Core Rules

Welcome to the Bright Dawn guild, a D&D5e West Marches server! This Core Rules document details the various rules and mechanics we use on this server. If at any point you have questions about how things work, feel free to make a post in the #questions channel!

Overview and Basic Rules
The server operates on a West Marches system, where several DMs run different game sessions in the same multiverse, which you can join with your characters. Once you create your first character and get it approved, you'll be able to sign up for these games according to your own availability.

Here are some of the rules that are enforced at the server level:


 * 1) Be mature, kind, and respectful.
 * 2) No Inappropriate language, such as excessive swears, curses directed at someone, racial slurs, deliberate attempts to instigate negative reactions, discussion of performing illegal acts, etc. No NSFW & No spam.
 * 3) Respect the DMs and moderators. If you are told to stop, do so.
 * 4) Avoid pinging people or using @mention without good reason.
 * 5) Keep an eye on the #dnd-announcements channel, as it may have time-senstitive announcements or events (such as getting a free race/class change when new rules come out). We are not responsible if you miss things posted there. If you have the   tag, of course, you could not have seen the channel, and exceptions will be made.
 * 6) Do not post copyright material unless the official publishers have made them public themselves (do it through Private Messaging).
 * 7) Try to keep posts in the channels assigned to their purposes. Read channel topics before posting in them.
 * 8) Do not private message DM's and ask them to run games for you.
 * 9) No talks of politics, religion, or real world hot topics that people fight over. Any talk will get you banned.

Here are some additional rules that are enforced at our game tables:


 * 1) The DM's word is law. If something is wrong, roll with how the DM runs it and we will figure it out after the session, correct what we can, and make sure we have it right for the future.
 * 2) Avoid metagaming. This may be hard for new players; we will help you.
 * 3) Remember the difference between the players and the characters they roleplay.
 * 4) If your character intends to take an action that is aggressive towards another PC (e.g. another player being caught in your AOE damage or pickpocketing another PC) you must get their permission before you can take that action.
 * 5) If you believe you can exploit the rules to "break the game" or do something that feels excessively powerful, please check that it's alright before you do it. Do not try to intentionally twist or exploit the rules beyond their intended functions, and if you believe you see a hole in the rules, let us know.
 * 6) When Ed (the server creator) has called a final ruling it is final. Any other arguing may result in disciplinary action, which may include but is not limited to being kicked from games or losing money or XP. Further arguing may result in a ban.

Failure to abide by these rules will result in a warning, and the admins may discuss whether further disciplinary action is warranted.

The Setting
All player characters (PCs) on the server automatically become a member of the Bright Dawn Guild upon creation, a group of mercenaries who receive and fulfill mission requests from all around the multiverse. The guild operates on the planet Reach, which also serves as the main setting shared by our DMs. You can read more about the guild's history and settings on the Reach by clicking on the provided links.

Though the guildmembers work for pay, the guild overall has a positive reputation that we expect to be upheld. As such, no evil characters are allowed as playable player characters (PCs).

Tiers of Play
Our server features four distinct "Tiers" of play, your character's level determining their Tier:


 * 1) Level 3-4 characters are in Tier 1. Their character sheets are stored here.
 * 2) Level 5-10 characters are in Tier 2. Their character sheets are stored here.
 * 3) Level 11-16 characters are in Tier 3. Their character sheets are stored here.
 * 4) Level 17+ characters are in Tier 4. Their character sheets are stored here.

Each of our games are limited to characters in a single tier to ensure relatively balanced parties.

Each time you reach a new tier for the first time with one of your characters, you unlock a new "character slot"—that is, you can create a new level 3 character. You also unlock a new character slot whenever one of your character slots reaches level 20 for the first time, or if one of your characters levels up the entire journey from level 3 to level 20. You can find more information about leveling here.

Character Creation
We use Roll20 as our online gameplay platform. You can watch this quick video or this more in-depth guide on creating a character on Roll20 if you're not familiar with the mechanics of it. Note that you may not be able to create a character on mobile, as Roll20 does not currently have good mobile options.

To create a new character, you'll first have to get yourself a new character sheet to edit on Roll20: We allow character creation using anything from a sourcebook released by the Wizards of the Coast except for: Some additional server rules regarding character creation include the following: Here's one more checklist to complete before your character is ready to apply for approval: Once you're done making your sheet, send this message verbatim to the #starting-questions channel:  ; also post your new character's name and Tier. A viceroy will then check out your sheet and give you feedback on it, telling you whether it's approved or whether it needs any changes. Don't worry if you're not approved immediately! Most people need to edit their sheet a few times before it's fully approved. Once you're approved by two viceroys, your character will be all set to play.
 * 1) All players keep their character in our "Barracks" games on Roll20, which are organized by character Tier. Navigate to the barracks corresponding to the tier of your new character and click on the "Launch Game" button.
 * 2) Tier 1 (levels 3-4) Barracks link
 * 3) Tier 2 (levels 5-10) Barracks link
 * 4) Tier 3 (levels 11-16) Barracks link
 * 5) Tier 4 (levels 17-20) Barracks link
 * 6) In the top right corner of your window, you should see a gear icon. Click on it, then check out your "Display Name." If you want to change it to something else, go ahead. This will be referred to as your Roll20 Name going forward.
 * 7) Change your server nickname to match the following format:  . For example, if your Roll20 name is Argus and your character's name is Zook, you would change it to   where the   is the level of your new character in two digits. If you haven't decided on a character name yet, you can use   as your character name until you figure it out.
 * 8) Send this message in the #starting-questions channel verbatim to receive your character sheet:  ; also post the name and Tier of your new character. Soon, you'll see a blank character sheet pop up in your Roll20 Journal tab, which you can then edit freely.
 * Anything Unearthed Arcana (UA)
 * Anything published after Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
 * The dark gifts from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
 * The draconic gifts from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
 * Character alignment: Evil characters are not allowed!
 * Starting level: Your first character (and all characters made in new character slots) start at level 3, the bottom of Tier 1. It is, however, possible to create a new character at a higher Tier if one of your current characters dies or decides to retire, as described in the Death and Retirement section.
 * Ability scores: We use the point buy method to determine ability scores as described here. However, instead of offering only 27 points to spend, you get 30. You can use this tool to help calculate your ability scores.
 * Hit points: Hit points are calculated with maximum at first character level, and average hit points for each additional level above 1st.
 * Starting equipment: Your character receives your default starting equipment from your class and background + one free healing potion. They also receive bonus rolled gold or equipment if they start at Tier 2 or higher; in this case, you must ping a @viceroy and ask for them to witness your roll for gold in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot channel. You can spend any of your starting gold to buy tools at book price during character creation.
 * Tier 2 characters receive bonus GP equal to 500 + 1d10 × 25.
 * Tier 3 characters receive bonus GP equal to 5000 + 1d10 × 250, as well as two uncommon magic items of your choice
 * Tier 4 characters receive bonus GP equal to 20,000 + 1d10 × 250, as well as two uncommon magic items and one rare magic item of your choice
 * Background feats: If your background does not grant a feat, you may take one among the Tough, Skilled, or Magic Initiate feats as part of your background.
 * Fill out your bio tab at the top of your sheet! Fill out your character's size, height, weight, etc.
 * Add at least 2 personality traits, 1 ideal, and 1 flaw to the appropriate sections in the character sheet.
 * Upload a token image for your character by clicking the edit button at the top right of the sheet.
 * Make sure you've listed all your racial, class, and background features in your Features and Traits section.

