House Rules

Written by MoonRaccoon

Boundaries

• Obviously, no sorts of intolerant mindsets (including but not limited to racism, ableism, misogyny, homo- or transhostility etc.) are ok. The setting will at max include race-based stereotyping and tensions.
• Don’t tell anyone at my table what to do on their turn unless they ask for help or suggestions. They might know the rules better than you.
• You are free to visit houses of ill repute that exist in my world. There may be interesting plot hooks or information to be gathered from the people there. Just know that there may be unforeseen consequences, as with any other or dangerous action.
• I will not describe sex acts in detail. I will fade to black and move on to the next thing. Keep in mind that venereal diseases do indeed exist in my world.
• I will not roleplay romantic relationships between NPCs and characters. NPCs will not seek out players for explicit activity.
• Stop if someone asks you to.
• At any time, you can call a time-out, and we can pause play to assess the situation.

Table Behavior

• Please arrive on time to sessions whenever possible. If possible, please inform the rest of the group if you will be absent or late.
• Don’t bring hard liquor to the table. Having one beer is fine. I don’t mind if you take a shot before the session, but no more than one drink’s worth. I want everyone to be able to have fun and still be able to think critically, as well as remember what happened during the session.
• Try to avoid eating super crunchy food. This is so you can hear everything that’s said without the crunching in your mouth drowning it out, as well as not causing nuisance for others.

Dice and Rolls

• A natural 20 or 1 on a roll that is NOT an attack roll does not mean automatic success or failure. Add your modifiers and let me know what you rolled.
• If you make a roll that was not asked for by the DM, the outcome of that roll will be ignored, even if the DM asks for that roll a second later.
• There are only a few circumstances when it may be appropriate for you to request a roll: 

1. When making a Wisdom (Perception) check to try and spot something specific. You must describe what you are looking for (e.g. anything moving around the campsite, ridges on the floor that might indicate a pressure plate, etc). “I check for traps” isn’t good enough for me. What are you doing? What are you looking for? Where are you looking?
2. When making a Wisdom (Insight) check to determine if an NPC is deceiving you.
3. In most other situations, describe to the DM what you are trying to accomplish and the DM will decide what roll you should make.

• As the DM, I reserve the right to fudge, modify, or straight up remake any roll I take. This is something I won’t do often, but sometimes the story or unexpected circumstances require it.

Roleplaying

• Don’t hide any information from the DM. You may choose to keep secrets from the other players, at your own discretion.
• Don’t hog the spotlight. It’s understood that sometimes a certain player may be speaking to an NPC or taking specific actions for a little while (a rogue scouting ahead, or the party face trying to charm a guard, for example). However, even in these situations, be mindful of the rest of the party and be aware that others may want to speak or take actions.
• No meta-gaming. As players you may learn or be told information that your character would not know. For example, if one member of the party is sneaking ahead and sees a group of 20 demons, the rest of your party does not know about this until the scout returns and tells you. Even though you as a player know there is danger up ahead, you must play your character as if you do not. This is the one of the few times that I may prevent you from attempting to take an action. If, in my judgment, the only reason you are taking the action is because of information your character would not know, and that your character would have no reason to take that action given the known situation, then I will not permit you to take it.
• Be polite when it is another’s turn to speak. I don’t mind people having a small side conversation when someone else is taking a turn, but only when it is not disruptive. As a corollary to that, if your character is not present in a situation, please do your best to try and avoid interjecting suggestions. As is said so often in games “you’re not there”.
• Please speak up if the DM forgets something regarding the story or something your character wanted to do. Normally I will try my best to remember everything pertinent, but we may have an unusually large party, so I may forget that you were holding an action or that you wanted to go to the blacksmith to buy armor.
• I will not attempt to prevent player characters from harming one another or each other's possessions. For example, attacking another member of the party, stealing someone's items, taking actions that are not beneficial to the party as a whole. I feel that allowing these behaviors, with a properly motivated party, can cause some very interesting RP potential. I do reserve the right to curtail this in the future if it seems to be getting out of hand.
• You are EXPECTED to create a character that is able to mesh well with the party. If you believe that your character would not want to continue to work with the party, given certain situations or behaviors of your character or other's characters, it is your responsibility to use the mechanics of character development and talking with other players (either through roleplay or out of game) to ensure that your character fits with the group. It is not acceptable to have any player come to the decision that their character has to/wants to leave, unless the player themselves is leaving the game.

Story

• The world and the storyline may not wait for you. If the party decides to go off and do something that's not part of the main storyline, that's completely fine! That's what this game is all about. However, the rest of the world is not going to sit back and wait for you to finish. An army that is about to sack a city is not going to stop sacking and wait for the brave heroes to show up. If you decide to go chase a magical item instead, the city is going to be sacked.
• This is your story. Events of epic proportions may be happening in the rest of the world but if the party chooses not to participate in them, that is a perfectly acceptable decision. If you really want to, you can flee to the underdark and fight mind flayers for the rest of the campaign, while above the entire world is plunged into darkness by evil forces.

House Rulings

• If you, as a player, feel that the DM is missing a rule, or has forgotten something important, please feel free to bring it up. Usually it’s because I’ve forgotten it. However, there also might be times where I decide to go a different route from Rules As Written. In that case, I will be sure to explain to you why I made that decision (it will usually be because it’s something I don’t agree with or think should be a little differently). This seldom happens.
• If I make a call on ruling, sometimes I am unsure one way or the other, and I will explain my reasoning. In this case, you are free to add your own two cents about what you think. However, in the end I will make the choice, and it may not go the way anybody in the party wants. The party is expected to handle this reasonably.
• I do not expect the party to keep track of non-magical ammo, or consumables like food and drink in normal situations. You can track this yourselves if you want, but I don’t expect it. Rare consumables such as magic ammo or potions should be tracked.
• In cases where the party is venturing into inhospitable territory, such as a vast desert, an alien planet, or at sea for a long time, I may expect these things to start being tracked, since there would not be a normal opportunity to replenish them. However this assumes I remember to do that once you enter these conditions.
• I am giving the party a great deal of freedom to move around and do whatever actions you want. This means, however, that if you put me in a situation I had not planned for, I will have to improvise, which means the quality of story and lore may go down slightly. Over time, I hope to get more insight into the kinds of things the party may do, to be better prepared for them.

Experience: Milestone based XP is generally granted to all members of the party, even if some of them were not always present.
Loot

• I will not automatically grant loot. You can loot bodies if you remember to do so.
• Any coin-based loot is assumed to be automatically shared with everybody in the party. If you do wish to keep coin based loot to yourself, then you must call this out. In this case, other characters will have the opportunity to see what you are doing (unless you are sneaky about it) and may try and stop you.
• Any non-coin based loot will NOT be automatically distributed. You are expected as players/characters to debate and decide what to do with it.

Combat

• I tend to put groups of enemies at the same initiative, especially if they are the same type of enemy or there are a lot of them. However, this is not always the case, it just depends on what makes sense for the given fight.
• The world contains encounters that are not “scaled” or “leveled” to match the party. You do not always have to fight everything I put in front of you.