Chess Rules

4th edition combat is very specific regarding the positioning and movement of characters on a battlemap. When moving the miniature representing your character on a battlemap, if you remove your hands from a figure after moving them, they’re considered to have made that move. You aren’t allowed to change your mind as to the wisdom of running into that hallway once it’s been revealed that the floor is an illusion and you’re now plummeting into a pit of snakes. If you’re unsure if that’s where you want to move your character, just wait to move the figure, or leave a finger on it while you consider the ramifications of that action.

Combat Rounds

During combat, players should be thinking about what to do while their companions are taking their actions. Although it’s understandable that the actions taken by companions could affect the action you ultimately want to take, there isn’t an excuse for sitting there for minutes at a time (during your turn) staring at a map and trying to figure out what you should do, especially if not much has changed in the past round.

DM Note: If time is being severely abused, in order to keep things moving along, I will institute a maximum 30 second time limit to determining the actions a character is going to take. This does not apply to the resolution of those actions. If the time is exceeded, the players turn is passed over.

Laptops

Sorry guys, I’m going old school with this one for now, the only laptop allowed in the table is the DM’s. Also, if other electronic gear begins to become a major distraction, it’ll be banned as well.

DM’s Goals

This area is to note that my ultimate goal DM’ing this game/campaign is to allow the players to be as immersed in the world/story/environment as much as possible, and spend much less of their time worrying about the rules. Although some metagaming is inevitable, most of the focus of the game should be on determining what kind of a character you’re playing, what their motivations are and how people around you would react to your behavior. Stats and attributes are important in the resolution of outcomes, but they aren’t necessarily more powerful than common sense would attest.

Example: Attempting to intimidate your drill instructor may be an interesting idea (“But I have a +5!”) but you should be prepared for the possible and most likely probable painful experience that would immediately follow such an act.

Very much like my idealistic self believes to be true, creative thinking is almost always a more powerful force than statistics. Experience is just as likely to be rewarded for creative thinking and problem solving as it is for combat encounters.