Quote from HomebrewMindFlayer >>

question: when do you think we will start the actual campaigns?

 We need to decide on the Player Character Creation Rules that we'll all have to agree to before players can start creating characters for the adventures. A player character created under these rules would have to be acceptable to all DMs in the group for their adventures. We've talked about different averages for Ability scores, either the standard 12 or and enhanced 14. An ASI at first level seems very popular. We haven't even talked about what Races, Classes and Backgrounds are available or any starting cash vs starting equipment. We haven't discussed Homebrew options that would be available or how to incorporate them.

After that we'll need to finalize the Player Character Promotion Rules, including levels, how long it takes to reach them and how we track them as well as gold, treasure and magic items a player character might pick up along the way and how to handle downtime.

We will also need to set agreements about behavior both on the part of players and on the part of DMs. This could also include a Consent Checklist possibly specific to a particular adventure or center (what do we call them nexus?).

Which brings us to the next thing, at least one of these "nexus" needs to be set up and ready for player characters, which means we'll need offline storage that all the DMs share and contribute to, where we have resources for the players. Most of these services will give you 5-15gb free. If it's just text and jpgs, that should go a long way. I've started setting up mine. I have the name (Haven) for both the Demiplane and the  settlement. Mapping it out now.

Then we just need the adventures to run and the players to sign up.

Can I join?

as a dm

Quote from TechnoPagan >>

Quote from HomebrewMindFlayer >>

question: when do you think we will start the actual campaigns?

 We need to decide on the Player Character Creation Rules that we'll all have to agree to before players can start creating characters for the adventures. A player character created under these rules would have to be acceptable to all DMs in the group for their adventures. We've talked about different averages for Ability scores, either the standard 12 or and enhanced 14. An ASI at first level seems very popular. We haven't even talked about what Races, Classes and Backgrounds are available or any starting cash vs starting equipment. We haven't discussed Homebrew options that would be available or how to incorporate them.

After that we'll need to finalize the Player Character Promotion Rules, including levels, how long it takes to reach them and how we track them as well as gold, treasure and magic items a player character might pick up along the way and how to handle downtime.

We will also need to set agreements about behavior both on the part of players and on the part of DMs. This could also include a Consent Checklist possibly specific to a particular adventure or center (what do we call them nexus?).

Which brings us to the next thing, at least one of these "nexus" needs to be set up and ready for player characters, which means we'll need offline storage that all the DMs share and contribute to, where we have resources for the players. Most of these services will give you 5-15gb free. If it's just text and jpgs, that should go a long way. I've started setting up mine. I have the name (Haven) for both the Demiplane and the  settlement. Mapping it out now.

Then we just need the adventures to run and the players to sign up.

 I'd say Lvl 1, default Point Buy, Basic starter equipment. Homebrew must be very limited and balanced I think. If each DM's adventure plays as a 1-shot, then I'd say each DM can only award 1-2 levels, maybe more for longer campaigns.

We should set a limit on how much GP worth of items that a DM can give per player per campaign. (100,200, maybe 500)

I don't really think we need the consent checklist if we just keep it clean. (I know for a fact that several people in this project are minors, so we should treat it like everyone is.)

Finally, what do you mean by the "file sharing" thing?

Quote from Bluepanther512 >>

Can I join as a dm?

Absolutely 

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

Finally, what do you mean by the "file sharing" thing?

 Addressing the others is taking a lot of time so I'll just address the last one since it's an easy example. The file sharing would be for the maps, NPC stat blocks, down time opportunities, player character tracking and others that would make up the shared setting. There would be a read-only section for player information and a DM section for more extensive information. Just as an example, check out the following link. I will be reworking these resources for the Haven setting so don't let the Underbright references throw you.

https://mega.nz/folder/4wZVXKQJ#lTsoBlwAFOh8Bn6STm-Y4A

DM resources and Player resources might be very similar or very different, such as the stat blocks for Mykazhin Longreen and Rieta Brightwood

Quote from TechnoPagan >>

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

Finally, what do you mean by the "file sharing" thing?

