A Rules thread, all sorts of rules from how I do  things, to what I've needed to doto fill in some gaps, to what I think the canon RAW say.

Character sheets are locked. They are my master copies, viewable from multiple platforms. Which mostly just means I use my phne to check them occasiaonlly.

I've made best guesses on what's where, but I can certainly change things in your gear placement, just let me know.

I'm responsible for updates, but you folks are responsible for accuracy, so check my work.

Pretty standard stuff about color coding your highlights and what not.

Red and Green (both shades of each) belong to me. Please don't use them.

Blue is for speech. It does NOT replace the need for quotation marks. Use both, please.

Orange is for OOC, and CAN work for a quick note mid post, but i would prefer a block at the bottom starting with the OOC header, and highlighted orange.

Edit:
I generally update Monday, Wednesday and Friday, unless there is a holiday, in which case it's Tuesday and Friday.

Combat Updates are daily, however with a 24 hour turn around, just to keep things moving.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:39, Fri 02 Sept 2022.

Folk, as I add your completed character, I'll be posting a quick description on the bottom bio line. Please leave my notes as they are. It's how I'll keep you folks straight until I learn the characters. It'll help the other Players, too.

This is just a 2-3 word description of what you do. Not class, but typically your perceived area of expertise. Also, possibly, Gender and/or race, with Male and Human as the defaults. Please don't read anything into that.

On your sheets I've places letters in the proficiencies you know. These are based on how you learned to proficiency, and mainly only matter at character generation. Still, it doesn't hirt to know what I'm noting:

B: Background
C: Class (Training or level granted ability)
F: Feat
R: Race

Sometimes there will be 2 letters. This means Expertise (which is doubled prof bonus) The second letter usually tells you the source of the Expertise (Class or feat, mainly).

Temporary proficiency will be noted differently. That's mainly an Racial ability thing, I think, so it won't come up here. Well, not so far, anyhow.

I have posted a private thread for everyone that should make PMs easier. Anything form quick questions to personal information that others don't have through background or training. Also for combat, although I'll make a combat procedure post when the time comes.

Please use these threads rather than the PM tab at the top of the web page. It's easier on me, at least, when I'm juggling half a dozen characters.

Folks, the only ones that do anything on a spelljamming ship are the Helmsman and the cook. Maybe the navigator.

That means you'll have most of your 12 hour watch for hobbies. If you have craft skills you can make something. That's about it for shipboard.  Other resources just aren't available.

Call it 6 hours a day. the rest are a couple short rests and some shipboard duties. It will be a very clean deck.

-Group 0 is for public threads.
-Lettered Threads are for the private threads.
-Group 1 is where the bulk of posting will go: Private to the game, but used for the main group
-Group 2 through 9 will be for the inevitable smaller groups as folks spilt off for one reason or another. The cabin the Helm is in, for instance, is not publicly accessible by those on deck. If you aren't in there, you won't know what's going on in there. If you ARE in there, you will have limited or no access to what's going on outside (the person on the Helm will have limited access).

I need to think on how to handle a Helmsman being in two places at once.  IN general, if you're on the Helm and in both Group 1 and (probably) Group 2 at the same time, don't post in Group 1, just read it. You'll know what's going on, you just won't be here to affect it.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 00:06, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

Orange is for OOC.

While I prefer Blue for speech, I'm usually not going to worry too much about it, just don't use colors set aside for other things. Highlighting speech does NOT replace the need for quotation marks.

Green (both) and Red are generally for me to highlight important bits. I don't use them often, but, still, I'd appreciate them being left for me if just to avoid confusion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:18, Wed 31 Aug 2022.

Players have things they like their characters to do on a daily basis. Cast Mage Armor, for instance.

When on a long boring journey you may have crafting you want to do in your spare time.

Anything you want done automatically on a daily basis, tell in in your private thread, and I will note it on the tracker so it's always done and taken into account when it matters. But only AFTER you tell me, it won't be retroactive.

