Hello! Most of you will likely know me already but for those who don't; my name is Simon. I've been playing in Maladon from the very early start as Syvil Dernsson and recently me and Stephen have been talking about me doing some Game Mastering for this campaign. Yesterday we agreed that it would be worth trying and so this is what this post is about. The sessions will be held around once a week to start of and for your sake, as much as for mine, I will attempt to keep any sessions I run on separate times, if not days from any other. Further me and Stephen have both set down a few rules we would like to apply to my sessions, some might be removed or changed with time but for now here are the ones you need to know of (read my comments on rules in the parenthesis): My sessions are to cater to the lower end of the level spectrum and to newer players (this means I will do my best to loop new players into the setting and flow of Maladon but also gives me some freedom to create my own thread of story) Things are going to be kept simple (this one is all me; I wish to try to keep things simple in the beginning to avoid making things ore difficult than they have to be. This does not necessarily mean that the session will be easy just that elaborate or grand plots won't be a main theme right of the bat) There are certain restrictions on risk and rewards (these will not be made fully public, but overall the risk is a bit lower but so are the rewards, a decision made to mitigate my inexperience helping or hurting characters) Taken together this means my sessions will likely be a bit shorter, a bit kinder and more basic. Yet I have ambitions, and permission, to expand with time and if things go well you can expect interesting things to happen. So how do you get in a session? Glad you asked! The plan is for me to follow the rules and guidelines set up for Stephen's use but with some changes which will mostly have to do with the rules set out above. One example of such an exception might be that I restrict the max level of any character , not player, who wishes to join.< When will I be running sessions? My time schedule is similar to Stephen's in many ways and I live in Sweden which observes UTC+2 during the summer and UTC+1 during the winter. You can see an up to date schedule for me here. Likely I will be running evening sessions between 18:30 to 23:30 UTC+1 during the weekdays and more flexible times during the weekends. And once you are in; what do you mission/quest/.../task/errand will you be performing? I will be keeping my own jobs board up and, again starting small, there will be very few options to choose from. I have no doubt that with time and as the story progresses we will populate that board with a plethora of things to do but my aim is currently not to reach Stephen's level as I simply lack the time and experience to strive for it. So the story will grow in its own pace and likely be a bit more narrow than the general plot of Maladon; but time will tell. What about houserules and rulings? I will keep to the 5E PHB, DMG and MM. Stephen has not set forth any clear rules for me to follow but you can take any rulings or houserules used when I GM to Stephen for a "master ruling". What this means is that while I am in session, unless Stephen is there (and I suspect he might want to play at some point...), any rulings made by me would be absolute. This does not mean that you cannot object, prove me wrong or in other ways talk to me about it in session, trust me I love talking rules, but once the discussion is over I reserve the right to make my own rulings until Stephen can correct any errors with a master ruling. What is my style? How do I differ from Stephen as a GM? This is very hard question for me to answer fully but allow me to speculate a little: For starters we are very different in maturity, with me being in my early twenties and with less experience. This means I might lack some of his wisdom in things and one should be clear on this going into one of my sessions. Further I can be very free form at sometimes and very rules strict at others; primarily this depends on the RP of the situation. Maladon uses virtual rolls for good descriptions and innovative actions and so will I, but you might find that I like a system whereby I often will not say "no" but will say "yes, but if you fail ...". At those times it is likely I will allow a player to break the rules to do something unique or interesting but if the roll fails then the monsters, environment or NPC might do something unique and interesting. Over all this creates a bit more uncertainty but can also have the potential for some very, sorry for the nonsense word, "filmic" scenes. Should you feel that a ruling I make is ever unfair or if you simply wish to opt out and not be the victim or benefactor of this system; just let me know. What if my inexperience does come to some terrible result? Sadly once a session is under way the "trap is sprung" so to speak. While I will try to make adjustments for any obvious mistakes on my part with balance or encounters during the fame, any final consequence is well; final. As always you can call upon Stephen to overrule me and need not worry about my toes; they need to learn how to deal with being stepped on in any case. So did I cover everything? Do you have any clear opinions on the above? Now is a great time to express yourself on the topic as I am still setting everything up and accommodating your wishes/views is much easier if we can get the conversation going right away. I am hoping to hold my first session this Thursday and I will be announcing it tonight if that does go forth. Sign ups will not be tonight but rather tomorrow night (Wednesday 18:00-22:00 UTC+1) and a post for such signups will be made before the day is out. That mission will be special in that a level ceiling will apply and the mission is already set and I will be revealing it before the end of today. I look forward to game mastering for you!