Signing up for a Game
Our server uses a bot called "RosterBot" to manage signing up for games. You can read a full guide on how to use it here, but here's the basics on how to use it to sign up for a game. If you find any bugs, ping the @Dragonspeaker role to let them know. Some additional notes/rules regarding signing up for games include:
 * 1) Navigate to the #rosterbot-players channel.
 * 2) Setting your timezone: The bot needs to know what timezone you're in so it can display game times in your timezone. You only need to do this step once.
 * 3) Message  to have the bot send you a list of all the timezone choices.
 * 4) Message  to set your timezone to that timezone. For example, if you want to use New York time, you can type in
 * 5) Searching for games: Type in the following command: . The bot will then display a list all the upcoming games in the server in the format:
 * 6) Learning more about a game: You can learn more about a game you're interested by messaging . For example, you could type in   to learn more about the "Moonlighters: Bandit Cleanup" game. The most important information in the card that appears will be the Text, Voice, and Link fields at the bottom of the card, above the image if there is one. These are respectively links to the text channel which the DM may use to contact you before, during, and after the game, the voice channel that will be used to talk during the game, and a link to the Roll20 game where the session will be hosted.
 * 7) Signing up for a game: To sign up for a game, message . If there are more people who try to sign up than there are spots available, the Rosterbot will move some of the players into the "sideline" roster, prioritizing people who have played fewer games during the week as described in the Priority section to stay on the playing roster. Sidelined players may be called on and switched to the roster if a rostered player drops out or doesn’t turn up on time. This could happen any time up to the start of the game and sometimes afterwards.


 * You can only be signed up for two games at a time. If you are signed up for two games and try to sign up for another one, you will need to unroster from one of the games you're already signed up for to sign up for a new one.
 * All the missions you are signed up for at any given time must be in the same tier. Rosterbot enforces this using your server nickname, which includes your level; if your listed level does not match up with the level requirements for a mission you're signed up for, the Rosterbot will automatically remove you from the game (sometimes, the bot doesn't do this too well, in which case it is on the player or DM to remove the player from the roster).

The bot will send you a message about 2 hours before the start of the game to remind you to join. At least 30 minutes before the start of the game, make sure you do the following:
 * 1) Join the game on Roll20.
 * 2) As mentioned before, when you use the  command on RosterBot, one of pieces of information that appears is the link to the game near the bottom right. Click on that link.
 * 3) Note the name of the game here; it should be the biggest text on the screen. You'll need it for later.
 * 4) Finally, click the big pink "Launch Game" button.
 * 5) Change your display name in the game to your Roll20 name.
 * 6) Export your character from the Tier 1 barracks to the game.
 * 7) Go to your character vault and click on "Import Existing Character." Then, select "Barracks Tier " in the dropdown select, where   is the Tier of your character, and then the name of your character in the dropdown that appears below that. Finally, click "Import Character."
 * 8) Click on the "Choose a game..." dropdown select menu on the right of the character you just imported. Then, from the dropdown, choose the name of the Roll20 game you joined that I mentioned you'd need later. Finally, click the biue "Export to Game" button.
 * 9) Make sure to keep an eye on the text channel referred to earlier. Before the game starts, please make sure that all your technology is working and that the push-to-talk (PTT) option is enabled; you can find a great guide on Discord's audio settings here.

XP and Leveling
Once you've played in a game, your PC gains XP as long as your PC is alive at its end. If your PC died, don't worry: Your PC will simply gain the XP once they are resurrected. Instead of D&D's XP system, however, we instead count the number of "full games" a PC has participated in to determine level progression. "Full games" here are defined as games that last between 3 and 5.5 hours. Each game awards participating PCs XP based on their duration: Your PC will level up from level 3 to level 4 when they have played 4 full game equivalents; you can read more about PC leveling here. Record the number of full game equivalents in which your PC has participated in your Roll20 character sheet experience field:After you've played in a game, you may choose not to earn XP from it, effectively pausing your XP accumulation. If you choose to do this, declare that you are doing so in the #downtime-final channel. When you are ready to unpause your XP accumulation, similarly declare so in the same #downtime-final channel. 'Note that you do not'' retroactively gain the XP you forwent while paused when you unpause. The XP is lost forever.'''
 * Games ranging from 1.5 to 3 hours ("half games") award 0.5 times a full game's equivalent of XP.
 * Games ranging from 3 to 5.5 hours ("full games") award a full game's equivalent of XP.
 * Games ranging from 5.5 to 7 hours award 1.5 times a full game's equivalent of XP.
 * Games ranging from 7 to 9.5 hours award 2 times a full game's equivalent of XP.

On this server, we use the number of full game equivalents played to track character leveling as described in the following table: For example, to level up from level 3 to 4, a character must play in 4 full game equivalents. To level up from level 4 to level 5, they must play in an additional 5 full game equivalents, for a total of 9 since being created.

We also have a post-20 system for levelling up beyond level 20, as well. After level 20, your character will level up once for every 10 full game equivalents they play. When a post-20 character levels up, they do not get additional class levels but instead receive one of the following for each gained level:


 * An Ability Score Increase (ASI) of a +2 to any one ability score or +1 to any two ability scores up to a maximum ability score of 30.
 * A feat.
 * An "Epic Boon" from the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG)
 * A "Blessing" from the DMG or Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (IDRotF)
 * A "Charm" from the DMG, IDRotF, or Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica (GGR). Charms with limited usages are still expended upon usage.
 * A "Draconic Gift" from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (FTD)
 * A "Dark Gift" from Curse of Strahd (CoS) or Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (VRGR)
 * A "Piety Boon" from Mythic Odysseys of Theros (MOT). Only one trait per ASI, Devotee, Disciple, or Votary level.
 * A "Supernatural Gift" from MOT or Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (EGW).
 * A "Fragment of Suffering" from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (CRCotN)

Priority
The Rosterbot keeps track of the games you've played throughout the week, recording the number of full games you've played as a number called your "priority." The lower your priority—the fewer games you've played in the week—the better your chance is of staying on the roster for future games you sign up in. When more people want to be on the roster for a game than there is space, the Rosterbot automatically prioritizes people with lower priorities—that is, people who have played fewer games.

Your priority automatically resets to 0 at the beginning of each week (specifically, Monday at 12 AM UTC); an announcement is made in #game-date-time, #rosterbot-players, and #rosterbot-gm when this happens. If you're part of a game that ends less than 1.5 hours after the reset time, however, your priority does not go up.

Gold and Mundane Items
At the completion of a game, in addition to XP, PCs will receive a division of the mundane loot and money found in the game, totalling up to these standard limits per player for a full game:


 * 1) Tier 1: 80gp
 * 2) Tier 2: 280gp
 * 3) Tier 3: 1000gp
 * 4) Tier 4: 5000gp

The limits are halved for half games, 1.5x for 1.5 games, and 2x for double games as described in the XP and Leveling section. On the "successful" completion of a mission, the DM must reward a minimum of half the standard limit for the game. What constitutes a success is up to the DM, but in general, if the players worked towards a main objective of a session and came out alive, they should be rewarded.

