What could be more exciting than the cheers of an enthralled audience and the blood of your foes splattered across your hands? Nothing, that's what, because the alternative is a corpse that experiences nothing at all. The Blood Circuit of Tyr is the premier gladiatorial championship, where the top teams from across the Tyr Region battle it out across the wasteland's many arenas for glory... and, perhaps, for freedom. You are among the motley assortment of slaves recently acquired by a former champion who earned his freedom through the Blood Circuit and squandered his fame and fortune... now, embittered yet still enriched, he seeks to reclaim his title vicariously, no matter how many lives he has to throw away to get it. This is a D&D 4th Edition campaign set in an altered Dark Sun campaign setting, one where Kalak still reigns over Tyr and where the city states are considerably less hostile to one another. Slavery is still abundant, however, and the gladiatorial games remain the prominent form of entertainment throughout the Region. The players each take up the role of a gladiator slave who will become the next Champions of the Blood Circuit... or die trying. DETAILS Please read all details before deciding if you wish to join this campaign. WHEN: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific. Each session will last about 2-3 hours. First session is a week and a bit away: Feb 26th. Please expect to show up 10-20 minutes early each day to resolve technical difficulties and reserve your spot. DURATION: This campaign will continue for as long as support for it exists. Ideally, it'll go all the way to level 30. This depends largely on the support provided by players to maintain a high degree of consistent attendance. If the players don't care enough to keep showing up, I won't care enough to keep running it. WHO: Sign up by posting here and by sending me an email with your character file to <a href="mailto:dnd@soulrift.com" rel="nofollow">dnd@soulrift.com</a> (see below). Consider posting what character class you intend to play so subsequent players can try to round out the party, though I'm perfectly happy slaughtering an all-striker team :) OVER-SUBSCRIBING: I will over-subscribe for this campaign because my experience so far with Roll20 has involved a lot of flaky no-shows. There will be no limit to the number of people who are invited to sign up. Instead, the first 6 players who show up for each session will be allowed to play that day, with preference given to anyone who both shows up on time and was present at the previous session. EXPERIENCE LEVEL: I expect every player to be sufficiently familiar with D&D 4th Edition rules and their character's powers and features to make quick decisions on their turn. Although this is probably not a good choice for a player who has never played D&D or used Roll20 before, dedicated novices who are willing to take the time to thoroughly understand their character and seek advice before the session are welcome to join. If players don't know how to use a power properly or delay for a long time, however, I will skip their turn... ROLE-PLAY LEVEL: This will be primarily a combat-oriented campaign, as it takes place primarily within various arenas around the Tyr Region. With that in mind, I expect and encourage a good showing of role-play on the battlefield (see Glory points, below). There will be opportunities for player-driven role-play on and off the battlefield too. TOOLS: I am requiring every player to submit their character sheet in .dnd4e file format so I can load it into the DDI online character builder to verify it. I do not know if 3rd party tools can generate these files, but I highly recommend a DDI subscription so you will see things the way I see them; the version I see will be the "correct" one, including all the most recent errata in the online builder. Any character with house rules (something showing up orange) will be rejected. I will either use Roll20, Google Hangout, or Skype for voice communication. Please post a preference when you sign up below and the decision will be rendered shortly before the first session. Voice communications are required and expected to be clear; users with excessive background noise will be asked to mute when its not their turn. CHARACTER RESTRICTIONS: I will allow all NON-ESSENTIALS characters of Martial, Arcane, Divine, Primal, and Psionic sources (no Shadow). Story-wise, Divine characters will be similar to Primal, though worshiping specific powerful spirits (as there are no gods on Athas), and Arcane characters will be a branch of Psionic study (as magic is tightly controlled on Athas). Thus no player will actually be a magic-user for the purposes of Defiling or Preserving, nor role-playing membership in the Veiled Alliance. Characters may be of most races, though all will have to be "flavoured" for the Dark Sun setting. The following races are not accepted: Hamadryad, Pixie, Revenant, Satyr, Shade, Vryloka, and Warforged. Characters may use any non-Essentials powers. Characters may use most feats, except those that power-swap or feature-swap into Essentials. Characters may ONLY use Dark Sun themes (or no theme at all). Backgrounds will not be used in this campaign. Hybrids are allowed. Ultimately, I reserve the right to