GM Kulko's page

No, seriously, have fun. If you're not having fun, why are you playing? If you find you're not having fun in one of my games, please send me a PM and I'll do my utmost to rectify the situation. If it can't be resolved, I'm perfectly happy for you to leave the game. This is about all of us enjoying ourselves.

Be ready to post every 24 hours. This doesn't mean you have to interject with nonsense just to keep up posting every day (though a quick post to describe your character's demeanor, reaction to the last action, or something of the like is always welcome). The main thing is to ensure that no one is waiting more than 24 hours for your action. If you take longer and we are in combat,
If you take longer and we are in combat, I will delay your turn, or post an action for your character if I feel the party is in danger and you can do much to help.

Even if you feel current interaction should be addressed by other character, post stating so, provide that feedback. You can express the internal feeling of your character and by doing so, let everybody know a bit more about your character, how do you see current events, and that you are following them.

You can expect me to post at least every 24h too. Currently I am posting more often, but I do not want to promise to keep it up forever. Since I am just beginning as a GM I also reserve myself the right to put things a few days on hiatus to have time to fully process the resukt onf an encounter and set up my preparations for the next few, but I will give you fair warning of this and you are invited to roleplay during this time.

You will need to keep a current copy of your character in your profile. This character sheet shall contain all the required information to both understand your character motivations and run the game. You shall provide Background and Personality sections, but you can send a PM to me with any background you want to maintain concealed from the public.
You can also add a section with your character appearance, either as a description or a link to an image you used for inspiration.
You will also need to provide all the stats of your character for the current level and a current inventory in the profile. If you have spells available, you also have to keep track of your prepared spells in your alias profile. Check out Crucible's Guide to PbP Character Sheets to get good advise about this topic. Please use spoilers actively to keep things organised.

Put your vital stats, expended charges and active conditions in your forum tag line. It really helps for those situations when a GM needs to make a roll for the whole party (eg. everyone makes a reflex save). That means I can easily do the rolls, resolve all the effects and move the game along in a single post.

When you edit the profile for your alias, anything that appears these fields will appear on your tagline in posts on a PbP thread (in this order):
1. Gender
2. Race
3. Classes/Levels
All you need to do is put your vital stats in these three fields and you are good to go.

The Initiative rolls will always be made by me to keep things moving.

Information rolls (perception, knowledge etc.) like can be made by players but I may also make them for the party. I try to make sure that the party is not mssing out on information, because the character with a high skill value is currently unavailable for a roll.

Further, I may make a roll of any kind on your behalf if you do not post within the 24 hour timeframe (see above for more on this).

For rolls where only one player can roll for the group and the others typically aid (like Diplomacy), everybody just rolls and I select the highest skilled available character as the main roller and everybody else is interpreted as aid if feasible.

Finally, a convention I have adopted (mostly for rolling during combat) in PbP games that I run is as follows:
1. No rolls during combat for any checks that do not specifically require an action unless called for by the GM. Same for free actions that do not influence combat. Eg. Knowledge (dungeoneering) to identify that ooze is a free action, but this is a roll you must ask the GM to make for you (unless he has asked for it). Concentration check to cast a spell is a free action, but that's fine to roll yourself (since it forms part of your cast spell action).
2. Always roll for actions in the order in which they occur. When in doubt, roll reactions to GM first, reactions to players next and then your actions. This should help minimize players swapping over save throws for attack rolls (and the like).
3. If you do want to make an "actionless" skill check, ask the GM to roll it for you. He'll have to post to tell you the results anyway.

As I said, I am new to all this, so please fell free to suggest improvements wherever you think they are helpful.