Magic Item Loot
A DM may alternatively "drop" magic items in a game your PC participates in. When this happens, you do not automatically earn and keep the magic item as you would with the rest of your loot. For your PC to actually gain the magic item and use it in future games, you must pay for the item according to its rarity, minor/major classification, and whether it's a permanent item or consumable item as described by the table below; you can find our classifications for each magic item here. If the magic item has some sort of base item (i.e. the base item for a +1 greatsword would be a mundane greatsword), add the book price of the base item to the cost. If the item is a spell scroll or spellwrought tattoo, the cost to take them out of game is: Some more rules regarding buying magic items out of games are:


 * You can only buy up to one permanent magic item to take out of each game.
 * You have up to 60 minutes at the end of a game to finalize your purchases.
 * To buy a magic item out of a game in this way, you must have the GP on hand at the end of the game. This can include GP borrowed from other players in that game, but can't include any transactions that occurred in the guild since the game started.
 * If a non-recharging, limited use magic item is being purchased out of game with less than the full uses, its cost is prorated accordingly. For example, if you’re buying a Necklace of Fireballs that only has 7 beads you’d pay 7/9 of the full cost (rounded up to the nearest copper).
 * If more than one person wants the same item, each person rolls 1d100 and the player with the highest roll can buy it. If multiple items are contested, then each player rolls 1d100 once, and in descending order of rolls, each person picks one item to buy, until all items are decided.

When you've decided you want to buy a magic item to take out of a game, make a post in the #player-trade-finalized channel stating so, mentioning your PC's name, the item they're buying, and the DM of the game you're buying the item from. Also make sure to state the cost you pay for the item, your gold before the transaction, and your gold after the transaction.

For example, if Cirdan wanted to buy a Pearl of Power (an permanent major uncommon magic item), he might make a post that says

Report Writers
Each game must select one player to serve as the mission report writer. If a player volunteers to write the report, they gain inspiration on that character. If multiple players volunteer, only the one who actually ends up selected gains inspiration.

After the game, the report writer must make a post in the #-reports channel where  is the DM's name. Make sure to include the following information in your reports:


 * The Rosterbot game ID
 * @mention each player and then write in plain text the name of their character, as pictured below:




 * A summary of the game's events. Try to keep this succinct, but if you've got a good long tale to tell, include a TLDR abstract at the start. If your summary looks like it's going to be more than 2 posts long, just include the abstract in the main post and put the long version in a thread.

Upon writing the reward, the player's PC who played in the game also gains bonus gold equal to 1/4 the standard limit for the money for the game, as delineated in the Gold and Mundane Items loot section:


 * 1) Tier 1: 20gp
 * 2) Tier 2: 70gp
 * 3) Tier 3: 250gp
 * 4) Tier 4: 1250gp

Naturally, if the game is a half game, the report reward is half the amounts listed above. Similarly, if the game is a double game, the report reward is doubled.

Inspiration
Any inspiration you gain in a game disappears at the end of the game; they do not carry over into future games or games run by other DMs. The DM may make exceptions where inspiration they grant may carry over into future games run by that DM, but even then that inspiration cannot carry over into games run by other DMs.

Lasting/long-term effect
Any lasting effects applied to a character in a game session remain in effect only in that DMs game session; for example, if your character is stricken with a deadly disease then it cannot be cured outside of the DM’s game in which the disease was contracted. Additionally, the disease will not necessarily carry over into other DMs’ games. This same concept is applied when receiving beneficial lasting effects such as blessings. The only exception to this is death. Death may still be reversible in camp.

Spectating Games
DMs are often happy to have non-playing players watch or listen in to a game. Send them a @mention mention in their text channel to ask if it's okay to listen in or watch.

If you spectate in this way, you are expected to remain silent in the voice chat and respectful in the in-game text chat. You may be given control of a spectator token to watch the game. Be respectful of the DM’s storytelling and the players’ experience of it, and don’t abuse this privilege. You must obey the DM’s rules and expectations or you’ll be kicked from the game (and possibly given a warning about your behaviour).

Legendary Quests
When one of your characters reaches Tier 3, you can request a "legendary quest" (LQ) for them by pinging @Batdaf in #mission-ideas, posting the desired legendary item and the character who wants it. An LQ is a set of at least four full game equivalents that culminate in obtaining a desired legendary magic item; the LQ can start in Tier 3 but must involve at least two full game equivalents in Tier 4. After pinging @Batdaf, wait for a DM to volunteer to run the LQ, then organize a party of characters within your tier to go on the missions.

Some rules regarding LQs are as follows:


 * Each character only gets on LQ, and thus, only one legendary item.
 * Only one of your characters can be having an LQ at a time.
 * The missions should be designed to be very deadly.
 * Most legendary magic items are available to choose, except for unique (named) legendary items already in the possession of another PC. The available legendary items include Matt Mercer's "Exalted" legendary items and FTD's "Ascendant" legendary items.
 * When deciding to quest for a legendary item that is a melee weapon, you can make it a different melee weapon, or if it's a ranged weapon, you can make it a different ranged weapon. For example, if you wanted to quest for a holy avenger which are typically only available as swords, you could quest for a holy avenger halberd. Note, however, that an item that may be used as a weapon but is not specifically a weapon cannot be changed into another weapon type.
 * Other item types received can be similarly changed within their same type. For example, a magic staff could be changed to a different focus (arcane or druidic), a musical instrument could be changed from one instrument to another (like a horn to a lute), etc.
 * Since legendary items are meant to be one per character, they cannot be:
 * Loaned to other characters (in-game is fine, as is any situation where it’s done for a temporary purpose, such as storing a spell for the item’s owner to use, even if attunement is required to do so, so long as it is given back to the owning character immediately after)
 * Deconstructed/Crafted
 * Sold
 * Donated
 * An exception to the above is that if a consumable legendary is quested for, at the end of the quest the character will acquire not only 1 copy of the item, but also the recipe if they wish to craft more for the future. Future crafted copies can still only be used by the character that quested for the item. It costs 125 DTD and 50,000 gp to make each additional copy.

Player Trade
Use the #trade-chat channel to discuss trades and services, and use #player-trade-finalized to declare final decisions. Adhere to the following rules when doing so:


 * For a trade to be valid, both parties must state their agreement in #player-trade-finalized. Both parties must state the names of the characters involved (including a @mention of the other party), what their gold total was before the transaction, the items and gold transferred, and what their gold total is after the transaction. For example:   or, on the other end,
 * Players are responsible for tracking and managing their own PCs' inventory, gold, and downtime.
 * PCs owned by the same player cannot interact with each other in the player economy.
 * A player cannot trade to a 3rd party that will return said item to players 2nd character. No traded item may be traded back to a PC owned by the player whose PC traded it, regardless of intermediate trades.
 * Giving a magic item to another player for the purposes of deconstruction is considered a trade, as long as a copy of the same item is immediately returned to the first player. Any additional fees may be charged for this trade at the mutual consent of the players involved.

If you're not managing your crafting and trading correctly, you will be warned. If you continue making mistakes or seem to be making them intentionally, you may be banned from the player economy. When in doubt or if you have any questions about trading, post in the #questions channel.

Buying and Selling Between Players

 * Players cannot trade items amongst themselves for free; i.e. a PC cannot give away an item to another PC for free. When selling any item (magical or otherwise), you must charge a minimum price of 50% of the base crafting cost (in other words, 25% of the book value for the item).
 * Each player can have one Forum Post in each of the PT forums. Under that post they can create as many messages as they need, but other players are not to post on someone else’s forum page.
 * #pt-sell-mundane-items is for advertising your mundane item offers or wishlists
 * #pt-sell-magic-permanent is for advertising your permanent magic item offers or wishlists
 * #pt-sell-magic-consumable is for advertising your consumable magic item offers or wishlists
 * #pt-services is for advertising your PC's services (such as crafting or shopping services as described in the Downtime section)

Item Loans

 * Characters may lend any item, magical or otherwise, to another character in your tier or above.
 * The minimum length of an item loan is 1 (real-time) week.
 * Attaching fees to a loan to make it a rental is allowed. Any such fee agreed on by both parties is allowed.
 * You can loan a consumable item, but if it is used by the borrower, it is now considered a sale and the minimum sale price (or a higher agreed upon price) must be exchanged (if it didn’t already).
 * If either the borrower or lender retires or dies, the item must immediately be returned to the lender (i.e. it will be buried with their corpse or in lieu of it). However, if the borrower dies and the body is NOT retrieved, the item is lost as well.
 * Like any trade, you must declare all item loans in #player-trade-finalized, including your before and after gold totals if money was exchanged.

