Weretiger's Curse - Rules

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Nathan
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Weretiger's Curse - Rules

Post by Nathan »

Now we've got characters and backstories set up, I'll outline exactly how this game is going to work.

Basics:

Whenever you want to do something (other than simple actions like picking things up, eating, drinking, talking) you have to succeed on a relevant skill check.

This also includes knowing things. Anything you as a person know is irrelevant if your character doesn't know it. An example would be that everyone's inventory is available in the inventory thread, but none of you know what's in each other's backpacks unless they show or tell you.

Skill Checks

Some skill checks I will make automatically for you, others I will only make if you ask me to. Others you will make for yourselves. Here is a list of skills and how they will work

automatic checks

I will automatically roll spot and listen checks for you when they are appropriate, and give you the results.

requested checks

If you request Appraise, bluff, diplomacy, diasable device, disguise, forgery, hide, intimidate, knowledge(anything), move silently, open lock, search, sense motive, sleight of hand, spellcraft, survival, use magic device or use rope checks, I will roll them for you. I will not roll these unless you ask for them, or unless you perform an action which requires these rolls to be made.

I will roll Fortitude, Reflex and Will saves for you in some circumstances as well.

Checks you make yourself

Everything else I will allow you to roll yourself, and if you perform a simple action for which you know the difficulty class (DC) in a post you can make the roll yourself without consulting me. If you are unsure of the DC you must consult me beforehand, though.

I can make any rolls for you if you would prefer.


Gameplay

Gameplay will be in the form of players posting what they would like their characters to do, then the DM responding with the results of the intended action. Combat will occur in the same format.

Usually, bluffing and sense motive cannot be used on player characters, it would be handled as a real-time conversation and left to the players' own judgement, but for the purpose of this game, because we're not conversing in person I will be applying special rules. Bluff and sense motive work the same way on PCs as NPCs.

If you wish to sense motive on another player I will roll the opposed bluff/sense motive check if appropriate and send you the results. Any such requests should be sent by PM.

Information

Any information everyone (or a majority of the party) is aware of will be posted in public. Any private information known only to one or few and possibly of a sensitive nature will be sent only to those whose characters know about it. This will be done by PM.

Most information will go to everybody, but there will probably be some information being exchanged by PM.

Information II

Something which is very important is that the DM's knowledge of what is going on must be complete. By which I mean I must know everything you have in your inventories and I must have a complete character sheet. You are allowed to keep individual secrets from me (you don't have to tell me what your character is thinking), unless your character tells a lie or a bluff, in which case it is necessary for me to know that it is a lie so that if a sense motive check is used I can give appropriate results. Also, any information going between two characters must go through me. If someone sees something and tells someone else they've seen it, I need to know that the second person knows it.

Other things

I'm sure other things will come up. I will add any new information to the thread in the form of new posts. Any questions on the rules, or if something looks like it is obviously wrong in these rules, please post your questions here.
Last edited by Nathan on Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by caamora »

I think I will need you to roll the dice for me since 1) I don't own any D&D dice and, 2) the DMs have always kept everything updated for me so I have no clue how to update anything.
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Post by Menolly »

I do have a set of game dice, which were a a gift from a fellow Gravin Threndor player, but I have not used them much. I, too, would prefer to have things rolled for me for now, until I get a handle on how all of this works. But, if the DM is willing, perhaps a PM explaining what was rolled, why, and how it affected things for my moves could be provided.

At least until I get some idea of when and why I need to roll certain things.
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Post by DukkhaWaynhim »

Here are some official D&D web dice for you to roll:
www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm

I gather that in D&D 3.x, a d20 is the most often-used die.

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Post by Nathan »

I'll be happy to roll the dice for anyone who can't themselves or doesn't want to.

I'm debating whether to put the results in the posts themselves or to keep the posts clean and pm results. There will be some rolls for which I can't tell you the numbers though, because to do so could give away things you shouldn't know.
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Post by Menolly »

Oh, that's cool!! Thanks DW!

...I do like the feel of the die in my hand when rolling though...
Nathan wrote:I'll be happy to roll the dice for anyone who can't themselves or doesn't want to.
:)

Thanks.
Nathan wrote:I'm debating whether to put the results in the posts themselves or to keep the posts clean and pm results. There will be some rolls for which I can't tell you the numbers though, because to do so could give away things you shouldn't know.
Oops, sorry.

What I meant was, if you are willing to share the results of rolls we would have rolled for ourselves, or ones we would see if we were all playing in person together, and then explain how those rolls affected our actions...
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Post by Xavier »

Just so everybody knows, I didn't "see" Caam because she posted, I saw her because my spot check beat her hide check, and I was informed of the fact by the DM.
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Post by Nathan »

Knowledge

Just because you know things doesn't mean your character knows them. That's what the knowledge skills are for.

Anything that isn't common knowledge or hasn't been told to your character, you'll need a knowledge skill check to find out.

example:

When the mayor told you about the tiger, I rolled the appropriate knowledge checks to see if any of you knew, based on the information the mayor had given you, that the tiger was a lycanthrope. (They were knowledge(nature) and knowledge(arcana))

The only person to get a roll high enough was Irian. None of the rest of you even knows what a lycanthrope is.

Looking things up

Looking up skill and spells and things like that is fine. You're perfectly within your rights to know what kind of things you're capable of.

