I live in Texas, so it's 6pm Central time. I believe that's -5 GMT, which means it'll be 11pm for you. A typical game of this type takes about an hour to get everyone settled in and ready to play... mostly because people come unprepared and like to chat a lot before getting started! Once it starts, it can continue indefinitely... the primary scenario I have in mind should take about two hours to complete, give or take. The secondary one could take a lot longer, as it's more open-ended and unlikely to be completed in one sitting. The alternative plan is to make up something almost completely random, and will continue until everybody gets bored (or all the characters are dead!) If you decide to leave early, that's ok, nobody will mind too much. I myself will stick around until we're all done, however long that takes. If you would like to make a character sheet ahead of time, my preferred method is to use Myth-Weavers . It doesn't do anything but give you somewhere to record your character info, but it has slots for almost everything you'd want to record. There will be in-game character sheets, an older design of mine based on Sam's current Pathfinder system with a few modifications. It's not as pretty as his new system, but it works. We will be rolling up statistics in-game, probably using the 4d6k3 system, so don't get too involved in the specifics... and if you don't know what 4d6k3 means, don't worry... I'll explain everything you need to know! Basically, don't worry about coming up with a complete character yet. Stick to the basics... what class do you want to play? Wizard, warrior, thief, cleric? Something else? What race? What type of person is your character... where do they come from, what do they want out of life, how do they go about getting it? Once you have this sort of thing figured out, the rest comes really easily, believe it or not. Jot down some notes as you read through the rules. Think about characters you've liked, from books, movies, TV shows, whatever, and think about WHY you liked them. Be willing to improvise stuff, but have a good idea of what type of character you want before we begin, and things will work themselves out. As far as gear is concerned, you'll have whatever you need for a basic start... for example, if you want to play an archer, you'll have a bow and arrows. If you want to be a knight, you'll have armor and weapons. If you're a wizard, you'll have your spellbook and maybe a wand or two. I'm very generous in this way, but don't go crazy... none of it will be magical, and your character won't be rich! But they will have everything they need to do what they do, within reason. Again, remember Rule One and it'll all be good! -Phnord
