We will be using the Pathfinder rules for this game. Don't worry, though—for those of you who do not own the Pathfinder rulebooks or otherwise have access to it, you can find a link to the unofficial references. The website should have everything you need to know.

If you are not up on the Pathfinder rules, please review them via the reference link and make sure you'll be alright with them before getting into serious character design.

If You Need Help:
Wondering what to play? Lots of good ideas and helpful processes for both veterans and newbies, alike, can be found here!

Any official Paizo content/material is (broadly) valid, unless noted otherwise. No 3rd-party or other 3E/3.5 material will be allowed unless otherwise announced. Asking to use such material demonstrates to me that you have not thoroughly read the rules, and applications which make such requests will be summarily refused. Reasonable alterations or substitutions to existing material may be permitted on a case-by-case basis.

A note on alignment: Evil and chaotic characters are welcome; I do not ban alignments that some people find difficult to control or identify with, but I do require that players with characters of those alignments enact them maturely, responsibly, and creatively. Don’t be that chaotic neutral or chaotic evil stereotype that every gamer on the Internet hates to have in their game!

That being said, please be aware that I do pay attention to the personality and moral compass of characters. Hopefully, you will have plenty of opportunity to establish, demonstrate, maintain, and evolve a PC, and fellow players will certainly not only notice trends in their behavior, but also occasions when a PC breaks character. Make sure to select an alignment you can live with, or plan to be flexible, but either way, applicants are hereby warned that I do not consider TV Tropes and similar sites to be reputable sources for determining how the various alignments should be played. Your alignment will shift based on your actions and decisions during the game, so you will have the opportunity to change it and to roleplay those changes appropriately throughout the story. Actions unreasonably out of alignment for a character will simply not be permitted unless accompanied by a very convincing explanation. PCs should demonstrate gradual growth and philosophical adaptation to their environment and experiences as they move toward new alignments (or maintain their current ones).

Finally, we will be using the rules presented in Ultimate Campaign for youthful PCs; but, be sure to play responsibly. I must be sure that players have no intention of violating RPoL's policies regarding Mature-rated games with such characters. This means that PCs younger than 18 years (or who act recognizably younger, are mentally younger, etc.) cannot, under any circumstances, be involved in roleplay which violates site policy. Players who disregard this rule and attempt to roleplay graphic sex, violence, etc., with young characters will be reported to site administrators immediately, and subsequently banned from the game even if they are not banned from the site.


The Crunchy Stuff

  1. Starting level is technically 1st, but PCs will initially be classless, so don't worry about picking a class. You should have some private idea of where you eventually want to see your character go or who you want them to be, but those issues will be addressed through play rather than during the application process.

  2. All characters must be human. Some alternate racial traits will be acceptable, but those which equip a character with distinctly non-human abilities (such as darkvision) are disallowed.

  3. Stats will be generated procedurally during early gameplay rather than prior to the game's start.

  4. Instead of hit points, we will be using the variant rules for wounds and vigor.

  5. Don't worry about starting wealth. You begin with nothing.

  6. Everyone will be able to understand one another; there will be no need to track languages, in this game. Please note that this does not preclude Linguistics being a potentially useful skill, as Linguistics incorporates other aspects beyond simply adding new languages to a character.

  7. Everyone gets 2 traits at creation, which should heavily influence your initial concept. The normal rule of taking only one trait from any given type/list still applies, but otherwise all traits are allowed without restriction except for campaign-specific traits, which must be approved by me in order to make them fit the setting.

  8. Drawbacks are allowed, but not required.

  9. Insanity is enforced in this game; rules may be found in GameMastery Guide (p250).

  10. We will use the fast experience advancement track for this game.

  11. Finally, we will use the GameMastery Critical Hit and Critical Fumble card decks in this game.

To Clarify:
Everyone will begin the game as a human child with 2 traits (or 3, if you choose a drawback). These traits (and drawbacks) should represent your character's personality and give some indication of what sort of person they are, but literally all other mechanical considerations are irrelevant until after the game starts. The application and interview process will focus on ensuring players are the right fit for the game and that everyone understands the devices being used rather than hashing out an evaluation and long-term plan for your characters. There will be enough basic discussion of the latter to ascertain a PC's general identity within the context of the game, but the rest of the RTJ will focus on you, as writers and players.