Money Loans

 * Money loans are allowed, but there is a limit on it based on the tier of the borrower. The following are the totals a PC can have borrowed at a time:
 * Tier 1: 125gp
 * Tier 2: 500gp
 * Tier 3: 2,500gp
 * Tier 4: 15,000gp
 * Once you reach the above cap, you cannot borrow more gp until you’ve paid some off.
 * Like any trade, you must declare all loans in #player-trade-finalized, including your before and after gold totals. Make posts both when the loan is first made, as well as when it is paid back.

Player Services

 * You are allowed to offer services to other characters (downtime activities, spellcasting, class abilities, etc), but are limited by the tier of the beneficiary character. A character can only receive a service if it can be done by a character in their same tier.
 * For example, a Tier 1 character cannot get a higher level character to cast a spell of 3rd level or higher to benefit them (like Continual Flame spell) or benefit from a class feature that only comes from a level above Tier 1 (or is strengthened at a level above Tier1).
 * Revival Services (Revivify, Raise Dead, etc), and Item Creation/Acquisition Services (Fabricate, Shopping) ignore this rule.
 * To announce your availability to provide such services, visit the #downtime-roles channel and react to the posts listing the roles you want with the proper Reactions. Click the Reaction again if you want/need to remove the role from yourself.
 * To get such a service, go to #trade-chat and @ the appropriate role.
 * Another player’s character can cover the costs to revive your character, but you must reimburse them at least 25% of the costs paid (if any) if the revival is done out of game.

NPC Shops
An NPC merchant named Anastasia resides near in the Bright Dawn camp, with whom you can trade along the following rules:


 * You can sell mundane items to Anastasia for 25% of its book value.
 * You can also buy spell components up to a maximum book value of 250gp from Anastasia for twice their book value.
 * You can buy any other mundane items from Anastasia for twice their book value.
 * Anastasia is immune to any persuasion or enchantment. Offend her at your own peril.

Downtime
Each PC has a pool of downtime days (DTD) that they can use for crafting, training, or any of the other downtime activities described in this section; the DTD are lost if the character retires or dies permanently.

Use the #downtime-chat channel to discuss downtime activities, and use #downtime-final to declare final decisions or changes to your downtime; when you make posts in #downtime-final, make sure to include your DTD before and after the activity, as well as your gold before and after the activity if you spent any in the process. As stated before, players are responsible for tracking and managing their own PCs' inventory, gold, and downtime.

DTD accumulates over time if not used; you do not need to spend it immediately each week upon claiming it. However, you must actively claim it each week to gain it.

We allow a number of downtime activities based on the ones described in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGE), including Buying a Magic Item, Selling a Magic Item, Crafting, Gambling, Pit Fighting, Training, and Research; when adapting these activities from XGE, we counted a workweek as 5 days, the number of DTD you receive each week. You can also use downtime to repair damaged weapons/armor or to respec your character.
 * 5 DTD can be earned for each character who is not dead, retired, or captured during each weekly period between Priority resets. Look out for the announcement made in #game-date-time, #rosterbot-players, and #rosterbot-gm when this happens.
 * To officially earn this DTD, make a post in #downtime-final by declaring your total DTD before and after the claim for each of your characters. For example, a player with two characters—Sven, who has 5 DTD, and June, who has 12 DTD, might make the following post to claim their weekly DTD:""
 * If you fail to claim your DTD during a weekly period, you lose the opportunity to claim that DTD.

Skill checks, ability checks, or even attack rolls made for downtime activities can only include bonuses (flat bonuses, dX bonuses, or even advantage) that do not require any resources, spells, or action economy. For example, you can’t apply Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, or any similar class feature that grants a bonus to a single check, but you can apply something like a Mark Subrace’s bonus as those are permanent and apply to all applicable checks. The reason for this is downtime activity, while often a single roll, reflects more than a single effort made to accomplish the task.

Buying a Magic Item
One of the means to acquire magic items is by spending DTD and money to go out into the world and look for sellers. For this downtime activity, we had adapted the XGE "Buying a Magic Item" activity, though with significant modifications. We have separate rule sets for buying a specific magic item or simply going shopping for mulitple random magic items. Some rules that apply to both, however, include:


 * The character performing the downtime is limited in the max rarity of item they can seek based on their tier: Tier 1 characters cannot buy higher than Uncommon, Tier 2 characters cannot buy higher than Rare. Tier 3 and 4 characters can buy up to Very Rare (Legendary items are not available for purchase, only through special quest lines).
 * The Bag of Beans is not available for purchase with the "Buying a Magic Item" downtime activity. If it is rolled on a random table, reroll that result.
 * The Player Services limitation applies to the rarity of an item that can be bought via another player offering to use their downtime for this use.

The rules for buying a specific magic item are as follows:


 * 1) Confirm that you have enough downtime and money to go shopping for the item. In addition to the base money and DT cost of the activity described in the "Buying a Specific Item" table below, to actually get the item, you will also need to pay for the rolled price for the item in addition to these fees—the "Asking Price" column of the table. Note that we have a separate table for scroll and spellwrought tattoo (SWT) asking prices, as well.
 * 2) You will need to make a witnessed Persuasion check with a DC depending on the item's rarity, as listed in the "Buying a Specific Item" table below, to have the opportunity to buy the item.
 * 3) Decide how much gold or extra downtime you want to use to boost your Persuasion roll. For every extra 100gp or 5 DTD spent on the search, you gain a +1 bonus to your roll, up to a maximum bonus of +10.
 * 4) When ready to roll, ping a @viceroy in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot chat to witness the roll. Declare what item you are looking to buy and break down your Persuasion modifier for the viceroy, listing out your charisma mod, proficiency bonus if applicable, any gold you're spending to boost your roll, and any other bonuses you have to Persuasion checks.
 * 5) Once the viceroy is ready to witness, use the   command in the channel to roll the Persuasion check. You can read instructions on how to use the command by just typing   and pressing enter. The command will tell you what you rolled for the Persuasion check, whether you successfully found a seller for the item, and the price they offered you.
 * 6) Decide on whether you want to buy the item at the offered price and tell the viceroy your decision. Regardless of whether you decide to buy the item, however, the DTD cost, base money cost of the activity, and any gold or DTD you spent for boosting your roll has already been spent.
 * 7) Whether you bought the item or not, make a post in #downtime-final listing out whether you bought the item or not, as well as your PC's expended resources used in the endeavor. For example, if a PC named Aisha went shopping for a Chest of Preserving, her player might make the following post:

On the other hand, the rules for rolling random magic items you may want to buy are:


