BBS Rules
Ability Scores
Your ability scores reflect your character's strengths and weaknesses with
numbers. There are six scores: STRength, DEXterity,
CONstitution, INTelligence, WISdom, and CHArisma.
Each of these scores represents a different physical and mental relation,
listed below:
STR - Muscle strength, pure and true. Relates to lifting power,
carrying capacity, overall ability to break stuff, etc. A high STR score
improves damage with most weapons, and can be helpful when swimming and
applying yourself in highly physical areas.
DEX - This defines how nimble your character is. A high DEX score
improves your AC (Armor Class) and can also reflect a proficiency with
detailed work, such as picking locks, where you need to be able to control
your fingers precisely.
CON - Overall health of your character, ability to resist poisons and
other body-related changes. High CON increases your HP and helps while doing
strenuous activity, such as prolonged running.
INT - Your character's strength of reasoning and mental capacity.
A high INT is good for characters who rely on their brains to get themselves
out of trouble, such as those who learn their spells from books.
WIS - Can reflect your character as having worldly knowledge (or the
lack thereof), or it can be a sort of "common sense" rating. A high WIS is
important for those who have to learn spells and other things on their
own.
CHA - A character who is very outgoing and friendly, or one who has
strikingly good looks qualifies for high CHA. High CHA is useful when you
are trying to win the hearts (or pocketbooks) of those around you.
When you sign up, the Admins will roll your stats for you, then send them
to you. You then assign each of the six stats to an ability score, and
send those back to the Admins. They will record them, list your ablity
modifiers, and (if you hadn't already chosen it) suggest a class that could
benefit your character. Here is an example, along with the system that the
Admins will use.
Gus sends in a request for a human character. The Admins read it over and
one of them rolls Gus's stats. First, he rolls 4d6 (4 6-sided dice) and drops
the lowest number. An 8 is rolled. He records this number and repeats this
process five more times, recording 14, 13, 13, 11, and 10. This makes one
set on his paper. He then makes another two sets, using the same system.
The results are:
8, 14, 13, 13, 11, 10
9, 11, 16, 16, 9, 15
10, 14, 15, 13, 11, 12
He also totals each set, coming up with:
8, 14, 13, 13, 11, 10 = 67
9, 11, 16, 16, 9, 15 = 76
10, 14, 15, 13, 11, 12 = 75
He then sends the two highest sets (since they're so close) to Gus, telling
him to chose a set and assign them to his ability scores. Gus sends back his
stats, which are:
STR - 13
DEX - 15
CON - 14
INT - 10
WIS - 11
CHA - 12
The Admin records these, and adds Gus's ability modifiers, listed as
such:
STR - 13, +1
DEX - 15, +2
CON - 14, +2
INT - 10, 0
WIS - 11, 0
CHA - 12, +1
He then sends Gus this list, along with the suggestions of Ranger, Fighter,
and Rogue. Gus replies with the decision of a Fighter, and the Admin tells
Gus that he has 12 HP and 240 gp to spend on his starting equipment, along
with 12 skill points to use and three feats to pick (one for first level,
one for being a human, a one for being a first level Fighter). Gus then
starts making his final decisions about his character, as the Admin begins
entering his info on the website's PCs page.
It's a long process, but it's worth it. For those of you who haven't noticed
yet, this is the system set forth by Dungeons and Dragons: 3rd Edition. I
don't want to get into an argument over whether 3rd or 2nd Ed is better,
nor about anything regarding religion and D&D. Take that up with me in your
spare time (and in my spare time, for that matter). If you have anything
against D&D, I'm sorry, but this is the best system I know of for my needs.
Now, without further ado, I will get into some of the more interesting
aspects of this system.
Experience and Levels
Experience is given by the Admins, and is usually given at the end of a
period of action. In other words, whenever the PCs have a chance to rest.
They may, if there hasn't been enough happening to warrant it, postpone
giving out experience until later. This might cause complaints, but who
wants to record 10 Xp for nothing else but opening a locked door?
Levels are the expression of how strong a character is in general numeric
terms. The higher the level, the stronger a person is (in theory). With
each level comes another Hit Die (HD), more Skill Points, and possibly other
rewards. For instance, at every level divisible by three (3, 6, 9, 12, etc.)
your character gains an extra feat. At every level divisible by four (4, 8,
12, 16, etc.) your charcter gets a +1 bonus to one ability score of your
choice. If your ability mod changes because of this, the Admins will tell
you. In addition to these basic rewards, each class has its own bonuses in
the forms of class skills, saving throw bonuses, and base attack bonus
increases.
If, at any time, a player wishes to know their Xp needed to reach the next
level, they can either consult the PCs page or ask an Admin.
Adventuring
Each character can be in only one campaign at once. They can,
optionally, leave any given campaign whenever they want. In that
case, they would be forced to wait until the group they left
returned to town, or a new campaign started. A campaign can last
for quite a long time, or they can be relatively short. All
decisions made by the Admin running the campaign are final, but
this isn't to say that players can't make their arguments known.
If any player has a problem with a decision an Admin has made, or
with some other aspect of the campaign, they are urged to take it
up with that Admin privately.
Races
A list of possible character races can be found
here.
Classes
A list of possible character classes can be found
here.
Skills
A list of skills can be found here.
Feats
A list of feats can be found here.