 Addressing the others is taking a lot of time so I'll just address the last one since it's an easy example. The file sharing would be for the maps, NPC stat blocks, down time opportunities, player character tracking and others that would make up the shared setting. There would be a read-only section for player information and a DM section for more extensive information. Just as an example, check out the following link. I will be reworking these resources for the Haven setting so don't let the Underbright references throw you.

https://mega.nz/folder/4wZVXKQJ#lTsoBlwAFOh8Bn6STm-Y4A

DM resources and Player resources might be very similar or very different, such as the stat blocks for Mykazhin Longreen and Rieta Brightwood

 Ah, ok.

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>>>

I don't really think we need the consent checklist if we just keep it clean. (I know for a fact that several people in this project are minors, so we should treat it like everyone is.)

I think it's going to be easier to do these one at a time.

At 65, I'm not sure the stories that would interest a 13 year old would have the same appeal for me. I'm certainly not talking about anything obscene or pornographic, which would be a violation of the ToS anyway, but I am talking about more adult themes like, adult relationships between player characters or between player characters and NPCs, illicit drug use, political intrigue, explicit torture. Some adventures may include Lovecraftian horrors that might give kids nightmares. We don't have the option to filter by age (we don't have access to that information) so the consent checklist might be our best tool. We can at least let players know what to expect and what age range we feel is appropriate and if there are problems after that we can at least say "you were warned".

Some DMs might focus their adventures specifically for kids. Other DMs might produce adventures with more mature themes. I believe the more DM autonomy the better.

fair 'nuff, but like I said earlier, I know a lot of people on this site are QUITE younger than you (think high school/college age probably), so giving 'lil timmy a nightmare probably wont be a problem. I'm just envisioning like PG13 with infrequent profanity and gore. (violence and gore is fine, but like a whole paragraph on how Bob's entrails are on the floor is a bit overkill.) So yeah, we should do the checklist just to make sure everyone is on the same page. :)

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

 I'd say Lvl 1, default Point Buy, Basic starter equipment. Homebrew must be very limited and balanced I think. If each DM's adventure plays as a 1-shot, then I'd say each DM can only award 1-2 levels, maybe more for longer campaigns.

We should set a limit on how much GP worth of items that a DM can give per player per campaign. (100,200, maybe 500)

 I agree that level 1 is a good place to start. With a normal campaign it's unlikely that a level 1 character will ever see more than levels 10 or 11 before the game breaks up but with persistent characters in a persistent setting there's no reason one can't go all the way to 20th level (or 26th depending on what we agree on).

The main advantage of Point Buy and Basic Starter Equipment is that the DM isn't required to be there to check the die rolls. If we develop a standard template that uses in forum die rolls (like 12) then it's not an issue. We can have Die Rolls, Point Buy and a Standard Array. The question is, do we want to go with the standard 4d6 drop the lowest (averages about 12 points per ability score) or the more popular 4d6 reroll 1s once and drop the lowest (averaging about 14 points per ability score). Point Buy and Standard Array can be bumped up to match the 14 points per Ability Score. So the real question is do we want to go with the standard 12 or go with 14, which would increase both player fun and engagement as well as DM work and headaches. Personally I lean towards the latter, but that's me.

I agree we need to limit the amount of gold and treasure to keep from breaking the economy of the shared setting, the questions are how and how much? In an earlier post I proposed an advancement checkmark system inspired by AL, but adapted to PbP. Each two weeks would (basically) earn 1 checkmark, requiring 2 checks to get from level 1 to level 2, 4 checks to get through levels 2, 3 and 4 and 8 checks per level after that. A campaign that took players through all 4 levels of tier 2 would take about 15 months and have little chance of finishing before petering out. A 2 month long adventure would earn a player 4 check marks, enough for a level at 2-4, half a level above that and leave a player ready and eager for the next adventure. My current proposal on gold is that the DM stock the adventure with enough gold for 50gp/level/player/checkmark ±50%. So if that 2 month adventure were written for 4, 5th level characters there should be between 2,000gp and 6,000gp for the player characters to find/earn/steal (500gp - 1,500gp each).