 * 1) Confirm that you have enough downtime and money to go shopping for the item. In addition to the base cost of the activity of 100gp and 5 DTD, you will also need to pay for the rolled price for the items you choose to buy in addition to these fees depending on each item's rarity, as listed in the "Buying a Specific Item" table.
 * 2) You will need to make a witnessed Persuasion check, with the roll deciding how which magic item tables (A-H) you're allowed to roll on as listed out in the "Buying Random Items" table.
 * 3) Decide how much gold or time you want to use to boost your Persuasion roll. For every extra 100gp or 5 DTD spent on the search, you gain a +1 bonus to your roll, up to a maximum bonus of +10.
 * 4) When ready to roll, ping a @viceroy in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot chat to witness the roll. Declare that you are going to shop for random magic items and break down your Persuasion modifier for the viceroy, listing out your charisma mod, proficiency bonus if applicable, any gold you're spending to boost your roll, and any other bonuses you have to Persuasion checks.
 * 5) Once the viceroy is ready to witness, use the   command in the channel to roll the Persuasion check. You can read instructions on how to use the command by just typing   and pressing enter. The command will tell you what you rolled for the Persuasion check, which magic item tables you are allowed to roll on, and a   command you can use to roll on that table in the channel.
 * 6) Decide on whether you want to buy any of the items at the offered prices and tell the viceroy your decision. Regardless of whether you decide to buy the items, however, the DT cost, base money cost of the activity, and any gold or DTD you spent for boosting your roll has already been spent.
 * 7) Whether you buy any of the items or not, make a post in #downtime-final listing out which items you bought if any, as well as your PC's expended resources used in the endeavor.

Selling a Magic Item
If you wish to sell one of your magic items but do not want to sell it to a PC, you can use an adapted version of the "Selling a Magic Item" downtime activity as described in XGE to look for potential buyers in the wider world. For each item you try to sell, you must spend 25gp + downtime according to the item's rarity or scroll/SWT level as described in the following table: Determine the base price for the item based on the table above; once you've done that, you will need to make a Persuasion check to see what fraction of the base price you are able to actually sell the item for, as described in the table below: When ready to roll, ping a @viceroy in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot chat to witness the roll. Declare that you are going to be selling a magic item, which magic item you're selling, and break down your Persuasion modifier for the viceroy, listing out your charisma mod, proficiency bonus if applicable, any gold you're spending to boost your roll, and any other bonuses you have to Persuasion checks.

Once the viceroy is ready to witness, use the command in the channel to roll the Persuasion check. You can read instructions on how to use the command by just typing  and pressing enter. The command will tell you what you rolled for the Persuasion check and the actual money you were offered by the buyer.

Decide on whether you want to sell the item at the offered prices and tell the viceroy your decision. Regardless of whether you decide to sell the item, however, the DT and money cost of the activity has already been spent. So, whether you buy any of the items or not, make a post in #downtime-final noting which item you sold if you decided to sell, as well as your PC's expended resources used in the endeavor.

Crafting
Our crafting rules are mostly adapted from Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGE), but with some alterations. Adhere to the following rules when crafting items:


 * Most items require a money and DTD expenditure to craft. When crafting an item, make sure to make a post in #downtime-final describing the item crafted, your DTD before and after crafting the item, and your gold total before and after crafting the item.
 * Players can come to an agreement to craft items together by sharing the time, cost and profit from sale of a crafted item. However, only one player can “own” the item, and the item can only be sold or loaned to others.

Crafting Mundane Items

 * In order to craft mundane items, you may be required to have certain tool proficiencies; for example, to craft plate armor, you need proficiency with smith's tools. Refer to this list to see what tool proficiencies are required for crafting what items.
 * The cost of crafting a mundane (non-magical) item is money equal to half the crafted item's book value + DTD equal to the crafted item's book value divided by 40gp.
 * Often times, things will only take a fraction of a day to complete. You can only spend DTD in whole numbers, but you can add in other projects so remaining fractions of the day can get used. For instance, if you spend 0.25 DTD making a shield you must spend at least 1 DTD; however, you can still make a longsword and 3 steel mirrors to use up the other 0.75 of the spent DTD, but it must all be allocated in the same post.
 * Animals and mounts are included in the "items" that can be “crafted” by following these rules; to do so, your PC must have proficiency in the Animal Handling skill. Warhorses can be trained with proficiency in a specific barding type, as if they were one of the variant options listed in the PHB/MM.

Crafting Packs

 * In a game, part of the loot may take the form of Crafting Packs. These can be used to substitute for the gold cost component of mundane crafting.
 * Crafting Packs are per Tool (e.g., “Smith’s Crafting Pack”, “Herbalist’s Crafting Pack”).
 * Crafting Packs can replace some or all of the crafting cost of the work (e.g. if you want to create a 100 gp pearl and have 50 gp of Jeweler’s Crafting Packs, you don’t need to provide any additional gold. If you have 25 gp of Jeweler’s Packs you’d use that and 25 gold to reach the crafting price of 50 gp).
 * Crafting Packs reduce the time needed to craft mundane items, as some of it is spent gathering/refining materials. For every 40 gp worth of crafting packs, the DTD cost of the creation is reduced by 1. For example, if you’re making a set of plate mail, which normally takes 38 (37.5) DTD, and have 750 in crafting packs, you reduce the time spent by 18.75 (750/40), so you only need 19 days instead of 38. You can’t reduce the time needed to 0 DTD, although you could reduce it to a fraction of a day. You’d still need to spend 1 DTD, although you can craft other things that take up the remaining fraction of the day using the same 1 DTD.
 * If the item being produced requires multiple tools, any one crafting pack type can only reduce the crafting costs by a percentage of all costs based on the number of tools needed. E.g. if a product needs 2 different tools and you only have crafting packs for 1 type, the maximum you can only reduce costs is for half of the product, the other half would need normal crafting rules applied.
 * Besides obtaining them from games, players can also create 40 gp worth of Crafting Pack for each 1 DTD and 40 gp spent on the creation.
 * You can also salvage any mundane item into a crafting pack worth half the item's value and for a tool used in the item’s construction. There's no gold cost to do this but you do need the tools on hand and must spend 1 DTD for every 80 gold value in the created crafting pack(s), and as always announce it in #downtime-final.
 * You can salvage multiple items into different categories of crafting packs, so long as the total value made does not exceed 80 gp for a single DTD spent, for example you can salvage a suit of scale mail into 25 gp in smiths’ crafting packs, and 10 quarterstaves into 10 gp in woodcarvers’ crafting packs in the same DTD, with time to spare for more salvaging (or crafting).

Crafting Magic Items

 * To craft a magic item (other than scrolls or spellwrought tattoos), your PC must know the formula for the item. Formulas are obtained by deconstruction:
 * To learn a magic item formula, you must deconstruct the item; to do this, your PC must either be proficient in Arcana or have the correct tool proficiency for crafting the item.
 * Deconstructing the item requires spending DTD and gold equal to the amount it would take to craft that magic item, and upon deconstructing the item, the item is destroyed, but you learn the item's formula.
 * When deconstructing a magic item with limited, non-recharging uses (e.g. Keoghtom's Ointment), the item must have the full amount of uses in order to yield a formula upon deconstruction.
 * To craft a magic item, your PC must expend gold and DTD according to its rarity, minor/major classification, and whether it's a permanent item or consumable item as described by the table below; you can find our classifications for each magic item here. If the magic item has some sort of base mundane item (i.e. the base item for a +1 greatsword would be a mundane greatsword), you must also provide that base mundane item as part of the crafting process, whether by crafting it yourself according to the Crafting Mundane Items rules or by buying it from an NPC or other PC.




 * If you're crafting a magic item with randomly rolled properties (such as with the Robe of Useful Items), those rolls must be made with a @viceroy 's supervision in #bot-channel-no-rosterbot.

