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As suggested by dragonmajesty

Rules of Commitment

A curious fact about play-by-post; while the time it takes to actually post could probably be measured in terms of no longer than an hour per week (for players), the extended nature of the format nearly requires checking up with the game on a daily basis. For this reason, do not join a game if you are unable to regularly attend. Also, due to the long-term nature of play-by-post, do not join or start up a game if you expect to have other commitments a few months down the line.

As a DM, you should expect to commit more time to the game than your players, since you must both maintain the campaign as well as respond to all character actions when appropriate. Thus, do not take on the responsibility of DMing if you do not have the time and energy to dedicate to running the game.

For the players, there are often times when their characters are not active; perhaps they are asleep in another room while some of the party is being burgled, or perhaps they have fallen in combat and are unconscious but not dead. Or perhaps you were out of town for several weeks (which you had already informed your group about, I trust?) No matter the reason, even if your character is not active, read all posts for your game and keep up to speed with what's going on. It is unfair to the other players and DM to expect them to summarize for you what you missed because you blew off the game until your character gets involved again.

Thus, the RULES OF COMMITMENT:

1. Do not commit to a game if you don't have the time to spare to maintain regular attendance.
2. Do not commit to a game if you suspect you will be unable to maintain the commitment several months down the line.
3. Do not DM if you cannot afford the extra time and effort the role requires.
4. Keep up to speed on the progress of your game, even if your PC is not actively participating.

Rules of Attendance

Play-by-post games by their nature run slowly. For example, if during a battle a single exchange between a player and a DM takes one day for posting, and there are five players in the game, then a single battle could easily take an entire month to complete and this is assuming everyone shows up regularly. For this reason, it is important that you maintain regular attendance for your campaign, to avoid unnecessary slowing down of the game.

Of course, circumstances sometimes arise which prevent you from showing up. For example, you might have a vacation planned for the following two weeks. In this case, please keep your group informed of scheduled absences, and have an alternate player ready to control your character if need be.

Occasions also arise when, through no fault of your own, you are unable to make the session, usually due to computer problems. In this case, use a friend's computer, or a public computer, or any means you can to alert your group of your problems, and the time you think it will take to resolve the issue.

Thus, the RULES OF ATTENDANCE:

1. Maintain regular attendance.
2. Keep your group informed of when you will be away from the game, and have an alternate player appointed to control your character.
3. If you are unable to get to the game through no fault of your own, find a way to get online and alert your group.


Rules of Involvement

As noted by the last point above, it is tempting for players of non-active characters to lose interest in a game if enough time passes. For that reason, DMs are encouraged to avoid situations where only some of the characters are actively involved in the game. Obviously if someone drops in battle, there's not much you as the DM can do to get the character involved, but you should avoid cases such as the example mentioned above, where half the party is asleep while two members in another room awaken and capture a burglar in their room. If the course of your adventure demands such an occurrence, find some other way to keep the other players interested.

The DM has a heavy burden on his shoulders, since he has to run the game, prepare the adventure, and flesh out his campaign world. For that reason, anything the players can do to help him ease this burden is generally appreciated. This does not necessarily mean writing city descriptions for him, but things like coming up with an interesting character background that he can work from, or proposing goals your character hopes to fulfill, make his job easier. For example, rather than simply state you are hanging out at the inn, you could inform the DM that you want to get involved in a competitive storytelling contest with other patrons. This gives you, the player, a moment to shine as you spin your yarn, and gives the DM more of a structure to base his adventure around. Just be sure that you get his approval before introducing anything like this!

Another difficulty play-by-post play presents is that, as things develop so slowly, it is easy to lose touch with what your character is capable of. You should be familiar with what your character can do, and review the PC from time to time to refresh your memory.

Thus, the RULES OF INVOLVEMENT:

1. Avoid situations where some players will be unable to directly participate for weeks at a time.
2. Help the DM in his task to bring the world to life around the PCs.
3. Know what your PC is capable of, and check the character over from time to time to remind yourself.

Shadows of the Dead House Rules

1. Post Format: Make any dialogue and actions to be in bold, so it stands out from the rest of your text. For example: "I'm not sure what happened to the pie, Flail, but I'm willing to bet one of them damn Dwarves ate it!" and (OOC - Listen Check +2 at Northwest door)

2. Luck: Luck is a new 7^th ability that I use in my game, which generates a modifier just as the other ability scores do. The purpose of the Luck modifier to twofold - it represents the characters Luck Points and Fate Points. First, the Luck Points can be utilized once per day to modify an otherwise bad roll (for instance to avoid a Fumble, a missed skill check or a missed Save, or any non-lethal situation, etc.). Once expended, Luck points return to the player the following day. Fate Points represent the favour of the gods, the fickle hand of Fate, sheer blind luck, or perhaps something else altogether. Whenever something catastrophic happens to you (meaning a "certain death" situation), you can spend a Fate Point to overcome or avoid it (for instance, if you die horribly from a dragon's fiery breath, if you fail a saving throw against a spider's lethal poison, if you fall into a bottomless pit, or if you die when teleported to the plane of unknowingly sufferable pain and death, etc.). That's what you should spend a Fate Point to do - avoid the death of your heroic character. I will decide what the game-result is should you need to spend a Fate Point. Be forewarned, once you spend a Fate Point, it's gone forever - it cannot be recovered by any means short of a Wish. When you have spent all your Fate Points, you have exhausted your heroic ability to avert terrible danger and cheat fate. Fate Points are powerful things, so use them wisely and only when necessary.

3. Critical Hit and Fumble Charts: TBD

Shadows of the Dead Books Allowed

In addition to the general books allowed, Shadows of the Dead allows the following books;

• Tome of Horrors
• Tome of Horrors II
• Tome of Horrors III
• Frostburn
• Stormwrack
• Liber Mortis
• Unearthed Arcana

• Book of Vile Darkness
• Fiendish Codex I & II
• Most Necromancer Games books, subject to approval

Joe, Male Human Ftr6/NGRgr1
played by: Your Login Name
Size:
HD:
hp:
Init:
Spd: ft.
AC:
(AC Flat-footed: ; AC Touch: )
Base Attack: melee, ranged
Weapons:
+ melee weapon, damage (crit)
+ ranged, damage (crit), range
AL:
Save: Fort +, Ref +, Will +
Attrib.: Str , Dex , Con , Int , Wis , Cha . (+1 point at 4th level = __, etc.)
Skills: Climb (rank) +total, etc. for all skills.
Feats: Name (source), etc.
Languages:

(Special Class ability summary where needed)


Equipment: magic item #1, item #2, etc
Treasure:

Description:

XP:

Campaign Log:
Session #1, 01/01/02--Brief description (loot/xp garnered).
Session #2, 01/04/02--etc.