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

fair 'nuff, but like I said earlier, I know a lot of people on this site are QUITE younger than you (think high school/college age probably), so giving 'lil timmy a nightmare probably wont be a problem. I'm just envisioning like PG13 with infrequent profanity and gore. (violence and gore is fine, but like a whole paragraph on how Bob's entrails are on the floor is a bit overkill.) So yeah, we should do the checklist just to make sure everyone is on the same page. :)

 This is true, I'm only 13. But I'm interested in this idea and I'd very much appreciate if this was for the most part family friendly. I don't mind a little gore or maybe even some kind of heavier themes but defenitely not anything too bad.

Quote from Infernal_BardLocke >>

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

fair 'nuff, but like I said earlier, I know a lot of people on this site are QUITE younger than you (think high school/college age probably), so giving 'lil timmy a nightmare probably wont be a problem. I'm just envisioning like PG13 with infrequent profanity and gore. (violence and gore is fine, but like a whole paragraph on how Bob's entrails are on the floor is a bit overkill.) So yeah, we should do the checklist just to make sure everyone is on the same page. :)

 This is true, I'm only 13. But I'm interested in this idea and I'd very much appreciate if this was for the most part family friendly. I don't mind a little gore or maybe even some kind of heavier themes but defenitely not anything too bad.

 Giving 'lil timmy nightmares actually has the greatest potential for blowback (keep in mind we're probably never more than a few steps away from another "Satanic Panic") but all we can do is all we can do. If this works out the way I'm hoping, there will be a lot of family friendly adventures available along with plenty that aren't. We shouldn't be requiring DMs to create and run the same kind of adventures. I'm a big believer in DM autonomy and I'm hoping there will be room for everybody. In addition to Nexus and Adventure Consent Checklists, there could also be individual ones, a checklist that says "this is what I'm looking for in a game". Keeping statistics on this could give DMs an idea if there are under-served groups that they might want to write an adventure specifically for.

Ok folks, time to sum up. We have already adressed the following:

-Rules for absent players (by me).

-Rules for advancement in levels, wealth, and magic items (mostly by TechnoPagan, partially by me).

-Rules for character creation (by TechnoPagan and multiple other commenters).

I believe that the time is near when we must finally settle on the specifics. So, here's what I propose: firstly, if anyone can think of any other rules that must be repurposed for PbP, please bring this into our collective attention. Secondly, after a few days, we should set up a poll and vote on the rule changes mentioned above (and any others proposed in the meanwhile). Specifically, we would need to vote on whether the proposed rules for absent players, level advancement, wealth, and magic items are accepted, whether to establish point-buy as the only method for deciding starting ability scores, and whether characters should start with an average ability score of 12 or 14, with or without an extra feat, or with a choice between an average ability score of 14 or an extra feat.

So, please share any other issues that might exist with the rules in the next few days so that we can finally start making some final decisions.

Quote from TechnoPagan >>

Quote from Infernal_BardLocke >>

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

fair 'nuff, but like I said earlier, I know a lot of people on this site are QUITE younger than you (think high school/college age probably), so giving 'lil timmy a nightmare probably wont be a problem. I'm just envisioning like PG13 with infrequent profanity and gore. (violence and gore is fine, but like a whole paragraph on how Bob's entrails are on the floor is a bit overkill.) So yeah, we should do the checklist just to make sure everyone is on the same page. :)

 This is true, I'm only 13. But I'm interested in this idea and I'd very much appreciate if this was for the most part family friendly. I don't mind a little gore or maybe even some kind of heavier themes but defenitely not anything too bad.