Crafting Spell Scrolls and Spellwrought Tattoos

 * Scribing scrolls and crafting SWTs follows the “Scribing a Spell Scroll” activity in XGE, although crafting tattoos costs twice the gold and downtime.
 * To craft spell scrolls or spellwrought tattoos (SWTs), your PC must have proficiency in the Arcana skill and must either have the spell prepared, or it must be among the character's known spells.




 * When a spell has materials showing a GP value, those components must be crafted or purchased from the relevant crafters and consumed in the crafting process if normally consumed in the casting.
 * This method only applies to Spellwrought Tattoos, not any other kind of tattoo. Other tattoos are crafted using the normal Crafting Magic Items activities.

Gambling
We use the "Gambling" rules from XGE when PCs wish to use downtime to gamble their money. Ping a @viceroy in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot channel to witness before making your gambling rolls; tell them you would like to gamble, how many weeks you'd like to gamble, how much money you will be betting per week, and explain all your relevant skill check modifiers. You can use the  command to automate the downtime activity.

Pit Fighting
We use the "Pit Fighting" rules from XGE when PCs wish to use downtime to box, wrestle, or engage in other nonlethal competitive matches. Ping a @viceroy in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot channel to witness before making your gambling rolls; tell them you would like to pit fight, how many weeks you'd like to pit fight, and explain all your relevant skill check modifiers. You can use the  command to automate the downtime activity.

Training
Players can use their downtime to train their character in a new language, tool or instrument proficiency as described in the “Training” rules in XGE:"Receiving training in a language or tool typically takes at least ten [5 DTD] workweeks, but this time is reduced by a number of workweeks equal to the character's Intelligence modifier (an Intelligence penalty doesn't increase the time needed). Training costs 25 gp per workweek."Training doesn’t automatically grant you the relevant tools or instruments. You will still need to acquire these from missions, other crafters, or making them yourself.

Research
We typically use the "Research" rules from XGE when PCs wish to use downtime to discover lore about certain subjects. When doing research for something relevant to a game, the DM/Training DM of that game will witness the research roll in place of a Viceroy. Nonetheless, the rolls should still be done in the #bot-channel-no-rosterbot channel.

Repairs
You can also use your DTD to repair your weapons or armor if they have been damaged. If your weapon/armor takes a permanent penalty due to a rust monster or the like, you can repair it by following these steps:


 * 1) Take 25% of the item's book value.
 * 2) Multiply that value by the % of your weapon/armor that is gone. This will give you the amount of gold you need to spend to fully repair the item.
 * 3) Take that amount of gold and divide by 40, rounding up. That's how many downtime days it will take to fully repair the item.

For example: Suppose you have plate armor that accrued a -4 penalty to its AC bonus while fighting a rust monster. The book value of plate armor is 1500gp, and 25% of that is 375gp. Plate armor would be destroyed once it gains a penalty of -8, so it is considered 4/8=50% destroyed. Taking 50% of 375gp, we get 187.5gp as the total monetary cost of the repair. Dividing that by 40 and rounding up, we get 10 downtime days needed to fully repair the armor.

Character Respecs
You can respec your character in three different ways: the free T1 respec, subclass retraining, and the respec merchant. Separate from these respecs, you may also change your PC's name at any time, though you must ping the @High Viceroy and let them know before you do so.

The Free T1 respec
If you have a new T1 PC, you may respec them once for free while they are in T1. With this respec, you may change anything about their build; however, regardless of what you change, the PC's equipment and gold remains unchanged. If you change your class or background as part of the respec, you do not get the associated starting equipment. One exception to this is that you gain a spellbook if you take a level in wizard you didn’t have before the respec.

Once you've edited your character sheet for the respec, ping a @viceroy and list all the changes you've made to your character. The sheet must be reapproved before you can play with the PC again.

Subclass Retraining
You can retrain your subclass as described in the "Changing Your Subclass" section of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (TCE). Specifically, it follows the following rules:


 * The change must be made when leveling up your character to a class level where a subclass feature is granted; not every level you gain in that class is eligible.
 * You must expend DTD equal to twice your new level in the relevant class, as well as gold equal to 100gp × your new level in the relevant class. For example, if you're a sorcerer who wishes to retrain your sorcerous origin, you can do so as early as going from level 5 to level 6, which would cost 12 days and 600 gp.
 * Besides using it to change your subclass to a different one, you can alternatively use retraining to choose the same subclass but choose different options for it (different dragon-type for draconic bloodline sorcerer, or different totems for totem warrior barbarian).

Character Respec
If you find something about your character build not working, you can change it by paying gold and downtime days to our mysterious Respec Merchant (This Respec Merchant is not actually a character but simply what we refer to this mechanic; you may explain away the RP reasons for your respec however you wish).

The costs are as follows: Some additional rules that pertain to using this Respec Merchant include:


 * A PC can use the Respec Merchant's services at any time. When done editing your sheet, make a single post in the Respec Merchant Log Thread pinging a @viceroy to review your change and give a detailed account of the changes made, as well as the associated cost. Once the viceroy sends you a message that it's approved, post the payment of said changes in #⁠downtime-final.
 * Your sheet must be legible in accordance with the initial sheet approval standards for a full check, so watch out for any customization as the viceroys will have liberty to deny you a review until you have provided a properly formatted sheet. They don't know your sheet the way you do, don't make their work harder.
 * Regardless of what you change, your PC’s gold and equipment should remain unchanged. One exception to this is that you gain a spellbook if you take a level in wizard you didn’t have before the respec.
 * When respeccing levels you roll them back chronologically. So, for example, if you are level 16 and decide to respec 2 levels, you get to redo levels 15 and 16 and all choices that regard them.
 * If you are multiclassed, you are considered to have leveled all classes at the same time and may pick which one(s) you want to redo. For example, suppose you took 4 levels in Fighter and then took 4 levels in Barbarian. Chronologically, the Barbarian levels came later, but to avoid the sometimes difficult tracking of what class levels were taken when, they are all considered to have happened concurrently. If you wish to redo 2 levels, you need only choose which class to respec (2 levels of fighter, 2 levels of barbarian or 1 level of each).
 * Any change you make must result in a legal build.
 * If you have a sim of a PC and changes are made via the respec merchant to that PC, then the sim changes to match.

Spellcaster Hours
Many spells take an hour or more to cast and are unlikely to be done in-game. Other spells have a duration longer than the time that passes in a typical game (24 hours or more). For casting spells outside of games, all PCs have a pool of 24 hours (a separate 24 hour pool for each character) called "Spellcaster Hours," which can be used for the following activities and reset at midnight UTC to 24 hours on Sunday each week:


 * Casting spells with a semi-permanent, instantaneous effect (like Leomund’s Secret Chest), or spells that last “until dispelled” (like Continual Flame).
 * Scribing spells into spellbooks or using other class features that last indefinitely (like the Right Tool for the Job feature for Artificers) or make permanent effects (like Forge Clerics’ Artisan’s Blessing).

You must adhere to the following rules when using these Spellcaster Hours:


 * Unlike downtime, you can spend your Spellcaster Hours in as granular as 1 second increments. However, if your spell or activity requires more time than you have left in Spellcaster Hours, you must use your DTD in minimum 1 day increments to provide the missing time.
 * Players have one rest's worth of spell slots and/or class features to use in that week.
 * Player's can't refresh their slots or other resources by short or long rests, class features (e.g. Arcane Recovery or Channel Divinity, etc) or magic items (Pearl of Power, etc)
 * Declare your spellcasting in #sunday-spellcaster-special, stating the character name, the activity, time taken, and your total Spellcaster Hours before and after the activity.

