What is “The Artifact: Prologue”?It was back during the second World War in June of 1941. In Guatemala the Nazis have begun an expedition to locate an Artifact of great importance to Der Fuhrer. All they need to do is find a lost city where the Artifact is rumored to be found.
A small faction within the floundering League of Nations wants YOU to stop the Nazis.
Each of you have been recruited for your abilities and willingness to go. You have been given ample gear for the journey, but you are low on tangible facts. Just a few old letters written by a 1920's explorer who was with an expedition who had actually FOUND the city, but apparently didn't live long enough to tell anyone about it. The letters give a few obscure references to various landmarks and the direction traveled. It is the team's hope that they can locate a certain local guide, a transplanted American whose been living in the jungles of Guatemala for years, whose area knowledge can unlock the mysteries of the landmarks.
Armed with a general direction and a breadcrumb trail of landmarks they need to follow, the team hopefully can out-hunt the Nazis expedition locating the city AND this supposed mysterious Artifact.
[[ Find the Artifact. Keep it out of hostile hands. The future of this campaign DEPENDS on this. ]]Campaign BackgroundIt is July of 1941. The Americans have not entered the War yet, as the bombing at Pearl Harbor will not take place until December 7th. Adolf Hitler has just betrayed his ally Joseph Stalin by attacking Russia weeks earlier. Much of the world is in chaos.
The Ahnenerbe, archaeological arm of the Nazi SS, are searching the jungles of Guatemala. It is rumored that Hitler himself ordered this expedition following a dream he had about finding a lost Mayan city with a hidden secret.
Though many officials couldn’t care less about Hitler’s supposed occult interests, a shadowy member of the rapidly crumbling League of Nations has put together a counter-expedition. You are this expedition; Stop the Nazis from finding what they want. Find it before they do. It is his belief that this mission is more important than anyone can yet even realize.
Character CreationBEFORE creating a character, please review the following, and submit a character concept to me via PM. If I approve your idea, you will be allowed to proceed with character creation.
• Characters are to be created at 5th level. This is to allow the use of Advanced Classes.
• 32 point buy for Ability Scores.
• Wealth Bonus will be determined by rolling up initial Wealth-- then adding +8 to that.
• Equipment Available MUST conform to those items available at the time.
• Books to use: d20M Core Rules, d20 Past, Modern Players Companion
• Race: Human (Any “Allied” nationality allowable, even the Russians.)
• Classes for The Prologue:
Any combination of Base Classes, and the following Advanced Classes; Soldier, Gunslinger, Daredevil, Field Scientist, Field Medic, Investigator, Explorer, Gangster, Confidence Artist, Dead Shot, Enforcer, or Survivalist.
• Action Points will be used. Everyone gets 5 + 1/2 character level, rounded down, per level.
• Feats may be selected from the Core Rule book, d20 Past, and the MPC.
• Max HP at first level. Average HP (half hit die + 1 + Con Mod) at levels 2 and beyond.
• If you want something that goes against these “rules”, ask.
• No evil characters. Please select a DnD alignment that mirrors best your character’s moral code. I will not force alignment checks, but I do want to know where your character morally stands.
• I will also need one recent event in your character’s life that might mark him/her as an adventurer.
Rules of Play• At minimum, please post once per day during weekdays. If you do not, I may have to drop you from the game. If you will be absent, notify me in advance as a courtesy please.
• There will be a separate thread for OOC comments. If you must make OOC comments in game,
make sure you designate them as such.
• Die rolling is done using
Invisible Castle.
• Action Points can be used to adjust the following d20 rolls: attack, saving throws, skill checks, ability
check. You can only use one Action Point per round.
•
House Rule:
Diplomacy. Use this instead rather than the Rules As Written.
• I will not give out XP. Instead I track it for you, and will receive a PM when your character Levels Up!
• Please no meta-gaming*
• Please keep OOC comments to the OOC Lounge. In game OOC hide behind a
• An additional
"Group B" thread has been created for
use when the party splits up for
longer than a scene or two.
