Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Immigration Policies of the Kinan-M’Nath

B. Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance; or ever been arrested or convicted for two or more offenses for which the aggregate sentence to confinement was five years or more?

Answer Yes or No. (Yes! Yes, sir! Yes! No! No! No!)

As stated last week, I’m planning on opening up my campaign world to visitation by residents of other worlds. Since such a plan has the possibility of going pear-shaped quickly, some guidelines are necessary. Below is the rough draft of the Kinan-M’Nath’s immigration, visitation, and customs policies.

Item 1: All visitors arriving in the Kinan-M’Nath must be from a campaign world whose ruleset is compatible with that of my own. Since Labyrinth Lord with portions of the Advanced Edition Companion is the native rules that means that visitors from the following systems are welcome: Original D&D, B/X D&D, Mentzer D&D, 1st edition Advanced D&D, 2nd edition Advanced D&D (without non-weapon proficiencies), Swords & Wizardry (Core, Complete or White Box), and LotFP. I’m probably forgetting one or two here. Other systems will be taken on a case-by-case basis, but if conversion can’t be done in ten minutes or less, it’s probably not compatible.

Item 2: Visitors must be within one level plus or minus of the resident characters’ highest/ lowest level. Exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Item 3: All ability modifiers will be brought into line with Labyrinth Lord’s. Armor class will likewise be recalculated to adhere to Labyrinth Lord. Hit points will be rerolled in the case of different-sized class hit dice if the referee decides there is a sizable discrepancy between the visiting character’s base ruleset and that of the campaign.

Item 4: Due to the laws of the conservation of magic, visitors are allowed to bring with them a total of three magical items plus one potion when visiting the Uncertain Lands. If this policy was good enough for Dave Arneson, it’s good enough for me.

Item 5: Native house rules trump visiting house rules. Native house rules also trump the rules as written, but that's to be expected.

Item 6: With the exception of magically linked companions such as familiars, visiting characters arrive in the Kinan-M’Nath alone.

Item 7: Visitor must arrive by way of one of the three authorized entrance methods into the Kinan-M’Nath (More on this to come).

Item 8: Not so much a rule as good advice: You’re a guest here. Please behave in a manner that would make people want to invite you back. This includes letting me know you plan to attend and arriving on time.

Item 9: I may have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night. I’ve been playing long enough to know a kosher character when I see one. Please leave your über-PC with all 18s, the wand of Orcus, and the vorpal luckblade lightsaber at home.

Item 10: If the visiting character is active in another campaign and you wish to have your triumphs and failures accounted for in your home game, please provide me with the email address of your regular referee. I will gladly provide him or her with an account of treasures won, magic gained or lost, and any earned experience points acquired during your trip abroad. I have no say on whether they will accept your foreign-won gains, but I’ll provide impartial conformation that you earned it legally.

5 comments:

Anthony said...

This kind of post is so awesome... to somehow relive the glory days where the D&D community was large and vibrant to the point where this cross pollination of ideas and characters was fairly common :D

Bravo, I wish you luck!

David Key said...

So my psionic Glitter Boy with the Rune Railgun is definitely out of the question then.... ; )

Pat said...

Interesting concept, I look forward to reading about how it works in practice.

I couldn't participate because I run my campaign in my house - and I'm loathe to have walk-ins just dropping by. Not that they would, I live in the middle of nowhere. But an open environment like a game store is way more conducive to this.

Do a lot of campaigns take place in game stores and other "open" atmospheres nowadays?

Chris Kutalik said...

Since your inspiring post on this I have been trying to open up my own table too. Having some sensible guidelines for getting your "green card" in a native campaign is very helpful.

BTW there's been an interesting exchange about open world play on my own blog after I spun off a couple of posts from your OP if you are interested:
http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/search/label/open%20world

netherwerks said...

Very decent and hopefully effective. We're going to keep your Immigration Policies in mind as we draft-up something similar for next year's Open Session Roundabouts which we're hoping to do as open games either at a local shop or at smaller conventions.