[Mechanics] House Rules

[bulbaquil]

General 1. Intimidate uses the higher of STR or CHA. 2. The Burlew rules are used for Diplomacy and Shapeshifting. 3. This campaign uses the "Epic 8" rule variant. Details on improving characters after level 8 is attained will be discussed if/when we reach level 8. Rings can still be purchased (even though "Craft Ring" requires caster level 12th according to the SRD), provided the caster level required to produce the ring itself (i.e. not to get the Craft Ring feat) is 8th or lower. 4. Firearms (from Pathfinder) marked as "Early" firearms are obtainable and purchaseable in this campaign at 40% the cost listed in the Pathfinder SRD. "Advanced" firearms are not available. 5. Don't worry about keeping track of food, water, or ammunition if you're in a general area where you can purchase or obtain more of it. It will only become relevant if you are in a situation where this is not the case (roaming through a desert, lost at sea...), and I will notify you of this beforehand. 6. You may take the leadership feat even at level 1, but you may not actually obtain a cohort until level 3 (since cohorts must be no more than 2 levels below the players) and you may not obtain followers until level 6. Until that time it is a "dead weight" feat.

Game Acceleration 7. Listen and Spot are passive skills - you cannot actively try to notice something, you either do or you don't. To save the trouble of everyone listening and spotting as the first thing they do when they enter a new area, I will roll the dice (publicly) only if there is something of significance to be heard or seen in the area and then secret the results to anyone who passed the check. This saves you the disappointment of rolling a nat-20 on a Listen check you make yourself when there is, in fact, absolutely nothing to be heard. 8. Combat in PbP is particularly time-consuming, so there will probably be fewer encounters than in a normal tabletop game but with more XP for each one. 9. Also in combat, I will post the initiative order for all party members and foes (that you are aware of). You do not have to post in initiative order - keeping strictly to initiative can be a problem if the person whose initiative follows yours works an 8pm-4am night shift and you post at 8:10 (for example). You can also use if/then/else statements to speed things along, particularly if your actions depend on those of someone before you in initiative but after you in posting, e.g.: "If Legolas kills the goblin, I will use Acid Arrow on the orc, otherwise I will stab the goblin with my punching dagger", post both a concentration check for the spell and the attack/damage rolls for the alternate attack with the dagger. 10. Similarly, if you are casting a spell during combat or while otherwise "in initiative", go ahead and roll a Concentration check just in case there might be something that distracts you. This is not necessary if the party is "out of initiative" (i.e. not in round-by-round posting).

[bulbaquil]

Made a slight tweak to the Lank racial traits; since most of you are playing Lanks, you might want to take a look.

tweak For the purposes of qualifying for any feat, prestige class, etc. that has ranks in Swim as a prerequisite, [the +2 Lank] racial bonus [to Swim] is treated as 2 ranks in Swim.

So this applies for things like Complete Adventurer's Improved Swimming feat, crafting Rings of Swimming, etc.

[bulbaquil]

Temperature Bands

- Basically, we're using the temperature bands from Sandstorm, page 12. (The ones in Frostburn don't go any colder than the ones in Sandstorm, but the ones in Sandstorm go hotter than Frostburn).
- In addition, I'm adding another band for temperatures below -90°F, which follows Frostburn's general cold endurance formula. I highly doubt the party will ever actually see these temperatures; I just wanted to make the range encompassed by the non-extreme temperature bands an even 300 degrees.