Playing the Game

[Sojourn]

Code of Conduct

• Don't be a jerk. Basically the standard, catch-all, 'being aggressive/antagonistic/needlessly rude is not acceptable' rule. This includes but is not limited to the use of derogatory language to your fellow players. We do not tolerate any racist, sexist, homophobic or similar terms being thrown around OOC.
• Keep IC and OOC separate. This means more than simply meta gaming. Metagaming is perfectly fine and even encouraged in some circumstances, as we strive towards what makes a cool story, not what simulates reality. If your character has a disagreement with another character, that's also totally cool! Conflict makes drama which is the heart of a good story; so long as it remains IC. Please do not take IC disagreements and allow them to spill over into bad-feeling between players. If your OOC enjoyment of the game is ruined by interaction with another player's character, just don't interact with that character IC. There's no reason to allow it to spill over into OOC drama. If you feel like they may be guilty of a violation of rule 1 - please bring it to the attention of staff.
• Keep Discussions Relevant. You'll notice on our discord that we have special sections for political talk, fandom talk and gaming talk. Please don't allow these discussions to dominate the general chatter area. Please note that we have no 'illegal activity' talk or 'erotic adult chat' sections. There are reasons for that.
• Don't Cheat We use a dice rolling system. This means that failure is sometimes possible. This in turn means that there's going to be a certain temptation for some players to try and cheat. Don't do that. If you're caught, you'll get an infraction. Second time you get a two week ban. Third time you get a permanent ban. If you accidentally edit a post and cause a dice roll to disappear or be rerolled, that's fine - own up to it, and your GM may allow you to reroll in a separate post or may rule that it is a failure if this is part of a pattern.
• Alt Accounts Please first create an Out of Character Writer account. Once you have created this account and are ready to submit your first character, please create a second account for this character and link it to your OOC account using the User Control Panel. You can have any number of alts. You must wait at least 2 weeks between applications. You may only have 1 level 1 alt at a time.
• Evil Characters We love evil characters ... in our games around a table, where everyone can sign up to the same rules of engagement and all expectations can be laid out within the social contract of that environment. Online, it never tends to work out. Characters here are expected to be Good or Neutral sorts who are out to actually engage in adventure and work cooperatively with the other PCs. You don't have to be the nicest person in the world ever, but outright villainous and antagonist characters are disallowed, as are characters who will backstab their party members at the drop of a hat—no evil alignments, in short! You are certainly welcome to come up with plenty of evil NPCs to interact with in your adventures, however, so don't think villainy of any kind is disallowed here.
• We are an English Language site. All applications and threads must be written in English (though we don't care if you use American, British, or any other variation for spelling purposes.)

[Sojourn]

House Rules

Here we shall catalogue the official House Rules of Waterdeep!

• No encumbrance. DMs are free to impose reasonable limits within their threads; please don't abuse this leniancy, but we're not interested in tracking the weight of items in a realistic fashion.
• No evil player characters. PCs may not have evil alignments.
• You may sell back gear at character creation. This makes the preset packs almost always better than trying to roll for starting GP. If you want to roll for it anyway, though, let us know and we will arrange such.
• Rolling for Hit Points is unnecessary.[/color] We use the average rules: PCs take max HP (+Con modifier) for the first level and then the average for their level after that. For assistance in working out your character's HPs, use this calculator.
• Improved Pact Weapon now reads: You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. Finally, the weapon you conjure can be any weapon with which you have proficiency.
  
  This is in order to allow a broader range of warlock weapon builds.

Please note that you are free to institute other house rules on a thread by thread basis when you are DMing them; just make sure you present them all up front so nobody is surprised!

[Sojourn]

Time Keeping

Time on the site is handled a little differently. It is very fluid.

In order to help prevent people getting bogged down in combat, characters can be in any number of threads simultaneously. However, in the event that a character dies in one thread, they immediately take the 'safe thread' penalty for all other threads and cannot enter any other threads until they have secured resurrection. A character's abilities are set as per their sheet at the time when they enter the thread; gaining gear or levels over time does not increase one's ability within their current thread.

The game begins in 1489 DR. We approximately match our seasons to the real world (western hemisphere)

Players are free to set threads at any time in the current or previous game years. We leave it up to you to create a coherent chronology for your character, and we're not particularly worried about reasonable travel times.


Current Season: Autumn 1490

[Sojourn]

Death and Retirement

If a character has to make saving throws in an adventure thread they may choose automatically to succeed any which would result in their death. If they take this option, it is classified as a 'safe' thread for that character and they lose 50% of the experience points and gold they would have gained in the thread (rounding down). They must make this choice before the roll and the DM must make it clear that failing the save is an 'instant death' effect if this is applicable. The save may be retroactive only in a case where the death is caused by massive damage.

Once a thread is declared as a 'safe' thread for that character, the character may not be killed. Most of the time, they should seek return to a safe locale and exit the adventure via whatever narrative means are required.

If circumstances allow and it makes sense for the character to be resurrected in the course of the thread by NPCs, divine intervention, a passing magical wildebeest etc, the DM should of course feel free to adjudicate this with the proviso that it will likely have an impact on thread rewards for the PC roughly commensurate with the cost of resurrection laid out below.

