Narrative Mode
In the narrative mode I largely will not care about your Hit Points, defenses, weapon damage etc etc. There will be a back and forth between me giving exposition or dialog from non-player characters and you guys explaining what you are doing. I would prefer you take a little flair to your writing in this phase. Any dialog portions should be bolded. It should be done in third person mostly and you are not obligated to share inner thoughts, if you do those should be italicized You have some license to do snippets of dialog involving minor NPCs like the bartender or docking attendant. No god modding it though. So you can take the liberty of writing up a dialog debating the merits of a particular brand of Correlian Brandy with a bartender, but if you have him do something completely unheard of like "Well Dood you know more than me so here is the deed and keys to the bar. I'm off to Naboo!" I will make you pay in some pretty cruel ways.
An example as if I were playing Arillius as a normal player might read something like this:
Occasionally I will ask for perception checks or skill checks. For that you will respond with a separated line like this:Arillius glanced around the room checking the exits and sizing up potential threats. After feeling confident that he hadn't been followed he spoke "Belton says you are trustworthy, but I still have my reservations. Why should I give you the datacards?" He flipped the small card around in his hand like a pazaak card.
1d20+(skill modifier)=Result
So Arillius doing a perception check where he rolled a 7 would read like:
1d20+9=16
That syntax will be used for pretty much all skill and attack rolls in this game. Based on the result I will inform you on what is seen or not, whether you passed or failed the skill check etc etc.
Sometimes I might stop a narrative post with no prompting on what to do, ie not end with a NPC asking you a question, this is normal and you can respond however you feel is appropriate or you want. Because we are on a forum and have many players, I may split the party up with each subplot or narrative arc getting its own thread.
I know this is a lot to ask, but for the enjoyment of players and keeping these things on track I ask that non-game related comments be kept to a minimum. If you have a rules question or feel like you must make an out of character comment please put them in These kind of brackets { } with a preface of OOC (for out of character statement) or rules: (for questions about the rules). Example:
Participation on this mode is pretty lax as I'm not going to take control of your character and make you ask questions or whatever. If you make no posts we will just assume you are quietly following the gang. Some NPCs will make specific queries towards a given player. If you don't respond in a timely manner you might miss out on a vital clue, a tip, or in some cases money/loot. Silence in that case is assumed to be you ignoring that NPC and you can't go back very easily and make it up to them in hopes of getting what was offered before.Arillius walked down the street fastening his jacket closed to fight off the biting wind. He looked at the scaffolding for the building. Can I scale this and sneak in an upper window? he thought.
{rules: how do I make a climbing skill check again and do I take damage if I fall?}
Combat Mode
When the time comes for fisticuffs, either initiated by you hooligans or the proper civilized galaxy at large looking to tame you, I will make a call for initiative. This will be done even if you guys get or are about to receive a surprise attack round. The initiative rolls will be our turn based order for the duration of the combat. Unlike in the narrative phase I will take control of your character if you do not post your move within 24 hours of it being your turn. This is to make sure the game doesn't stall out because Reese went on vacation and didn't bother to tell anyone.
During combat mode you are required to start every post with the following line of information
Hit Points, Threshold Damage (condition if <0 ) Fortitude defense, Reflex defense, Willpower defense, Speed, Base attack modifier, Strength modifier if using a melee weapon, Dexterity modifier if using a ranged weapon So for example Arillius' line would look like:
As I give you damage or effects you will modify that accordingly. For example if I had Arillius hit with some kind of goo that last 3 turns and reduced his Reflex Defense and Dexterity by 2 I would note it as follows:HP 24 (Threshold 13) FortD 13 RefD 17 WillD 17 Speed 6, atk +2, Dex +2
And each round the (3 rds) would go down one until the effect is gone as well as those pesky -2 mofiers.HP 24 (Threshold 13) FortD 13 RefD 17-2(3 rds) WillD 17 Speed 6, atk +2, Dex +2-2(3 rds)
You should also use your post to describe your actions including movement, indicate targets etc etc. Remember brief dialog costs no part of your turn as I assume you can talk and shoot at the same time. However if you can't say your line of dialog in approx 6 seconds then you probably need to cut it down some. So no singing the entire score to the HMS Pinafore Dood. Break that up over a few rounds.
Movement will be on a grid system with letters on the Y axis and numbers on the x axis. Movement will be notated as moves to G13. Be sure to notate what direction you are then facing. For simplicity even though it may not be accurate to the particulars the maps top side is always north. So "Arillius moves to G13 and faces Southwest". Targets will be given names like Boss A, Boss B, Commando A. Occasionally you will get named combat opponents so you can just use their names if that applies. Also if you just want to target an object of an area you can say so like "Bulwark uses autofire on squares a1, a2, b1, b2" or "Dood attacks the chair on C13 for being offensively tall".
When you roll to attack also roll your dmg on the assumption you hit. If you roll a 1 or a 20 you should note that. 1s are automatic misses (even if the modifiers were past their Reflex defense). And 20s are critical strikes and double damage. You will be working off the honor system that you are not rerolling for more favorable rolls. If however I notice that your numbers don't seem random enough I reserve the right to start doing your rolls for you. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm is a place where you can do all your rolling.
I will not give you a running total of your opponents (or NPC allies hit points etc etc. So an average combat move should look something like this:
I will post periodically out of opponents turns or whatever if there is a change in the battle that needs to be addressed. Also if an Attack of opportunity (pg155) opens up to a player I will notate it and feel free to post you attack whenever and it will be rolled in. If no post is made within 24hours I will take control of the character for that attack.HP 24 (Threshold 13) FortD 13 RefD 17 WillD 17 Speed 6, atk +2, Dex +2
Arillus draws his Heavy Blaster Pistol from his holster and targets the Hutt henchman B and begins attacking. "Tell your Boss I don't work for him anymore!" Blaster bolts fly out towards the Rodian.
Attack: 1d20+2+2-6=13 (because of roll+attack bonus+dexterity modifier-range penalty)
Dmg: 3d8+1= 12 (because his blaster is 3d8 and he gets +1 to damage for his level)
Chapters and XP
This campaign is going to be broken up into chapters or minor adventures which when taken as a whole will make up the full story we are playing. Each chapter completed by players will grant 1 level. I don't like the whole "well you killed 13 gurks at CL 3 each therefore you have 1271XP" so I'm saying eff that. If you have to step out for a chapter (life gets hectic and you can't play) you can rejoin later. I will always make sure your level is no lower than 1 level below the lowest person already playing. Over time this might make for a range of levels in the group, but it is the catchup logic I am going with.
Final Note
If you don't check in and make your moves (both narrative and combat) and the campaign seems to drag as a result I will ask you to either commit or remove yourself from play. I hope that doesn't become an issue though.
Does anyone have any questions or is anythign unclear?