Looking up monsters in the monster manual is completely off limits. (looking them up on the d20srd site too) You should know nothing more about any monsters you face than your character does.
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Post by Xavier »

(Edit: Whoops...looks like only Irian said "weretiger", and not the mayor...(I assume so, because I see Nathan's post hasn't been edited)...thus rendering most of this post pointless...Nonetheless, I'll let it stand...my mistake, sorry guys...I misread the post it appears.)


ahem...I would like to point out that the mayor did not say "tiger." He specifically said weretiger. Which like werewolf, automatically means a person who changes into a tiger. I'll edit my post to reflect the now altered statement by the mayor, (you'll have to change your reply too) but would like to just mention that I didn't look anything up. The mayor simply gave out too much information. [OK, I know...he didn't, I just thought he did. (But I still didn't look anything up.)]

Now, maybe my character doesn't know what "were" means in relation to animals, but it seemed perfectly reasonable that in a fantasy setting, it wouldn't be uncommon knowledge. Afterall, in RL we all know what a werewolf is, simply from the body of folklore. [This bit stands...it would have been perfectly valid if he'd actually said "were." But he didn't.]
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Post by Nathan »

Fair enough, easy mistake to make. Since the mayor doesn't know it's a weretiger, we can assume that lycanthropy isn't really common knowledge.

Things like folklore are covered by knowledge(history), bardic knowledge and to some extent knowledge(arcana).

Common knowledge is only for very basic things indeed.
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Post by Irian »

I did.

As Av said, the information given was enough for me to suspect a werewolf, but I didn't know if other animals could act in the same way. So I went to the d20 site to see if there was such a thing as a weretiger. Not to mention there is a certain 14 year old (named for a shapeshifter) who has only recently started reading what DnD manuals he can find at the library intently following the campaign, as he also hasn't played yet.

So, I figured out what this tiger most likely was before I received my knowledge from the master...and told him so in reply.

I have been duely informed of what I can and can not know... :oops: ;)

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Post by Xavier »

Uh, while we're on the topic, Caam, nobody knows I'm a thief. :D
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Post by caamora »

Did I say that? Sorry.
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Post by Vargon »

meta-knoledge is always the worst problem for a player :P
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Post by Nathan »

Alignment

Character alignment dictates a lot about how a character acts. For example, if your character is lawful, you will act with a certain respect for law and authority. Obviously you have some leeway to do other things, but if you consistently act contrary to your alignment I will force an alignment change onto you.

This won't normally be a problem, but some classes have alignment restrictions. If you no longer meet the alignment restrictions for that class you can't take any more levels in it, and you may lose class abilities, depending on the class.
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Post by caamora »

I guess I'm not being neutral enough. That's why I wanted to play chaotic neutral but the generator said I had to be lawful to be a monk.

I will try to remedy that.
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Post by Nathan »

Yes, monks are required to be lawful, and they lose their abilities if they become non-lawful.
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Post by caamora »

Actually, as I am reading up on my lawfule neutral alignment, I am acting within character. I do not trust the mayor and I am being judgemental of him and I feel he is falling short of his duties.

From Wikipedia:

Lawful characters tell the truth, keep their word, respect authority, honor tradition, and judge those who fall short of their duties.

Chaotic characters follow their consciences, resent being told what to do, favor new ideas over tradition, and do what they promise if they feel like it.

“Law” implies honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and reliability. On the downside, lawfulness can include close-mindedness, reactionary adherence to tradition, judgmentalness, and a lack of adaptability. Those who consciously promote lawfulness say that only lawful behavior creates a society in which people can depend on each other and make the right decisions in full confidence that others will act as they should.

“Chaos” implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Those who promote chaotic behavior say that only unfettered personal freedom allows people to express themselves fully and lets society benefit from the potential that its individuals have within them.

Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has a normal respect for authority and feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel. She is honest but can be tempted into lying or deceiving others.

Devotion to law or chaos may be a conscious choice, but more often it is a personality trait that is recognized rather than being chosen. Neutrality on the lawful–chaotic axis is usually simply a middle state, a state of not feeling compelled toward one side or the other. Some few such neutrals, however, espouse neutrality as superior to law or chaos, regarding each as an extreme with its own blind spots and drawbacks.

Animals and other creatures incapable of moral action are neutral. Dogs may be obedient and cats free-spirited, but they do not have the moral capacity to be truly lawful or chaotic.
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Post by Nathan »

If you had a reason to believe the mayor was a liar then that would be fair enough, however:

Your character doesn't know what a weretiger is. All she knows is that the mayor has told the story of the tiger, then Irian has said it's a weretiger. You don't know anything about weretigers other than what Irian has told you.

You haven't used sense motive on the mayor to see if he's lying, so you have no idea, and you haven't used sense motive on Irian to try to find out if she's lying.

Would a lawful character (who is supposed to have respect for authority) take the word of a young elf she's just met, over that of a trusted and respected mayor, all other things being equal?


You're welcome to play the character however you like, but I can't see how the actions in the mayor's room can be considered lawful.

Lawful character don't always act lawfully, you've got a certain amount of leeway, as long as, overall, you act in a generally lawful way.
Last edited by Nathan on Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by caamora »

Ok, gotcha. Thanks for the input.
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