Start Here!

OK Friends, here we go! Exalta!! (don’t forget, lots of info at exalta.wikia.com)

I am excited to be
taking over the DM role again. As of time of writing, I have put 25 or 30 preparatory
hours and about $40 into this campaign, in the hopes that it will be the best
campaign I’ve ever run. I really really truly hope that it’s going to be fun.

However, let me stress
again that I have put some ***serious*** time and money into this
campaign. For you. To have fun with. So this is where I’m going to get a wee
bit harsh with y’all. So listen up, because I want to protect my efforts and
give everyone an awesome time.

### **THE PREACHING**

I want you to think back
to what I see as four defining moments of campaign destruction, committed by
four different people. There are older examples, but these are specific. Let’s
examine four catastrophes in three campaigns that I *dearly, dearly* want to avoid.

1.     The only campaign I have ever put nearly as much
work as this in was effectively ruined by Chris Kjeldgaard. The map I created
for Pixtroke took me hours and hours and was one of the nicest things I’ve ever
made (and just wait until you see this one). Kjeldgaard backstabbed the party
because he wanted to go rogue. Now, his general attitude left much to be
desired, which is why we voted to boot him from the campaign, but he made
D&D seriously unfun for me and for others. **Backstabbing** was the root cause of the campaign’s demise.

2.     Paul’s last campaign began self-destructing
after Jacob chose to backstab the party. There are out-of-character reasons
Jacob did this (I would attribute a general boredom with D&D and with us,
TBH), but regardless, it happened. Shortly thereafter, Josh and Jacob together
made decisions that, even if a massive party wipe *hadn’t* happened, the party would never have gotten back together. **Backstabbing** was the root cause of the
campaign’s demise.

3.     Finally, in the last campaign I ran, two people
became ridiculously overpowered. We can argue another time (or preferably not
at all) about exactly how overpowered Josh and Austin became, about why it
happened, about who was more overpowered than who, about whether it was
justified or not… whatever. The bottom line is not *how* it happened, but what resulted. And what resulted was that, for
*months*, in *every single combat*, Josh and Austin dominated. It got to the point
where I was having difficulty making encounters because everything was either
too harsh for the weaker players or not challenging for Josh and Austin. **Getting overpowered** was the root cause
of the campaign’s demise.

And yet, it’s the third
campaign that I think had some of the most tragic results: The game stopped
being fun for Jacob, Lula, Alekhin, Tyler, and even myself to an extent, and
three of those people stopped coming. Were there other reasons? Yeah. Was this
a huge contributing factor? Undeniably yes.

***So*** ***let me be absolutely clear: There will be***
**absolutely no backstabbing and absolutely no OP characters in this campaign.**

Now, the first is relatively
easy to combat, and historically, I’ve managed to do a pretty good job reigning
it in. However, fixing the latter might result in some hurt feelings.

SO YOU ARE BEING WARNED:

If a character becomes,
in my opinion, overpowered, I *will* fix
it. Thinking back to overpowered characters in the past, that could mean murdering
hummingbirds, taking away splitting enchantments, removing ability points, and
even taking away gold. **I will try to be**
**fair** and depending on the situation I will try to give some kind of
consolation prize, but if I can’t, I can’t. I’m doing it anyway. **There will be no whining. There will be no**
**butthurt**. I simply don’t want to hear it.

I’m hoping that you guys
can learn, as I did, from the mistakes of the past. The bottom line is, neither
a splitting enchantment nor your feelings are worth the price of the campaign,
nor are they worth making the game *not*
funfor three other people. Please understand that and make it easy on me
when I will inevitably have to balance your character.

((And, a side note
especially for Josh: Your getting incredibly overpowered in that campaign was a
combination of three components: Several mistakes by me, your insane and
unexplained luck, and your undeniable prowess at building and running
spellcasters. I’m not saying you intentionally became overpowered, or that you
intentionally made the game not fun, but that was ultimately the result. I am
actively expecting to have to edit your character. I apologize in advance.))

### **THE POWERFUL ONES**

I’ve been DM’ing on and
off (mostly on) for almost *five years* now.
I’ve gotten experience playing in multiple types of campaigns in multiple games
run by multiple DMs. I’ve also heard numerous stories and gotten feedback from
plenty of players. I’m just going to say it, and you can say it makes me sound
conceited, and you might disagree, and don’t worry because there’s a giant
asterisk coming after this statement, but…. **I am the BEST DM I know of.**

I have a talent for
putting together characters on the fly, for creating any situation a player can
imagine, for playing realistic in-character NPCs, for writing awesome dungeons
both scripted and non-scripted, for creating a realistic and fun world to play
in, and of course, for making some pretty awesome maps. From everything I’ve
heard and from what I’ve experienced, I am better than anyone in our party and
anyone on campus at DMing.

Now comes the asterisk.
The part you’ve all been waiting for. Because I know you didn’t want to hear me
tooting my own horn for two paragraphs. That said, this one I honestly don’t
think anyone is going to disagree with me on…. **I am the WORST GM I know of.**

There is literally *one* GM-related activity I’m good at and
that’s keeping track of initiatives and damage and keeping combat moving. I do
a pretty good job there. I **suck** at
character creation. I **suck** at rule
adjudication. I **suck** at answering
game-related questions. I **suck** at
running spells and spellcasters. I **suck** at
knowing what is and isn’t appropriate for a character. I reach a positively
noobalicious level when it comes even to basic rules. I’ve been playing the game
for five damn years and I *still* can’t
get straight what triggers an attack of opportunity.

