Introduction for Playtesters

Welcome to Spellswords playtesting! Where you get to struggle with a homebrew system that may have been created by a maniac. Below are some links to answer some questions you may have about me, this system, and the way that playtesting will go down.

Who Am I?
I'm Aric. I'm a huge nerd. I homebrew for fun, and now I'm trying to drag other people in on the madness.

What is Spellswords?
Spellswords is a role playing system adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, but also drawing cues and inspiration from many other RP systems.

Basically, this system was born out of my dissatisfaction with tabletop RPGs in general. Most suffer from weird, biased imbalances, huge amounts of content overload so that they can sell more books, and a severe lack of a centralized location where players can access all the information easily.

So spellswords is an attempt to fix all that. You'll find that there are fewer classes, but more ways to build characters using peripheral abilities, like feats and skill points. You'll also find many feats that detail abilities that were, once upon a time, class abilities for one of the myriad classes present in D&D 3.5. There are many improvements to combat that will (hopefully) make it more interesting and dynamic. The classes have been rebalanced in a fashion that (again, hopefully) allows everyone to be on more or less equal terms throughout their development.

So I'm excited about it. I wouldn't have spent so much time on it if I wasn't. And I hope I can get you excited about it too.

Gaming Rules
I've played the role of Dungeon/Game Master before, so I'm not totally new at this. The groups I've managed have mostly consisted of friends and, thus, were fairly low-key. That said, I haven't played with everyone in this group yet, so I want to lay down some very basic rules to keep the experience fun.

Rule One: Don't be That Guy.
Nobody likes that guy. You know the one. That guy who whines every time his character gets hurt, gloats when other peoples' characters die, follows the rules only when it's most convenient to him, and ragequits when he doesn't get his way. Don't be that guy.

If you're unsure about what I'm talking about here, see guidelines to not being that guy.

Rule Two: Respect Other Players
We're all in this together to have fun and to test a new system to see if it works or if it blows. If you're doing something that is making others uncomfortable or upset, then you should stop. What is this, Kindergarten? This rule applies within reason, of course; if you're upset because you attacked another player's character over something and then your character dies because of it, then you're going to have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

Rule Three: Have Fun, but Take it Seriously Too.
Do what you think is fun. If that involves playing a gimmicky character, that's fine - but try your best to make your joke character work, or at least contribute. Anything that doesn't actively derail the game is okay by me. And if you want to do something that there aren't rules for, talk to the DM - he likes new ideas and we have the freedom to write a whole new system here.

Campaign Rules
This is a list of rules I'm laying down for the campaign we will be using to playtest this system. The rules above are universal; the rules below apply only to this campaign unless we decide to change them. These rules also only apply within the confines of the rules above.

Rule One: Play any Character You Want
Seriously. Don't worry about party balance unless you want to. Try new things. Try old things. Play a gimmick, or play a classic character. The DM will fill in holes if he needs to.

Rule Two: PvP Action is Sanctioned
If your character would logically want to attack another player character, then have at it. Just don't get mad if you die.

Rule Three: Death is Permanent
The DM has 100% control to say that your character is dead if they die within the rules laid down in the game. He also promises not to abuse this rule. But if your character dies, fair and square, unless you have the means to resurrect them, they stay dead. Of course, stuff happens, and if there's a good reason to reverse a death, we can talk about it.

Rule Four: The Evil Twin
Every player is entitled to have one evil twin character. This character works like this: you have a character that you really liked to play, but one day the dice rolls go bad and they die. You really wanted that one more level to really flesh the character out, and you'd like another shot at it. Enter the evil twin: a character that is like your old character in virtually every way, but not them. They may have the same stats, the same levels, the same abilities, etc. (and if your friends are nice maybe they'll even give you your old equipment back) They will be introduced in some way as your twin, or clone, or whatever. You can do this once, and only once in this campaign... at least for now.

What To Expect (Aric's DM Style)
I'm a fairly easy-going DM, but I don't have very much patience for people who break the three Gaming rules above. Other than that, I'm content to let you play the game.

This Campaign will be pretty sandboxy. You guys can decide where you want to go with things, although I'd prefer that you decide together.

I tend to have a raunchy sense of humor. Some of you do too (I know because I've played with you before). If you're uncomfortable with sex jokes, cursing, or hilariously gruesome depictions of violence, or terrible puns, you should let me know.

FAQ
So now you're saying, "Hey man! I have questions about this system! There's a whole bunch of stuff missing!"

So here's the link for the FAQ, which really should be labeled QIA (questions I'm anticipating). Enjoy.