If your character dies, you have a few options:

• Do you have (or will people contribute) 5000 gold pieces? If your body can be recovered to Waterdeep within 10 days you will be raised by one of the churches.
• Do you have (or will people contribute) 50,000 gold pieces? If a small part of your body can be recovered to Waterdeep within 100 years you will be raised by the High Priest of one of the churches.
• Do you have a buddy who can cast resurrection magic and it makes sense for them to be able to do so? Then go ahead and do that!

Alternatively, maybe you feel like your character's story is done. Maybe it is time for them to rest. All resurrection magic requires a willing soul, and there's always cosmological disturbances which can render a character unable to come back even if they want to.

Or maybe you just want to retire the character and play someone else.

That's absolutely fine! Just submit a request on the bookkeeping forum and you will be able to roll your character's current XP and gold into a new character. All magic items held by that character will be exchanged for an amount of gold instead unless you want to keep them.

When making a whole new character out of an existing one, you may request particular magic items which are important to your character or concept and staff will help you determine if you have enough gold to start with that.

Finally, you can change any decisions you've made when building your character post-approval. You can request a rebuild once every month to move points, change decisions and otherwise not feel like you have accidentally wound up stuck with a character who doesn't function.

[Sojourn]

Crafting, Downtime, Items, and Purchases

A player may submit 1 request for a magic item per real-world month for each character. Upon submitting the request the character is given a cost which remains valid for 30 days, after which point the price may change if it is submitted as a request again.

Characters may request for up to 6 'consumable' magic items as their monthly item request (e.g. scrolls, potions etc).

Characters may also use their tool proficiencies to craft mundane items - this costs 1/2 the usual item cost and will be assigned a length of time before another crafting request can be made, usually this will equate to 1 per month.

As a means of gaining access to additional languages and tool proficiencies, a character may purchase a magic item which grants these bonuses. Unlike other magic items, these have a set price of 500 gp x the number of items of this nature previously bought.

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Magical Material Properties

Adamantine and Mithral are magical materials which can be used for special weapons and armour, both magical and mundane.

Adamantine armour negates critical hits against you. This costs 1000 gp over and above the standard armour price.

Adamantine weapons count as dealing critical hits against inanimate objects and constructs. This costs 500 gp over and above the standard weapon price and will cover 10 pieces of ammunition.

Mithral armour removes any strength requirements and stealth disadvantage which would normally be incurred by the armour. This costs 1000 gp over and above the standard armour price.

Mithral weapons that are not heavy gain the 'finesse' keyword. Mithral weapons which are heavy do not impose disadvantage on the attack roll when used by small characters. Mithral ammunition may be used out to the maximum range of the weapon without imposing disadvantage. This costs 500 gp over and above the standard weapon price and will cover 10 pieces of ammunition.

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Upgrading Items

When exchanging an item for a version of the same item which you already own (e.g. Longsword +1 to Longsword +2 or Full Plate Armor to Adamantine Full Plate Armor +1) the full value of the item you previously paid is taken off the new price.

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Adventure Debt and Procuring Loans for Magical Items

As a special role playing opportunity: if your character does not have enough funds to cover a magic item's cost (so long as it is a Common, Uncommon, or, with permission Rare item), you can ask to roll a Persuasion check. The DC is adjusted according to the rarity of the item (10, 15, 20 accordingly), and if you succeed in the roll, your character can receive the item but you must also immediately follow up with an errand (social or adventure thread but not a solo) for the NPC that loans them the coin.

That adventure must be submitted for review before your character can implement the new item in any other thread save for the required loan-paying adventure.

This can only be done once per in-game month and only for one item at a time. 50% of the magic item price must still be paid up front. Please keep in mind that if you have a very specific item in mind for your character, coming up with an adventure or series of adventures surrounding acquiring it is actually quite a lot of fun!

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Pets and Mounts

Unusual creatures (those which are not available for purchase in the Player's Handbook) that you wish to have bonded to your character follow some standard rules.

Each character may only have 1 such creature. The creature counts as a 'bound' magic item slot.

Creatures are assumed to follow the direction of their owners within reason without the need for animal handling checks outside of extraordinary situations or where the creature is being used as part of a Skill Challenge.

The maximum intelligence of a creature to be bound to a PC in this way is 3. Where a creature which seems appropriate (such as a Hellhound) has a higher intelligence it will be lowered for this purpose.

The creature will have the same stats as a standard member of that creature's variety as found in the appropriate source material.

• CR 1/2 creatures count as Uncommon items.
• CR 1 creatures count as Rare items.
• CR 2 creatures count as Very Rare items.
• CR 3+ creatures are legendary and will be handled on a case by case basis. They will generally necessitate an adventure thread specific to their capture and taming.

[Sojourn]

Special Note: Migration Bonus

If you are migrating any characters from the Waterdeep forum and have outstanding threads that are either unfinished or left unrewarded, you may migrate each character with enough experience to grant them the next level from their currently documented level, regardless of whether that character is 500xp away from the next level or 3,000xp. If you would prefer some other migration bonus, we are open-minded to other suggestions. Don't hesitate to ask.