House Rules

The Rules
Rule 0: The DM is God. She likes to get other people's opinions, but while she's running a session, she's in charge. If she suddenly decides gravity will be backwards for the day, you better find something to hang onto...
 * 1) Anything not in the three core books (PHB, DMG, and MM) must be approved. This can be a pain in the neck, but since many of the other books are unbalanced and broken ("borked"), it's probably better this way.
 * 2) Always good? Always evil? Not always. When someone uses a Detect Evil or a Detect Good spell, he or she will get a read on the negative or positive energy a person has. While that can indicate goodness or evilness, it might simply mean demonic or angelic heritage, or that a person is a cleric of a good or evil deity. Reading "evil" isn't grounds for killing someone, either--or even punching the person in the face. Also, no species is "Always" Good or "Always" Evil, regardless of what the Monster's Manual says.
 * 3) Alignment restrictions only when it makes sense. Paladins need to be good. I'm not sure they need to be lawful; neutral or in some cases chaotic might work. Ask me if you have an alignment restriction you want to change.
 * 4) Death is not the end. There'll be temporary penalties for a death rather than permanent ones. Long-term penalties, but temporary. And if you RP it well death can be an awesome character opportunity. When you're raised, you'll have a negative level rather than dropping a level. Spells that normally restore negative levels will not work on the raised subject, but when you gain a level the negative level will disappear and you'll be back where you would have been.
 * 5) The bardic knowledge check no longer sucks. Bards have enough problems. Bardic Knowledge can be used for just about any knowledge skill, on the grounds that reading a lot, even if it's fiction, will make you more knowledgeable.
 * 6) But... but... If you have a problem, such as "but this spell is 30 feet wide!" or "but vampires are EVIL," you will PM me with it rather than airing it in a public room. If you're not happy with the game, we'll work together to try to fix it--but please bring it to me alone first.
 * 7) The Fight's the Thing! During combat, if you don't go right away when I call your name you may be skipped for a round. I'll usually call your name twice, and if you're not done typing out your action you can type ((Hang on, typing)) and that's okay too.
 * 8) Sometimes I sacrifice rules to pacing, plot or character. You can object or try to correct me in PM; my knowledge of the rules is imperfect so sometimes I will have simply made a mistake, so I appreciate the help!
 * 9) Stop! ... sometimes I say Pause and the action has to halt briefly. Sorry about that! Also, there is a chance that my job may require me to drop everything and run. This doesn't happen to often but it is a chance. I will almost certainly have enough time to warn you.
 * 10) Don't commit egregious abuse of the English language. Things will get misspelled, punctuation will get dropped and sentences will not be complete (people don't talk that way!) but please try to use capital letters and punctuation marks. It makes things easier to read.
 * 11) Don't worry about favored classes. You can take any two base classes without worrying about multiclassing penalties. Any more and penalties start. Also, if you have a class skill once, it always counts as a class skill, because that way, there's less math.
 * 12) Skills: Many skills are combined, while you have the same number of skill points. If one of the two skills combined is a class skill, the skill will remain a class skill. Oh, and Appraise is no longer a skill. Does it take an expert to win at The Price Is Right? No. No it does not.
 * Balance, Jump and Tumble ---> Acrobatics (Dex)
 * Spot and Listen ---> Notice (Wis)
 * Diplomacy and Gather Information ---> Diplomacy (Cha)
 * Decipher Script and Forgery ---> Decipher Script (Int)
 * Disable Device and Open Lock ---> Disable Device (Int or Dex, pick ONE)
 * Escape Artist and Use Rope---> Escape Artist (Dex)
 * Handle Animal and Ride ---> Handle Animal (Cha or Dex, pick ONE)
 * Hide and Move Silently ---> Stealth (Dex)

To Start
To begin... talk to the DM on Skype. Then!
 * No goblins.
 * No psions.
 * No LAs, but if you want to play a race with an LA for the coolness factor talk to me and we can make arrangements.
 * Stat array is: 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8. Allocate them however you like.
 * You can ignore the bonus language requirements and choose any bonus language you wish from the PHB list, except Druidic. What language you know isn't determined by race, but by where you lived and what you studied.