reject any excessively quirky or exploitative builds. Characters should be built as level 1 characters with no gold and non-magical combat equipment (as an arena slave, you have no use for, nor access to, an adventurer's kit, food, lighting, or other sundry equipment). SPECIAL RULES FOR BASIC ATTACKS All powers that include "May be used as a Melee Basic Attack" lose that property. For example: Eldritch Strike, Intent Laid Bare, Virtuous Strike etc. Powers that can be used in specific circumstances (as part of a charge, opportunity attack, etc.) can still be used under those conditions. Any character that has an at-will power that is a Melee Weapon or Melee Touch attack may use that power's to-hit and base damage values in place of a Melee Basic Attack. EG: A Monk with Dragon's Tail can make a dex vs fort attack as a Melee Basic Attack, dealing 1d6+dex damage, but it would not knock the target prone; a Rogue with Sly Flourish can make a dex vs AC attack as an MBA dealing 1[W]+dex damage, but it would not add cha modifier damage. EXCEPTION: Druid Beast Form powers (Savage Rend, Grasping Claws, etc.) can still be used as Basic Attacks when in Beast Form. Humanoid Druids would still use strength for Melee Basic Attacks as normal, unless they take Melee Training. Any character that has an at-will power that is Ranged may use that power's range, to-hit, and damage values in place of a Ranged Basic Attack, with the same sort of restrictions as listed above for MBAs. SPECIAL RULES FOR ACTION POINTS Action Point is now an encounter power. Use it or lose it! Characters can now accumulate Glory points when the audience is particularly pleased with their performance. A Glory point can be spent to add 1 to a d20 roll made by that character, or remove 1 from a d20 roll made against that character. Multiple Glory points may be spent together (ie: if a player has 3 points and misses by 3, they can spend all 3 to hit). Players may spend 2 Glory points during a short rest to regain one healing surge. Players may spend 3 Glory points during a short rest to regain the use of a Daily power. Glory points may be carried over from encounter to encounter and are lost during an extended rest. When a character reaches a milestone, their Glory points increase in value, so after the first milestone a Glory point adds or removes 2 from a d20 roll. Expect 4-8 encounters per day; the crowds want their blood and characters may not have the luxury of taking an extended rest whenever they want. OTHER RULES When a character reaches 0 hit points, they may make a single death saving throw: on a result of 20 or higher they spend a healing surge, otherwise they fall unconscious. There are no further death saving throws; such a character can only come back into the action if another character uses a healing power on them. Unconscious creatures cannot be attacked; they are shielded by Templar magic. Slave owners on the Blood Circuit have paid dearly for their slaves and pay the Templars to insure their investment. That said, worthless slaves may be relegated to Death Matches... Characters may take actions during certain types of movement, such as a jump, allowing them to hit targets they would otherwise not be able to reach, or using a minor action to manipulate an environmental object while running past. Falls are resolved at any point during the turn in which they occur. This means that a character may take additional actions right before falling or right before another creature that would fall on their turn falls (eg: teleporting themselves and an enemy into the air, then jumping off the enemy to reach a platform). This campaign will introduce special rules for "Boss" creatures. Boss creatures often have multiple hit locations and have special rules in terms of how they handle status effects and other rules. For example, a dragon might have a body, two arms, and a head; marking one arm does not inhibit the dragon from attacking other characters with the other arm. RULES CALLS: With the exception of rules I intend to change, I will do my best to adhere to the rules as written. In the case where a player disagrees with a rule, the player may voice their interpretation of the rule and I will make a rules call. My rules call at that point will be final and play will continue with that call; I will revise such calls at the END of the session and make decisions for future sessions. I do not want the session itself slowed down by rules issues. FINAL NOTE Now that I've presented all the details, there's one last thing that I'm still tackling with / thinking about: eliminating the 1/2 level bonus to everything. I'd like to get rid of it because that means new characters can come in at level 1 and fight alongside high level characters without huge math imbalances. It also makes a heck of a lot more sense, role-playing-wise, since as you go up levels in the arena you're still fighting more or less the same things. On the other hand, it makes math a nightmare, since every character has to be re-calculated from what the online builder provides. And I like the online builder enough for keeping track of feats and powers that I'm not entirely prepared to abandon it. If you have an opinion about the 1/2 level bonus, please let me know when you sign up for the campaign :)
