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Rules of Play

I would like everyone to use a mini-stat block for their characters, either in your forum signatures or, if you’d rather, you can include your mini-stat block on the first post of each page (and every combat post).

Example mini-stats

Tiefling Warlock (Fey) 2 Character Sheet, Character Picture
Initiative: +2 Senses: Low-light P-Perception: 14 P-Insight: 17
HP: 31/31 SurgeValue: 7 Surges: 8/8
AC:16 Fort:13 Ref:15 Will:16
-2 to enemy attacks when concealed

Action Points: 1
Resist: Fire 6 Speed:6
BasicAttack: - '''Spear''' +3 vs. AC; 1d8 + 0 damage
BasicRangedAttack: - '''Eldritch Blast''' +6 vs. Reflex; 1d10 + 5 damage

Powers

Eldritch Blast
Eyebite
Infernal Wrath
Witchfire
Ethereal Stride
Curse of the Dark Dream

In combat I will track your hitpoints and status effects but I'd like you to please do the same in your mini-stats.
I’d like those of you who haven’t already, to write a wish list of magic items that your character would like ranging from levels 1 to 7 (don’t worry if a couple of levels are blank) and put it on your character sheet.
When the group receives treasure; nine times out of ten, it’s going to be up to the party to split it among themselves.
Monster statistics will be posted in the DM’s initiative as the party discovers them, i.e. by hitting a certain defence or a monster knowledge check.
If a spoiler block is labelled for another character, please try not to read it. If one character has certain information, it’s up to him or her to reveal it IC.
If you do not post for 2 days, and we are in a skill challenge or combat encounter, I will post for you. I will only use At-Will Powers.
If you know you are going to be unable to post for more than 2 days, please let me know.
During skill challenges I will be using the homebrewed Obsidian system;

Skill Challenge Rules

During each segment:
1) Each player describes an action that his character is doing, whether it’s tumbling past a guard or talking with a duke.
2) The DM and the player work together to decide the right skill check for the action. In general, a player uses a skill that fits the challenge type (see Challenge Types) though the DM is the final judge whether a certain skill can be used.
3) If the player gives a particularly good description or role‐plays well, the DM can give him a +2 to the skill check.
4) All players roll their skill checks versus the DC of the challenge. The DM counts all the successes that are made.
5) Steps 1‐4 are repeated for the other segments of the challenge. The DM totals up all of the successes made, and then determines whether the party failed, obtained victory, or only obtained partial victory.

PLAYER NOTE: In the Obsidian system, you can take actions that directly affect the challenge, or that simply help your teammates. Both are considered equally useful to the challenge. Also keep in mind that you won’t always get to use your best skills, a social character might not have good skills for a physical challenge for example. That’s okay, role‐play your actions and do your best while one of your team mates uses his big skills. In the next challenge it will be your turn to shine.

Player Options:

While engaged in a skill challenge, players can use the following:
Bold Recovery: A player may spend an action point to reroll a skill check they have made, before they might know if the roll was a success or failure. The player must take the result of the reroll.
Primary Skill: For most challenges, the DM assigns one or two skills as the centre point of the challenge. Players using that skill receive a +2 to their skill checks. Example: In a negotiation with a Duke, diplomacy would be the primary skill. In a scene where the party sneaks into an orc camp, stealth would be the primary skill. If the players were researching a secret from ancient arcane texts, arcana would be the primary.
Unburdened: You may spend one healing surge and choose a skill that has an armour check penalty (such as endurance). For the rest of the skill challenge, you may ignore the armour check penalty for that skill. You may spend additional surges to select more skills.

Challenge Types:

Every Skill Challenge has a type chosen by the DM: mental, physical, or social. The type determines what kinds of skills are generally appropriate to the challenge, as well as the consequences of success and failure.

Mental
A Mental challenge lets the players using their minds and their senses to gain clues and to find their way around the world. DMs can use Mental Challenges to describe large scales of scenery and give players a chance to work out clues to obtain victory.
Examples: Finding your way through an old forest, determining the secret entrance to the underground city, solving the puzzle of El‐Karad, or finding the last ingredient for a ritual in an old library are examples of a Mental Challenge.

Standard skills for a mental challenge include:
Arcana (Int) Dungeoneering (Wis) Heal (Wis)* History (Int) Insight (Wis) Nature (Wis) Perception (Wis) Religion (Int) Social (cha)** Streetwise (Cha)***

*When dealing with anatomy or medical insights.
**Social skills can be useful to gain clues when other people are near the challenge site, such as using diplomacy to acquire help from the head librarian. Generally allow this only once per challenge per person.
***For navigating urban terrain or gaining information on the street.