The ship has 3 locations, each being isolated enough to be a separate thread with no ability to communicate between threads.

This includes shouting out doors, open or closed. Whether that is possible or not is a DM judgement based on the situation, not a player judgement.

Please do not post to a location you are not actually at. This will mean waiting for the DM when you move locations. I'm available quite a lot, but I DO sleep. Please exercise some patience.

If you move to another location, no parting words through open doors. If it's that important say it BEFORE you post leaving, not after. I WILL delete as necessary.

Combat turnover is about 24 hours. I try to post the round results every day at noon, then
repeat the process for the next round.

Do not post to the IC thread during combat. I'll post the results fo the round, following your instructions as best as I can.


First round should include Initiative.

All round should include the usual:
-Movement, if any
-Action
-Bonus Action
-A single Free Action (two use up your Action)
The above can go in pretty much any order, usually.

-A Reaction, if any. This can be the set up from a Ready action, or it can be a spell, such as Shield or Hellish Rebuke, or even a Feat or Class given ability. Also let me know WHEN you'll use it, although conditions are pretty clear in the descriptions, usually.

-A blank D20 roll for me to use for you in the event of a situation change: Advantage, Disadvantage, a necessary save, etc. Things that happen unexpectedly and might require a die roll. If you leave it out I will make it for you instead of delaying the round an extra day.

If you want to speak to either side, post that as part of things, and it will appear in the round results for folks to respond to next round.

Remember, rounds are only 6 second, and can have up to 3 assorted actions, plus movement, so there isn't a lot of time for much debating and planning. That should be done BEFORE the encounters happen.

The die roller has a line for what the roll is for. Please use it. Blank rolls will not be accepted.

No practice rolls. I do check, and I will use that lost roll. That usually works against you or it wouldn't have been "lost".

Please cut and paste roll results from the die roller log.

Many of you know the above already as its fairly standard. Here are a couple of quirks I have for die rolls:

Don't lump multiple dice together (this is usually for damage). If the die being rolled have different sources, please roll them separately in case one or more of those sources affects the target differently than you think. For instance 1d6 weapon, 2d6 sneak attack, and 2 d6 fire should not be rolled as 5d6. Maybe you don't have the Advantage you think you do for the sneak attack. Maybe the target is resistant to fire. I need to know which die to accept, which to ignore, and which to modify for resistance or saves or what not.

All this is mostly for combat, but other die rolls come up where it might matter. Multiple simultaneous saves, for instance.

As it has come up:

The skills we have are very encompassing, so:

Skinning an animal is Survival. Training in both Survival and Leatherworking gives Advantage. Wounds will still be in the skin, although Mending may repair them, depending. It will not repair a botched attempt at skinning the creature.

Butchering an animal is Survival. Trained or not, the roll will determine success and how much of the available meat is actually recovered. Training in both Survival and Cooking gives Advantage.

It's come up, and it may not be entirely cost effective, on reflection and research.

While amounts vary by article, 1 pound of salt per 1 pound of meat seems to be typical, or even a bit low. Salt meat isn't really good for you, obviously.

Use half of the salt immediately, hang the meat to dry for 4 or 5 days, and then apply the other half of the salt. I suspect this last bit is just as easily done by layering salt and meat in alternate layers in a barrel.

Circumstances are going to affect drying time: A desert will shorten it, and trying to dry it while floating on a lake will extend it...probably by a lot.

As this has come up already, and was what caused one player to leave, I want to be clear on the process of buying magic items.

Per Xanathar's it takes a week's time and 100 gp in expense money to even find out of the item is available locally. More time and money increase the chances of success.

Now, without going into why (as you have to discover that for yourselves), in a Space setting things might be quicker and easier. Never quicker than the 1 week, unless it's a minor item in a shop like the Curio shop, but there ARE middlemen that make the arrangements for a living.

For most things it will still take at least a week, but the middleman's cut will be added on at the end.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 05:59, Mon 28 Nov 2022.