Spells with Repeated Castings
If a spell can be cast daily for X number of consecutive days to become permanent, it can be done with Spellcaster Hours. To do this, lock out the spellslot in question to represent you casting it each day. That means that you can’t use that spell slot in games, either, until you complete the required time for casting (real world days) or you decide to stop casting the spell. Either way, make sure declare your continued casting and slot lockout in #Sunday-Spellcaster-Special.

Similarly, if the spell can be cast weekly for X number of consecutive weeks to become permanent, it can be done with Spellcaster Hours.

Spells that Create Buildings
Spells that create buildings or have large terrain-altering effects (Temple of the Gods, Druid Grove, Mirage Arcana, etc.) cast out of game can only impact out of game roleplay (i.e. they cannot be used to create a clan or add to clan member capacity). In game, uses for the spells would be up to individual DMs and the circumstances of the games. As they are only functional for roleplay purposes, they provide no mechanical benefits if any games take place in the guild camp, unless the DM for that game decides otherwise.

Scribing Spells to a Spellbook
When scribing a spell to a spellbook (or a ritual caster's ritual book or a tome warlock's Book of Shadows) you must spend the required 50 gp and 2 Spellcasting hours per spell level (which may be modified by class features).

When doing this, you must make a post in #sunday-spellcaster-special listing the number of hours and gold spent. Like downtime and trade posts, list your before and after totals of the relevant resources (downtime, gold, and Spellcasting hours) in the post.

Spell Durations
Spells cast in-game may have durations longer than the time used in a game. Use these rules to calculate when a spell starts and ends:


 * For each irl day in which you don't play a game: -24 hours from the duration
 * For each game you play: -24 hours from the duration
 * For each day that passed in a game: -24 hours from the duration

Spells and effects that have a total or remaining duration less than 24 hours do not carry forward into future games.

Any spell with a duration of 24 hours or more with a base level of 6th level or higher requires @Admin approval to have any effect beyond Roleplay. Current approved spells include: Simulacrum, True Polymorph, and Wish. See the Rules FAQs for more information on stipulations for these spells.

Example: Ceremony Spell

 * 1) It is Sunday, May 4th 2023, shortly after the Spellcasting hours reset. Sven, a paladin PC, wishes to cast the spell Ceremony out of game on two of his friends who want to get married. Since the spell's duration is "Instataneous," it is eligible to be cast with Spellcasting hours, even though the wedding AC bonus effect will only last 7 days.
 * 2) Since the spell has a costly spell component, Sven sources the spell component, 25gp worth of powdered silver, either as loot from a game, buying it from another PC, or by crafting it.
 * 3) When Sven casts it out of game, his player declares the spell casting in #sunday-spellcaster-special, stating their relevant resources before and after casting the spell:
 * 4) The couple is now married and will gain a bonus to their AC for the next 7 days. If he does not play any game during that period, the AC bonus will end on May 11th, 2023.
 * 5) Suppose instead that he plays two games the next day; the first one is an exploration mission that stretches over three in-game days, while the second is a quick mission that lasts only 4 in-game hours. He must subtract a total of four days from the charm duration, so the end date for the charm would be May 7th, 2023.
 * 6) The day before the AC bonus effect ends, Sven considers playing in another game. However, if the AC bonus effect has less than 24 hours left, it cannot carry into that game. If he plays in the game, another 24 hours is subtracted from the effect's duration, ending the effect.

Houses
Players can join together to form player houses (aka "clans" or "factions") that cooperate for agreed outcomes; most houses offer various benefits to characters who join, such as gaining access to borrowing from the house's treasury. You can check the houses available to join in the #house-clan-recruitment channel; to join a house, direct message the poster of the house listing or @mention them in #general.

Some rules surrounding houses and their activities include:


 * Each character can only be in one house.
 * Any items (mundane or magic) can be donated to (or sold to) a house by a character. It is the house's responsibility to keep track of and maintain it’s inventory.
 * A house can give away any item worth 75gp or less for free to a member at any time. To take anything more expensive from a house, a player must follow the standard selling trading and borrowing rules.
 * For magic items: The magic items you can buy or borrow magic items from houses is limited by your Tier:
 * Tier 1: Common items only
 * Tier 2: Uncommon and below only
 * Tier 3: Rare and below only
 * Tier 4: Very Rare and below only
 * Each character can only have up to a total of 3 items borrowed from their house.
 * Characters may borrow consumables from a house, but if they are used, they must be paid for as if it were a sale (unless the consumable was under the aforementioned 75gp threshold)
 * Any money a house is donated or gains from selling is permanently the house's. A house cannot give away money.
 * A house can lend its money or use it to buy items, build buildings, etc. following the same rules and restrictions as characters.

Roleplaying Channels
Though we usually have a very wide variety of game styles, ranging from those heavier on roleplaying (RP) and those that focus more on combat, we also have text channels dedicated for out-of-game RP. These channels can be found under the "RP in Character" channel group:


 * #camp: For RPing in the general public areas of the camp.
 * #forest: For RPing in the forested areas near the camp's outskirts.
 * #tavern: For RPing in the camp's premier tavern, the "Twilight Tavern."
 * #graveyard: For RPing in the camp's graveyard; DMs will also often post there when characters die during their sessions.
 * #sparring-area: For RPing in the camp's sparring arenas.
 * #house-rp-chat: The guild has various "houses" or subgroups that your characters can join; read more about them here. The threads in this channel are for RPing within those individual houses.
 * #DMs-world: Every channel with a DM's name followed by "world" is a channel dedicated to RP concerning specific DMs and their personalized settings.

When using these channels, the default assumption is that your posts are in-character, so please keep any out-of-character remarks in parenthesis! Many of our players also use the Tupperbox Discord bot to enhance the RPing experience, which you can read about here.

Temporary Deaths and Temporary Characters
It's not uncommon for PCs to die during missions. If one of your PCs dies, guildmembers may be able to retrieve their corpse and gear and return it to the guild for possible resurrection at the deceased character’s expense. The DM determines whether recovery is possible at the end of the mission where the death(s) occurred (or shortly thereafter); they may sometimes post a rescue mission to retrieve the bodies.

If your PC is dead and not immediately able to be recovered, or if your PC has been captured and requires a rescue mission to be saved, you may create a temporary replacement PC to play with while you wait. When doing so, adhere to the following rules:


 * Your temporary character will follow the character creation rules described in the Replacement Character section.
 * If your PC is dead, if they want to be revived and can be revived, you do not qualify for a temporary character.
 * You may have only one temporary character at a time.
 * Your temporary character is immediately retired upon the revival/rescue alive of your regular character. However, if you want, you may choose to let your regular character stay dead (or retire after being rescued), and have the temporary character become a permanent replacement. Make sure to publicly declare such a decision in #starting-questions by pinging a @viceroy.
 * If your temporary character will be in Tier 4, they will only get the Tier 3 starting gold instead of the Tier 4 starting gold. They may receive the 15,000gp difference if they officially replace the old character and become permanent characters.