Physical
A physical challenge often is the most versatile of challenges. It can include subtle stealth or outrageous stunts. Players are encouraged to describe their actions in detail.
Examples: Scaling a great cliff, sneaking past a group of guards, and crossing a raging river are good physical challenges.

Standard skills for a Physical Challenge include:
Acrobatics (Dex) Athletics (Str) Endurance (Con) Heal (Wis) Stealth (Dex) Thievery (Dex) Social (cha)* Knowledge (int or wis)**

*Social skills can sometimes be useful in physical challenges against other creatures. Using bluff to throw off a group of guards as you make your escape is a good example. Generally only allow this once per challenge per player.
**Knowledge skills can sometimes be useful in physical challenges that involve certain environments. Using nature in a chase scene that involves the jungle is one example. Generally only allow this once per challenge per player.

Social
A social challenge generally involves talking and a large amount of role‐playing. Players are encouraged to use eloquent words, bold statements, and outright lies to win the day.
Example: A negotiation with the Duke, talking your way past the guards, and convincing an old hero to take up the cause once again are examples of social challenges.

Standard Skills for a social challenge include:
Bluff (cha) Diplomacy(cha) Insight (wis) Intimidate (cha) Streetwise (cha) Knowledges * (int or wis)

*In some cases, some knowledge skills can be useful if they are particularly relevant to the challenge. Example: Using religion in a social challenge that involves a priest. Generally only allowed once per player per challenge.
We will be using Mal Malenkirk’s combat rules;

Combat Rules

1 - I roll all initiatives. Waiting two days before everyone has had the chance to roll theirs is a waste of time.

2 - I roll a single initiative for my bad guys and play them all in the same turn. It loses some of the tabletop experience but it plays a lot faster than individual initiative.

3 - If you haven't posted your PC's action in two days, I usually run your PC at some point late in the third day of inactivity. Warn me in advance if you don't believe you can post for more than two days.

And the biggest...

4 - I don't care in what initiative order you post; your action takes place at exactly the moment you post and as long as you only act once per round, it's all good.

The initiative in practice is only relevant once; the very first round.

Let's say initiative is:

Mesa 22
Matlal 17
BAD GUYS 16
Tor 12
Montroya 9
Andrec 8
Jarel Karn 5

That means Mesa and Matlal get to act before the BGs. I don't care in what order! If Matlal log in the thread before Mesa, don't wait, act first!

Once they have both acted, I play all of the Bad Guys.

Then everyone act, in whatever order.

It is possible that Mesa and Matlal will log on the thread before Tor, Montroya, Andrec and Jarel Karn have all acted. It doesn't matter, they can act! Once all 6 of PCs have acted (and acted only once, of course!), I run bad guys and then it's once more your turn. That simple.

I repeat; your actions take place when you post. Should you want to delay, then simply wait for the others to post.

It is very common when you play that way for a player to log last in a turn and then be the first to log back after I have updated the fight and played the BGs. This leads to a PC acting almost back to back. It matters little; in the end he still has acted only once in either round.

This saves a lot of time especially because most players can't log on the thread thrice a day to see if it's their turn yet. If you log on at any time after I have run the BGs turn you are free to post without waiting for your buddies to act in order.

Two frequent rules issues arise from this practice:

1 - What about effects that last 'until the end of PC's X turn'?

Often a leader will grant a bonus to someone else 'until the end of the leader's turn'. This will usually be interpreted as 'Until the end of the target's turn' instead. Good old common sense. The target doesn't lose the bonus if the leader acts before him and doesn't gain TWO turns of using the bonus if he manages to act twice before the leader acts again.

2 - What about PCs who purposefully delay taking their turn in order to give a chance to their allies to grant them a free save?

Ongoing damage and others conditions effect occurs at the beggining of your turn. If you know someone might grant you a free save (leaders can often do that) before you act, it may save you damage or avoid a stun effect to purposefully delay taking your turn, giving a chance for the other PCs to help you... That's cool. I don't mind. It just increases the value of team work which is a good thing.
Use Invisible Castle for dice rolls, please make sure to fill in the campaign name and character name for each roll, I will do the same.
Have fun! If you’re not having fun for any reason, please tell me about it so we can get back on track.