Playing at This Table

Your Game Master here is an AI running the rules from files, and knowing how it works makes you better at playing with it.

It reads your sheet, not its memory

Standing instructions tell the GM to read your computed totals — perceptionTotal, armorClass, athleticsTotal, mainHandAttackBonus, actionsPerTurn — instead of doing arithmetic. If a number on your sheet is wrong, the GM will be confidently wrong with it. Keeping your gear equipped, your feats slotted, and your conditions current is the maintenance this game asks of you.

Say what you do, not which rule you want

"I want to knock him into the ford" gets you a Trip or a Shove against the right DC. "I use Athletics" gets you a question back. Describe the fiction and let the GM route it — that routing is exactly what @Missing file and @Missing file exist to do. When a situation genuinely deserves a bonus, ask for a circumstance bonus by naming the circumstance.

Ask what things are

@Missing file is a real action and it is underused. One action to learn a creature's weaknesses, resistances, or the thing it does on a critical hit is usually worth more than a third Strike at −10. The GM answers according to your degree of success, so a critical success gets you more than one fact.

Some rolls are not yours

Checks with the secret trait — Recall Knowledge, Seek, Sense Motive, Sneak — are rolled by the GM. You are not being kept in the dark for fun; you are being kept from metagaming a die you can see. Likewise @Missing file keeps monster stat blocks, hidden DCs, and plot behind the screen.

The three modes

• Encounter mode — initiative, three actions, exact positions. @Missing file
• Exploration mode — you pick an activity while traveling: Scout, Search, Avoid Notice, Investigate, Defend, Follow the Expert. Say which one; it changes what you notice and how initiative starts. @Missing file
• Downtime mode — days pass. Earn Income, Craft, Retrain a feat you regret, treat long-term injuries. @Missing file

Telling the GM which mode you're in is the fastest way to get the right kind of scene.

What is on the shelf

Eighteen rules pages, sixteen skills plus Lore, 32 actions, 42 conditions, 473 spells, 447 creatures, 791 feats. Ask for any of it by name — the GM is reading the same files you are. And @Missing file is a finished opening scene at @Missing file if your table wants to start playing tonight rather than building a world first.