Party rules

A miniature of your character is required. I'm sorry for this for those tight on money, but I require players to provide a roughly accurate miniature of their character. I'll be more than happy to slap on a bad paintjob for free on them for you or you can come over and paint it yourself at my house. If your character dies, you can just keep using that miniature if you like (I don't want to force you to keep buying them), but the first miniature is required for the first gaming session.

If you are an elf wizard, get a miniature that can be considered an elf wizard. Don't bring a dwarf fighter miniature to represent your elf. A background story known to the DM is required I need to know what makes your character tick. I don't want to have player characters who have some shady secret that only that player knows. If you don't want the rest of the party to know, that is OK. The DM, however, should know all. I need to know how and why NPC's might react to you in certain ways. I need to know if your story has elements to it that I might want to incorporate into the adventure. The more detailed your background, the more likely that your story will play a part in the game.

I will have a page here dedicated to player characters. It will have at minimum your basic bio on it so other players can interact with you better. This is required. It's OK if you don't want certain information known. Your background secrets can be known only to me, if you need it to be that way. Basic character info is considered party information.

Example of a basic bio:

Name: Aspuel. Class: Rogue(Assassin)/Warlock(Hexblade). Level: 7/3. Race: Human. AC: 17. Hitpoints: 80.

Aspuel is a very normal looking human who is about 5'10" tall and weighs around 170 lbs. He has gray eyes and brown hair.  Aspuel wears dark clothing and a black cloak.  Aspuel claims to the rest of the party that he is just a dagger wielding fighter, not an assassin.

Example of a complex (much preferred) bio:

Name: Aspuel. Class: Rogue(Assassin)/Warlock(Hexblade). Level: 7/3. Race: Human. AC: 17. Hitpoints: 80

Aspuel is a very normal looking human who is about 5'10" tall and weighs around 170 lbs. He has a slim body type with toned muscles much like a long-distance runner.  He has piercing steel-gray eyes and short walnut brown hair.  Aspuel wears dark clothing that looks very plain and a normal looking black cloak that easily lets him blend into most crowds.  Aspuel claims to the rest of the party that he is just a dagger wielding fighter, not an assassin.  His voice is dark, whispery-smooth with a hint of arrogance and malevolence.

'''Aspuel has decided to adventure because he is in search of a sentient dagger that is actually his patron. The dagger calls to him in his dreams to find it. He will stop at almost nothing to find this dagger and travels in the hopes that his adventures will give him hints of where it might be found or that he might amass enough wealth to buy the knowledge of where it might be..........etc etc (This part not in public bio because player does not want this motive known to other players, so it will be known only to the DM)'''

Aspuel was born in the city of......etc etc -You are the "good guys". You can play any alignment, but if you are evil find a reason not to commit evil acts and reasons to do good acts.

My general rule is that the good paladin goes and saves the princess because that's the right thing to do, not just because there is a reward. The evil necromancer goes and saves the princess because there might be a reward in it for him.

The good paladin doesn't murder people because its a bad thing to do. The evil necromancer doesn't go around murdering people because he doesn't want to get caught and killed by townspeople seeking vengeance. -Don't be greedy. Party treasure is to be split by the party. It's not something to sneak around and screw over your party for. Strange thing about my world: All of the treasure seems to be trapped or turn into mimics when a player tries to go and take the treasure for himself. Another strange thing about my world. When you kill the bad guy, find the treasure, and split it roughly evenly like a good party person, there are hardly ever mimics or traps on the treasure. -Player vs Player The third strange thing about my world. When party members fight or purposely screw another party member over badly, it's not uncommon for bolts of lightning to appear out of no where or for purple worms to join in on the fight. Sometimes they have an appetite for just the aggressor.... Play according to your character, not your statistics If you want your character to be a chatty half-orc with a Charisma of 8, that is 100% awesome. Don't shy away from acts that you know might statistically fail. Do what your character would do. I'm likely to lower DC checks or come up with alternative ways for you to find the answer if you play as your character.

If you play as a power gamer, trying to get advantage on a game because of your statistics instead of roleplaying your character, I'm likely to make those DC checks go way up or impossible.

I'd rather see you try something true to your character and fail miserably than to min-max the game.

Along with this, you believe your fellow party members unless there is a legitimate reason why you wouldn't. If the rogue says he is going to search the wall for the secret treasure that you as a player know is likely in the game, but he fails the DC check, I'm not going to allow all of the other characters to search there too until someone eventually rolls high enough. If the rogue fails and tells the party that he doesn't find anything, the rest of the party tends to believe him even if you as a player know that he failed the check and there might be treasure there.

On the other hand, if a quest NPC told you something like "Look behind the bookcase, there is a secret door there." and the rogue fails, it's OK for the party not to believe the rogue and to search for the door too. Roleplay is your friend Leveling up is a bit different than in other D&D games. To level up I will keep track for each character secretly. You will get "experience" for things like coming to games, doing quests, and roleplaying among other things. A player consistently roleplaying, even if they fail at their objectives, will level up faster than a player who just rolls dice and slays everything. A player consistently roleplaying will find that more treasure is found that benefits him instead of the player who just min-maxes and rolls dice. It's OK to have bad stats Whether through roleplay (such as a fighter who prefers to wear leather armor and use a club instead of plate mail and a two-handed sword even though he has low dex and strength) or bad random numbers through the D.B.A.B. method, things will work themselves out.

Enjoy your character and their faults. If things are really unfair, such as you have a 8 strength as a fighter, you just mind end up finding a non-magical sword that gives you a bonus to hit and damage to make up for having worse stats than the min-maxer. Maybe you'll find a magical set of gloves that make you as strong as an ogre. Who knows what might happen. Maybe nothing at all, maybe something great.

I will not allow a player who roleplays well who has bad character statistics to feel like they are useless to the party compared to the guy who doesn't roleplay and has min-maxed their character with the perfect stats and feats and path.

It's perfectly OK to make a statistically strong character, but put some roleplay thought into why your character is the way they are.