 Giving 'lil timmy nightmares actually has the greatest potential for blowback (keep in mind we're probably never more than a few steps away from another "Satanic Panic") but all we can do is all we can do. If this works out the way I'm hoping, there will be a lot of family friendly adventures available along with plenty that aren't. We shouldn't be requiring DMs to create and run the same kind of adventures. I'm a big believer in DM autonomy and I'm hoping there will be room for everybody. In addition to Nexus and Adventure Consent Checklists, there could also be individual ones, a checklist that says "this is what I'm looking for in a game". Keeping statistics on this could give DMs an idea if there are under-served groups that they might want to write an adventure specifically for.

 Great idea! Each DM doing their own style should work fine :)

I'm not really a fan of the "checks", but if you all like it I guess it's fine.

Quote from zpentomino >>

Ok folks, time to sum up. We have already adressed the following:

-Rules for absent players (by me).

-Rules for advancement in levels, wealth, and magic items (mostly by TechnoPagan, partially by me).

-Rules for character creation (by TechnoPagan and multiple other commenters).

I believe that the time is near when we must finally settle on the specifics. So, here's what I propose: firstly, if anyone can think of any other rules that must be repurposed for PbP, please bring this into our collective attention. Secondly, after a few days, we should set up a poll and vote on the rule changes mentioned above (and any others proposed in the meanwhile). Specifically, we would need to vote on whether the proposed rules for absent players, level advancement, wealth, and magic items are accepted, whether to establish point-buy as the only method for deciding starting ability scores, and whether characters should start with an average ability score of 12 or 14, with or without an extra feat, or with a choice between an average ability score of 14 or an extra feat.

So, please share any other issues that might exist with the rules in the next few days so that we can finally start making some final decisions.

 I think basic point buy, no feats leaves the most room for growth, but an average 14 ability scores could be nice.

One that I came up with last night. Downtime, should we use AL system of 5 days per day of adventure day (or 10 days per checkmark) or simply use days a character isn't in an adventure as downtime?

Also we we still don't have any clear solution for awarding magic items. 

Quote from HomebrewMindFlayer >>

I'm not really a fan of the "checks", but if you all like it I guess it's fine.

 What would you rather see used?

Quote from TechnoPagan >>

Quote from HomebrewMindFlayer >>

I'm not really a fan of the "checks", but if you all like it I guess it's fine.

 What would you rather see used?

 that partially depends on other things, such as how long is each adventure? you wanted an eventual goal of 1-20, but all in one adventure with one DM? or is a series of short adventures, possibly with multiple different DMs DMing different adventures? 

if the former, I think each DM could deiced, as it does not effect any of the other DMs much.

if the latter, I think players should get a level at the end of each adventure. if the adventures are longer, than you could chose (and other DMs should agree, because it may effect them later) a few key points in the adventure to give a level. 

if it is neither of the two I said above, than I would need to know what your thinking before saying a prefer ed advancement type.

Quote from Great_Axeblade >>

Quote from zpentomino >>

Ok folks, time to sum up. We have already adressed the following:

-Rules for absent players (by me).

-Rules for advancement in levels, wealth, and magic items (mostly by TechnoPagan, partially by me).

-Rules for character creation (by TechnoPagan and multiple other commenters).

I believe that the time is near when we must finally settle on the specifics. So, here's what I propose: firstly, if anyone can think of any other rules that must be repurposed for PbP, please bring this into our collective attention. Secondly, after a few days, we should set up a poll and vote on the rule changes mentioned above (and any others proposed in the meanwhile). Specifically, we would need to vote on whether the proposed rules for absent players, level advancement, wealth, and magic items are accepted, whether to establish point-buy as the only method for deciding starting ability scores, and whether characters should start with an average ability score of 12 or 14, with or without an extra feat, or with a choice between an average ability score of 14 or an extra feat.

So, please share any other issues that might exist with the rules in the next few days so that we can finally start making some final decisions.

 I think basic point buy, no feats leaves the most room for growth, but an average 14 ability scores could be nice.

 What are AL rules for feats?