Staunton Bluffs Rules & FAQ

Rafael's and Skybolt's Online Campaign
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Which shall be the setting for our next adventure?

A direct continuation of the story told in the SB campaign?
4
44%
A completely new Ravenloft campaign set somewhere in the lands of the Core?
4
44%
A new Ravenloft campaign involving another Island in the Mists?
1
11%
 
Total votes: 9

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Le Noir Faineant
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Staunton Bluffs Rules & FAQ

Post by Le Noir Faineant »

Welcome to Des' Staunton Bluffs PbP - campaign!

Greetings, traveller.

If you're reading this, you're just one step away from from a journey to the Mistland's darkest corner... Are you pure of heart and brave enough to go on? :twisted:


1. Before you start:

To join our “The Last Days of Staunton Bluffs” Play-by-Post (PbP) game, you are required to send me, Desdichado, a fully – stated d20 character description. Since the game is meant to start with the PCs at an considerable level, this might be useful, giving you very concrete ideas about your PC’s background and abilities and will help me to adjust the challenges of the game to your characters.

a) Creation Guidelines
You may use whatever d20 source you want BUT are required to comment and annotate EVERYTHING that doesn’t come from the d20 core books I-III. (Player’s Handbook 3.5, Dungeon Master’s Guide 3.5, Monster Manual 3.5)

b) Character Starting Level

The starting levels of players that are new to the campaign will usually be level 1, unless otherwise noted.


2. Playing Rules:

a) I am the DM.
Yeah, I am the ancient, I am the land. I interpret the rules, and I do all the rolls. If I decide a rule doesn’t apply or an action comes out another way than the desired, then no discussion, please.

b) This will be slow.
The Staunton Bluffs PbP is meant to proceed slowly and won’t demand daily attention, so it remains a hobby and not an obligation. Minimal posting shall be one time a week, less attendance will result in a rant.
I’ll try to update the game once every week (Friday’s DM’s day!), so it stays relaxing and funny for everyone, and no one has to fear to loose the track.

c) Leaving the game
If you have to leave the game for a while, please inform me first. If you don’t inform me, I’ll just leave your character where he is, to whatever fate awaits him. :twisted:

d) Level Advancement
You won’t get experience points, but advance at my will. The PbP will be divided in several episodes, after each your characters will be awarded with an additional level.


3. Forbidden Books (Really important! Read carefully!)

No spoiling please! I’d strongly recommend you to stay away from the following books if you want to enjoy the game:

Realm of Terror Boxed Set; better known as the Black Box.

Islands of Terror.

Denizens of Dread, the acclaimed Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary and the Monster Manual I also aren’t recommended for intense reading, if you don’t particularly need them to prepare a game of yours. ;)

Also, I’d recommend you to stay away from any Judges Guild or Zeitgeist Games game product. Besides Ravenloft, I DM the so-called First Fantasy Campaign-setting and might draw much of my inspiration from the newer d20 books of that companies.


4. I’ll use three different threads for the campaign management:

THIS ONE HERE YOU'RE LOOKING AT - For announcements and to answer possible questions. Please leave your request to join or to leave the game here.

THE IN-GAME THREAD - Open from November 6, 2005.

THE OOC- CHAT - Post here whatever comes to your mind... and is related to the game... And is innocent enough that other my enjoy reading it. :P


5. The FoS forum rules apply to these threads as well, of course. No bad words, no naked posting, please!


EDIT: Although the campaign is running now, everyone is still welcome to join. Just post in this thread and then we can discuss the details!