*In role-playing games, a player is metagaming when they use knowledge that is not available to their character in order to change the way they play their character (usually to give them an advantage within the game), such as knowledge of the mathematical nature of character statistics, or the statistics of a creature that the player is familiar with but the character has never encountered. In general, it refers to any gaps between player knowledge and character knowledge which the player acts upon.[/size]
When you get to a new town, you don't know where the hell to go or where anything is. So how do you know where to go?
The goal of this is to provide you the player with enough information that you can maneuver your PC through and about the towns and villages fairly freely without having to constantly wait for feedback.
First thing to do when you get to a new place is to use your senses.
Listen and
Spot are useful if you do not wish to speak to anyone. When using
Listen You can occasionally hear snippets of conversation. Relying strictly on Listen to get around town won't get you very far typically.
Spot is infinitely more useful when learning about your immediate vicinity. You will notice signs and shop names. Things that will get you started on moving about from place to place.
To REALLY dig into what is available in a town, you're going to need to
Gather Information about it. When using Gather Information you will learn a greater variety of town knowledge. Some locals know places strangers should avoid because of danger. Just relying on your eyes won't give you that.
Getting decent information requires time spent:
Taking 10 on a
Gather Information check results in a 15-minute time span of asking around.
Taking 20 will take you possibly a number of hours. After all, it took some time to track down that info! I will waive the financial aspects of the rules-- unless you find yourself in a pub-like atmosphere!
Travel Conditions•
Jungle travel for half a day will put you in an exhausted state.
• A full day of traveling through the jungle will result in a fatigued state. Characters of course will need to sleep the required 8 hours to recover for the next day's traveling. I deem this NOT FUN.
It is extremely easy to lose track of
'what the fuck is going on' 
-- this results in odd character reactions
/bad positioning
/attacking the darkness
/etc...
Always read all the posts that have occurred since your own last post. Understand the actions that have taken place. Sometimes things will occur in another player's post that will have a very direct effect on what you can or cannot attempt, or clue you in to what you SHOULD attempt. Doors open or close, locked or unlocked. PC's getting in the way of grenade blasts
. Moving into an already occupied space
.
Be sure to take very special note of PC and NPC locations on the alphanumeric grid. It works just like Battleship. During a combat I NEED to know every character's exact location at the end of their turn otherwise I am left to interpret your PCs actions, which is often bad for you, since I have no qualms about leaving anyone in harm's way
. This is the equivalent of my table top pet-peeve, when players do not get up and move their own mini, expecting me the GM to do it for you.
Please be mindful of your fellow players. In combat everyone is taking turns in Initiative Order-- though you are welcome to post your PC's actions
"out of turn", they still
occur in Initiative Order. It is important to check the game to post at least once a day-- if you do not, you hold up
8 other people. If you DO post out of order, please consider checking back after a few hours to see if any other character's actions
will have directly affected what you intended on doing in your post
. Situations like THIS may occur:
PLAYER B: I yell
"Don't make us kill you Jacko! Just tell us where you hid the baby and everything will be FINE! I PROMISE!" [ Diplomacy check 23 ]PLAYER A: I open fire upon Jacko.
"Eat it, Freak! This is for fingering my little brother Freddy!"[ Shoots Buffalo Rifle: 19 Damage: 22!! 
]GM: Jacko is turned to MULCH with a single shot. Most of what was his upper torso is streaked across the empty play pen behind him.
Player B, your VERY CONVINCING plea falls upon deaf ears. Mostly because there isn't a head for them to be attached to any longer. Player A, be sure to deduct that .50 cal shell from your sheet. Player A next time consider holding your action to see if something like player B's Diplomacy check could have worked. PLAYER A: 
It's what my character would have done. Besides, who the hell uses Diplomacy?
If you aren't sure if you should or if you can take an action, please ask the question here in the Lounge. I have no problems with players having Tabletop Style discussions
. Perhaps you'd like to do something, but aren't sure of the rules on HOW to do it. Just ask
.
These are really for everyone. I will eventually move this over to live on the rules board.