It is HUGELY my lack of
skill as GM that has caused me many problems in the past. Frankly, I don’t
think this is going to change, ever. So I’m asking for you to be patient with
my weaknesses and focus on my strengths.

Additionally, Paul is *by far* the best GM I know of (though,
may I say, Josh and Alek are very strong as well), and I’m happy to have him
back in the campaign. We make a pretty awesome team, if I do say so myself. So
I decided to make the team official.

**Basically, all game- and rule-related questions go to Paul. All**
content-, canon-, or character-related questions go to me.

This goes for both as we
are starting the campaign, and while we play the game. This way you know who to
ask for what. Hopefully that will help cut down on difficult times.

The main overlap will be
questions on what is or isn’t allowable. I’m open to hearing a case for any
kind of enchantment, spell, weapon, race, creed, color, slave, whatever you can
dream up from any book or from your own imagination. However, those kinds of
questions have to go through both me and
Paul. I have the ultimate decision, but recognize that if Paul says no, I
probably will too. As stated above, he simply knows better than I do.

Now, to streamline
gameplay and blah blah blah, I’m going to ask that any questions relating to
character building like “can I have this weapon” or “can my character do this”
or whatever… They need to be asked *before*
*the game begins.* Preferably while we eat. So every Friday I’m going to ask
for those kinds of things at some point before the game starts. Please don’t
ask to have such questions settled during the game. It can wait until next
week. And, so you don’t forget your question, you can write it down and put in
your….

### **FOLDERS**

I’m going back to the
original method of giving everyone a happy colored folder with their name on
it. This is because I have several handouts to give you (like printed maps),
and constantly throughout the campaign I plan to give you real-life props like
letters and notecards that you’ll want to keep for more than just one dungeon. Additionally,
I have a little surprise for you all, which will be revealed on character
creation day.

You are both welcome and
encouraged to keep the folders at my house in the Chompy. What you ultimately
choose to do with it is totally up to you. However,
when it comes to stuff I give you like props, **if you don’t have it in real**
life, you don’t have it in the game. No exceptions. **And, because I already know some of the things**
I’m going to give you, you are seriously going to be up Shits Creek if you lose
it. So don’t lose it.

To the best of my ability, anything that comes with that specific rule will have a special dot sticker on it. That means it's definitely important! But just because it doesn't have a sticker doesn't mean it isn't important....

### **CHARACTER SHEETS**

USE A PATHFINDER
CHARACTER SHEET.

Yes, it’s a 3.5
campaign. But I prefer the Pathfinder skillset so we will be using it. That
means Athletics, Perception, and Stealth checks. Just scratch out CMD and CMB
and use a regular BAB and there should be literally no difference.

Where you keep your
character sheet is up to you. I don’t care what you do with it. Just please do
bring it with you every week. Obviously, it makes it easier.

### **ALIGNMENT**

N/N, C/G, N/G, L/N, or L/G.
No exceptions.

### **CLASSES**

I decided to restrict or allow classes on a case-by-case basis. If I
think they make sense with some aspect of the game world lore, I will allow it.
If not, I will not. Leaping immediately to mind as banned, for example, would
be a Dragon Shaman. It just doesn’t fit. Consider it a blessing that I’m not
restricting it to base Player’s Handbook classes (which I was seriously
considering). So, anything that isn’t base Player’s Handbook, you must approve
with me.

### **BACKGROUND**

The year is 1335. You are a group of new additions to a merchant’s guild
based in Carapace, Acostia. You don’t know much about what you’ll be doing, but
you know that the job requires both brain and brawn, and both will be about
equally important. You also know that you’ll be making frequent (and hopefully
lucrative) trips into Unetenie, so if you have contraband, you’ll have to know
how to hide it.

I don’t necessarily need super fleshed-out backgrounds (though they are
appreciated), but I’m going to require a few answers to a few questions. I’m
happy to help make anything work as best I can, so for day one just have a general
idea of what you want and we’ll settle on specifics. However, here’s some
questions I’ll need answers to.

Basic demographics: Race, age, gender, skin color, eye color, hair color,
all that jazz. Have a basic idea of what your character looks like facially,
because a small sketch will be created for you with my mediocre artistic talents
(yes, it’s necessary).

Where are you from? City and current nationality required.

What have you done with your life up until now?

How did you get to level 3? What have you fought? How have you trained?

What brings you to Carapace?

What qualifies you to be part of a merchant’s guild?

What’s home like? Your family? Peasants, merchants, farmers, royalty?

Any quests or personal goals you seek to fulfill?

### **WEALTH**

I’m doing a much
different thing than usual with starting wealth. Starting wealth will be *entirely* based on background. Write a
good background, you’ll get better stuff. If your background means you would
get a lower starting wealth, you’ll get free skill points, items, or abilities.
That’ll all be decided when we go over your background, which I’ll make sure to
do privately with each of you in case you have secrets. (Secrets are fine, just
positively no backstabbing.)

**CONCLUSION**

Alright, ya’ll, I think
that about sums it up. Any questions don’t hesitate to ask. It’s going to be
pretty awesome, I think. :D