Yours,

Rafael
Last edited by Le Noir Faineant on Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:54 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Le Noir Faineant
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

A question that came up over at Dragonsfoot concerning the Character Creation Guidelines:
Premier wrote: Am I the only one who finds this... disturbing, to say the least? The terms "trolling-encouragement", "elitist", "unfair", "how the HELL are you going to have an even remotely balanced game" and "missing the whole friggin' point" also come to my mind.
If it turns out that there's an eclatant difference of level between the party members, one can adjust that. Besides, the main reason to do so is that this game will be run mainly with people from a Ravenloft board - all expierenced DMs and connaiseurs of the Ravenloft world. If one has browsed the FoS a while, he will know how to manage a situation than someone who is new to the RL community. Of course, one can have read all the books and memorize them without ever having posted on the major Ravenloft board, but it's a bit unlikely in my opinion.

I know this rule isn't ideal, but it was the only thing that came to my mind to reflect the situation I described above.

Besides, there exists always the possibility to split up into different storylines for differently experienced characters. And also, since currently most of the characters are from level 1 to 3, that rule won't apply as drastically as one could think. There are only a few FoS members with a really high post count, and those are mainly occupied with their own games at the Cafe de Nuit.

But, please, if you can help me how to make this better, I am very open for any opinion on this.

:)

If anyone else has questions or some good advice for me, don't hesistae to put them here.

R
Last edited by Le Noir Faineant on Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Staunton Bluffs Rules & FAQ

Post by CapN »

Desdichado wrote:b) Character Starting Level
Your starting level is defined by your post-count at the FoS-board at the time of your submission.
Between 1 and 500 posts, you get one core class level for every 100 posts.
So I'll have to start as a 0-level character. Sorry, I won't play like that.
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

You'd start as a level 1 character, of course. And since the other candidates would be between lvl 1 and 3, the group should be THAT unbalanced. :)
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Post by Don Fernando »

Hi Rafael,

I was wondering, were should we submit our characters? To your mail, in which case I don't have it, or to you as a private message in the FoS?

Thanks and I'm looking forward to play!!! :D
"6 out of 10 Rakshasas eat Whiskas"
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

Hmmm...

The best thing would be to submit your sheet to my PM account over here. (That makes it most likely that I have it always at hand and don't delete it as a mistake...)

Just if I wasn't clear earlier, since your post account is between 100 and 200, you may prepare up to an 2nd level character if you like. :)
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

:) I am counting on you, Don Fernando! :)

I promise you a great game!

:twisted:
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Post by ewancummins »

:azalin:
Last edited by ewancummins on Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

Hi Ewan,

You're very welcome! If it's currently a problem for you to create your character, in this special case I have no problem if you just send me in a short description. Also, you can download the SRD and create your character with this document - which may seem a bit unfamilliar at first, but works as well.

Expecting your submission,

Rafael
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Post by Don Fernando »

Hi again!

I just submmited my character, I hope it's not too strage, Rafael :wink: . Ooops, I just realized I could make him 2nd Lvl... if only...

As for the generation fo the characters, Ewan, if you don't have all the books necessary to create the character, I can recommend the following site:

http://www.pathguy.com/rloft.htm

It's a great site, it helped me a lot in generating my character since I am not quite used to the 3rd Ed rules ( I still play 2nd Ed. ...sorry but nostalgy doesn't help... :oops: ).

Looking forward to play!

Cheers
Fernando
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Post by ewancummins »

".......
Last edited by ewancummins on Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Le Noir Faineant
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

... Which will arrive in a question of mintues. :)
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Post by CapN »

Don Fernando wrote:( I still play 2nd Ed. ...sorry but nostalgy doesn't help... :oops: ).
What a shame... You should be playing 1ed, or Basic, or even better, Original.
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

CapN wrote:
Don Fernando wrote:( I still play 2nd Ed. ...sorry but nostalgy doesn't help... :oops: ).
What a shame... You should be playing 1ed, or Basic, or even better, Original.
:wink: Yeah, but 1e = No Ravenloft... Well, yes, but no Realm of Terror... :D
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

Oh, yes, an important note: While it will be definitely possible to choose native Stauntonians as playing characters later, I wouldn't advise to choose them for the first chapter of the game... Might spoil you a lot of the surprise element. :wink:
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