for bringing gamers together, it is not terribly well-designed for organizing the paperwork that inevitably accumulates over the course of a RPG. For that reason, after we begin playing, most of my communication will be via the G+ community page. I won’t spam you or post off-topic nonsense and the Roll20 forums are fine for general chatter, but here’s the kind of material you can expect to see posted there:
   1. Addendums and corrections to the house rules and player’s guide
   2. Invites for the next gaming session
   3. Individual notes for each character summing up the experience you gained between sessions

Personally, I will have notifications turned on for this page so I know if you’ve posted an updated character sheet or asked a question. That might be a good choice for you, but I know some people prefer not to get those automated messages.

1. Tracking experience points: Related to the last point, each player is going to responsible for posting the treasure they acquired after each session at the G+ site. This will allow me add in bonuses and combat experience to calculate your total experience point gain. Character sheets themselves only need to be updated on the G+ site when something drastic changes (e.g., gain a level, drained a level, resurrected as a badger).

Party Dynamics

1. Dividing treasure: Money is easy – whatever you find divided by the number of players who participated in its recovery. However, you will need to decide on a default method of divvying up magic items. Whether this means giving them to whomever is best qualified to use them or dicing for them (or whatever else), this should be determined before you start finding them.
2. Dead Characters: If the body is accessible, you will need to determine what to do with the deceased character’s equipment. There is also the issue of resurrection/reincarnation; at low levels, this will not likely be an issue, though.
3. Party Fund: This is a bit tricky with 1e rules about experience, but it is sometimes a good idea to keep a fund of money to pay for party (rather than individual) expenses. I would be willing to give characters credit for treasure they contribute to the party fund in terms of experience.