Welcome to Gaia! ::

okay.. I know I am brand new to this guild... but I'm wondering.. how people would think of me starting my own campaign on here?

I'm willing to play under most anyone, so I'd be up to give it a shot.

Yup, just give us a game to play, which edition if needed, and we'll probably be all over it in moments x3

What's the theme of the campaign? Any major things we should know about the world, or is it based on one of the campaign settings? What ECL are we building? Character wealth? Pantheon? Banned books/classes/races?

Well when you've got it all put together in your mind and have your preferred rules and what not, just post it in the forum with the name of the campaign as the subject of it. We'll all be anxiously waiting to pounce on it x3

hmm... well... the main thing holding me back from really getting down to the campaign.. is the rules on how everything works for like rolling here on gaia... like how does combat work? or is that up to me?

Run it however you want.

This forum is called the Dungeons and Dragons guild but we play plenty of different games, I am in four games so far and only two of them are D&D, both being run by Saint Odium seen earlier in this thread, the other two run by Rain Yupa Legend of the Five Rings and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Each one barring the ones by Saint Odium have different methods of running it.

People like to roll dice in a dedicated thread.

Sometimes it's harmless to include the roll with the RP post as long as the roll does not entail more rolls and a such ends up with a chain of posts in the RP thread just for rolls.

Some combine the two where the initial roll is made with the RP post and then go into a dice overflow thread.

On the topic of combat there's usually two mindsets for play by post forums like this one.

1) Theater of the mind, disregard tactical maps or maps in general and try to describe the scene so that players understand and only have to clarify small technicalities with the GM (you)

Example (Probably a bad one because I'm terribad at creative writing): After the bard accidentally spills the orc's drink the orc at the bar draws his sword and curses at the bard. Meanwhile the orc's buddies across the room in their corner stand and draw their swords as well. Roll initiative.

Player 1 asks, "How far away are the orcs and is it difficult terrain because of tables and chairs in the way?"

Then you answer and try to get any misunderstandings and assumptions clarified.

2) Use a tactical map. This is a bit more labour intensive especially if you're not good with programs like photoshop or do not have them available to you. Every players and monsters turns will require you to edit the image used for the map so that players are up to date on who's where and whom's attacking who. This does save time however on the explaining side of things, chairs in the way of a charge can be seen on the map so players won't ask about it.

If there is a third option between these two I haven't heard of it.

oh and I've been thinking of a fairly streamline way of doing the posts... tell me what you think?

when you are doing an action that requires a roll, you'll make the roll with your post, but you don't go back and edit it. the receiving end reacts to the post on whether it made it or failed it. when you are attacking no critical fumbles, just a miss (doesn't even end your turn because all your attack rolls are made at the same time), and you don't have to confirm your criticals. if you have multiple attacks you roll that many d20s. you put your attack modifiers in the post. with multiple attacks it will go in descending order of attack bonuses.

damage will be D&D average rounded up. so a d6 will be 4. (normally it is a 3.5) you will also need to put your damage amounts and critical ranges and multipliers in the post.

We might as well throw AC in as well.