Permanent Death and Retirement
Though revivals are typically plentiful in the Bright Dawn guild, there will always be characters whose careers at the guild end, making them no longer PCs. This can happen via perma-death, a death where the PC either cannot be resurrected or you as a player do not want to resurrect them, or retirement, where the PC simply decides to leave the guild for one reason or another. When you plan to stop playing a character, you must abide by the following rules:

When one of your character retires or dies permanently, you may create a new character to replace them; to create this character, follow the rules in the Replacement Characters section.
 * Upon perma-death or retirement, all of the character's items disappear. You can roleplay them as having taking them into retirement or being buried with them, but they are effectively gone. You may sell your items right before retiring your character, but must charge at least their book price.
 * When you plan on retiring your character, you cannot suddenly donate everything you own to your house. If we catch you doing this, it will be retconned and you will get a warning. You may, however, donate up to one magic item to a house before retiring.

Replacement Characters
A replacement character can start at the lowest level of the tier of the old character or at the lowest level of a lower tier. If the old character died/retired at level 8-10, you may also chooe to start your replacement character at level 7. If the old character died/retired at level 14-16, you may also chooe to start your replacement character at level 13. Your replacement character always starts with the minimum number of games to reach their starting level (e.g. a level 7 character starts with 16 out of 21 games).

If your PC is in Tier 4 and is permanently dead without a means of resurrection or the equivalent—for example, if their soul has been permanently destroyed—you have an additional option for your character's starting level: You may choose for the replacement character to only have 50 games fewer XP than the old character, starting at the level that corresponds to that amount of XP.

When you're ready to ask for a replacement character, ping a @viceroy in the #starting-questions channel. Declare the reason why you're asking for a replacement character, whether it's because you're officially retiring an old character, accepting them as permanently dead, or waiting for them to be playable again and just want a temporary replacement character. Then, ask for a new sheet and create your new character following the steps described in the Character Creation section.

Taking a Break
At any time you can let us know you’re taking a break from the guild; in this case, we will give you the away-from-server tag, which will restrict your access to most channels while you are absent. Your guild downtime will then still accrue over time, although you’ll have to officially claim it when you return.

If you’ve also shown little activity in a long while (weeks), we may also put you in the away-from-server status. Characters/players set to away-from-server due to inactivity do not accrue downtime.

Either way, when you’re ready to return, send us a message in the #away-from-server channel and we'll bring you back in!

Roll20 Monster Book
Unlike character sheets which are kept in the Roll20 barracks games, all mounts and other companions are kept in the guild’s Roll20 Player Monster Book game. Please direct mesage or mention @PubliusII in #starting-questions for access.

Number of Companions
The number of mundane companions you can take with you on an adventure is 1 mount. The number of other companions that come from class features, spell casting, or magic items is not limited. An official mount that has been True Polymorphed into something else, however, is still considered "your mount" for bringing it into a game.

DMs may place further restrictions on bringing mounts and other companions into their game.

Creature Variants
In a game, when you summon a creature via a spell, you can summon a variant of that creature with DM permission. Out of game, a warhorse summoned via Find Steed or trained by an Animal Handling crafter is allowed to be a variant proficient in one particular kind of barding (caster’s choice).

Equipping Companions
When equipping companion creatures with items, magical or mundane, you must abide by the following rules:


 * Creatures can only use items that make sense for the creature. For example, a pegasus cannot use living gloves, since they do not have hands.
 * Companion creatures use the PC's attunement slots for magic items that require attunement. So, for example, if your PC has three total attunement slots and is attuned to two magic items, their companion creatures can only be attuned to a total of one magic item among all of them. Similarly, if one of their companion creatures is attuned to two items and another is attuned to two, the PC cannot be attuned to any magic items as all three of their attunement slots are full.
 * Companion creatures must take the time to attune to magic items they use if necessary.
 * ALL creatures are only proficient with items that appear in their stat blocks naturally (as described on page 9 of the Monster Manual). Equipping them with items they are not proficient with will impose penalties as described in pages 144-146 of the Player's Handbook. You may be able to summon

Helping with the Server
If you would like to help in the growth of the guild and enable DMs to spend more time making games, consider volunteering as a Viceroy, Knight or DM!

Viceroys
Viceroys, formerly known as "Squires," are the backbone of our guild's helpers, responding to @viceroy pings, helping new players join the server, and witnessing important dice rolls as described in the rest of this document. To become a viceroy, ping the @Admins in #dm-viceroy-signup and ask to be one. An admin will then grant you access to all the Roll20 barracks games where the server's character sheets are stored; they will also grant you access to the Character Approvals spreadsheet where you can log your work to receive viceroy tokens, which you can exchange for in-game gold and other rewards as described here.

Character Sheet Responsibilities
One of the primary and most important roles of viceroys, however, is handling the creation and approval of new character sheets. Whenever you decide to respond to a ping, make sure to react to the Discord message with the ✅ reaction to indicate to other viceroys that the request is being fulfilled.


 * Sheet creation: When someone pings a viceroy in #starting-questions saying verbatim,, create a sheet in the barracks of the correct tier for the character.
 * First approval: When someone pings a viceroy in #starting-questions saying verbatim, , you may review the character sheet as described in this guide.
 * Once you're satisfied that the sheet is complete and correct, ping the other @viceroy s and let them know that the 1st approval is complete and that the character is ready for a 2nd look. For example, you might post:
 * Second approval: When a viceroy announces that the first approval for a character has been completed, you can begin the second approval as described in this guide.
 * Once you're satisfied that the sheet is complete and correct, let the player know that their character sheet has been fully approved and is ready to play. If they are a new player, use the  command (replacing   with the player's username), which will make a bot give spit out some basic information welcoming them to the server; also remove their "making character" tag and give them the "approved" and "tier 1" tags.
 * Respec approvals: Viceroys are also responsible for approving character respecs, the process for which you can also find details in this guide. Once you're satisfied that the sheet is complete and correct, let the player know.

Naturally, you cannot approve your own characters. If you do not approve any characters in a 2 month span, then you will be removed from the role. Your accrued rewards will not be lost and can still be redeemed. If you find the time to help again in the future, make a new post in #dm-viceroy-signup and we'll welcome you back.

Viceroy Tokens
For each sheet you review or approve, you earn 1 token per tier of the character you are reviewing (so if you approve a level 3 character, you get 1 token; if you approve a level 5 character you get 2 tokens, etc.). Reviews earn the same number of tokens if you review the full sheet and provide feedback to the player, even if the player never follows up or follows up with a different Viceroy later. Tokens can be redeemed for the following rewards: Each viceroy gets their own tab on the Character Approvals spreadsheet where their approved sheets are automatically tracked. Be sure to manually enter any redemptions and tokens earned from reviews without approval.

When redeeming tokens for rewards, also make sure to post in #downtime-final including the character name, the current tier of the character, the number of tokens being redeemed, the reward the tokens are being redeemed for, and the before and after gold total of the character (if applicable).

Knights
Knights are the moderators of the server. They help us maintain a PG-13 level atmosphere and patrol our channels making sure nobody is doing things they shouldn’t. If they find someone doing something egregiously wrong, they have the power to kick players out of the server; if they do so, they must report it to the admins.

Knights can claim a bonus of 10gp per week on one of their PCs as long as they fulfill the role's duties and remain vigilant. Knights may also be invited to stand in for an absent Admin during meetings where the Admins vote on server rules and policies.

To become a knight, ping the @Admins in #dm-viceroy-signup and ask to be one. We typically expect knight candidates to have been on the server for some time and to be knowledgeable on our rules and policies.

Glossary

 * Book value
 * DM: Dungeon Master (interchangeable with GM or Game Master)
 * DTD: Downtime days
 * GM: Game Master (interchangeable with DM or Dungeon Master)
 * GP: Gold Pieces
 * PC: Player Character
 * RP: Roleplay / roleplaying
 * Viceroy: Helpers on the server
 * XP: Experience Points