Therefore, the new rules are as follows: The only thing you get for free is the ability to speak one language. I would strongly recommend picking Common for that language, as most racial tongues don't see a lot of practice in a multiracial world anyway. If your Intelligence is 13 or higher, then taking training in the Diplomacy skill will give you access to Literacy, as well as any other racial languages you are being denied. Alternatively, if you take the Linguist feat (see below), you may obtain the ability to read and write. Yes, I am fully aware that Diplomacy is not a class skill for half of the currently available classes, and that for these people, literacy will be impossible without the spending of a precious feat to obtain it. This does exactly what I want it to do - make literacy as rare for you as it is for the rest of the world.

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Chapter 2: Retraining

Retraining is only allowed when your character is raised from the dead. Period. (I maaaaaaaaaaaay be lenient on this for the first two or three campaigns I run, since we're all learning 4th Edition and while I expect realism (which is the reason retraining is forbidden - how would one justify suddenly LOSING the Linguist feat to gain something else, without the traumatic experience of death behind it?) I also know that there's a learning curve to be considered. By the end of 2009, expect everything after the word "Period" to be erased.

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Chapter 3: Character Races

For the standard campaign that I run, the Dragonborn, Halfling and Tiefling races are Restricted, with it being VERY unlikely that one will be allowed to play a Dragonborn or a Halfling, while Tieflings will be generally accepted as long as they can be "passing" for human (IE hide the cloven hooves, headband around very small horns, etc.). The reason for this is simple - in my campaign world, the human/dwarven/elven alliance is on shaky enough ground as it is, sometimes good-natured towards one another but all-too-oft suspicious, backbiting and outright prejudiced. (As an example, the Pure Human Society, a secret organization within the kingdom of Descartes, has successfully exerted enough influence on the ruling family to see that only humans may hold landed noble ranks, to the extent that only two exceptions to this rule exist within the whole kingdom. Their logic is that the unnaturally long lifespans of eladrin, elves, half-elves and dwarves would give them an undue amount of influence in the kingdom, eventually taking over all positions of power solely because their families would suffer less chance of dying out before carrying on their family lines.) Imagine asking a society like that to tolerate WALKING DRAGONS amongst them. Sh'yeah, right. Tieflings, similarly, are seen (usually rightly) as bound by ancient pacts to demonic beings, such that their presence is an intolerable affront to what is right and lordly within the kingdom, so only those who can hide their tiefling nature can survive amongst the populous. And halflings? Halflings are ever-present in Descartes - as a slave class. They are the subjugated property of their owners, and thus not fit for play by a PC unless that PC realllllly wants to experience the stigma of being someone else's property (and, by extension, losing a LOT of their free will to make decisions in the game).

I will, on occasion, set up an alternate type of campaign that calls for ALL Dragonborn, or ALL Halflings, should I feel like telling the story of the noble dragonborn clans that have been exiled to the mountains since the human/elven/dwarven alliance began it's aggressions upon their lands, or the Halfling Resistance movement, trying in secret to liberate it's people and found it's own homeland. Or, of course, we may leave the country of Descartes entirely, in search of a region where all eight races do, in fact, peacefully co-exist. Such a place does exist within my campaign world. However, I mapped out Descartes first, and expect we'll be spending a lot of time there in the forseeable future, so this is how it is. :)

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Chapter 3: Characters and Age

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Chapter 4: Character Classes

I'll admit it - I'm going to have fun with this one. :) I'm going to commit to making a new power for each class, on a rotating basis, one power added per week. There's so much room for it - 4th Edition really came out in a skeletal form, and with far too much focus on combat-oriented powers for my taste. So with no adieu, here's the first one, for the Cleric:

Level 2 Utility Prayer:
Righteous Cause
Daily * Divine
Standard Action / Ranged 2

Target: One of your Allies (not you)
Effect: The target may reroll a failed skill check, provided that check did not have a negative penalty applied for failure. (Example: This could be used to reroll Diplomacy, so long as the failed roll was not so bad that the person being diplomacized now views the target less favorably. This could be used on Stealth, if the target has not already been detected because of the previously failed stealth roll, etc.)

WARLOCKS: Warlocks with the Infernal Pact are wise not to advertise that fact in most of the civilized world. Most Good-aligned societies have declared (perhaps rightly so, in most cases) that the Infernal Pact represents a deal with dark forces, and those who bear it's mark should therefore be locked away or euthanized "for the good of their own souls". Warlocks with the Fey and Star Pacts are generally more accepted, although still distrusted in some locales.

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Chapter 5: Skills

I admit, I'm not all that happy. There's less specialization now, more "block use", and I feel like that detracts from the realism a bit. I do have to begrudgingly admit that it's working so far, though, and thus leave it alone.

But it's on my chopping block.

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Chapter 6: Feats

Shortly, I will have fixed the deity-specific feats by including them in the description of the deity. "Shortly", of course, means by the end of 2009. In the mean time, you're in luck - any deity can have any deity-specific feat, and it will be "grandfathered" when I have established the /actual/ feats that go with each deity.

The Linguist feat does not function as written - instead of giving you three languages with all the trimmings, it give you three slots that can be used to purchase either fluency OR literacy in a language, including Common. So, for example, if I speak common and I take the linguist feat, I can use Slot 1 to read and write common, Slot 2 to speak Elven, and Slot 3 to read and write Elven. Or, alternatively, I can use all three slots to speak languages and remain illiterate. Or I can use all three spots to read and write languages, and remain unable to speak them.

There is not, at this time, any bonus for picking two languages which use the same alphabet. One is intended in the future, but I have to work out the particulars.

The multiclass feat for the WARLOCK class must be taken at 1st Level. This represents the pact is one made either in childhood or by the pact initiate's family prior to birth. Roleplay opportunities to make a pact during the game MAY be presented, but are not guaranteed. All other multiclass feats are open to players of any level as normal, and the restriction of only being allowed one for the character's entire lifetime is, for the moment, in effect.

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Chapter 7: Equipment

This section is far too bare for my tastes. Note to do something about that later. If you want to help me along, mention something you'd like and we'll happily adjudicate a cost, effect on game mechanics and whatever else is needed, and I'll put it on this list here.

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Chapter 8: Adventuring

A word on Skill Challenges: It is incredibly useful to have a skill-based mechanic as the SKELETON for roleplay and other non-combat encounters. I have essentially been doing so since 2nd Edition, and welcome Wizards of the Coast to my realm in that area. However, if the RPGA modules I've seen are any indication, Skill Challenges as written in the book are A) way too easy, B) "complete" before the characters have had a chance to get all of the pertinent information, and C) potentially VERY dry in the hands of a DM that sees rules as absolutes.

In my own homebrews, however, I often don't bother to write down the actual "mechanical" details of a skill challenge. I prefer a more free-form, relaxed approach to roleplaying that actually includes, y'know... ROLEPLAYING. If your tactic at "diplomacy" is to tell the Lord that he should let you escort him safely away from his ancestral land because his wife and daughter are skanky oafs not worth saving anyway, I don't care if you rolled a natural 20 to do it. ;) Conversely, a well thought-out argument should not blunder over the roll of a single 1. A combination of skill and luck will be used at all times, and the DCs will be set with the full understanding that you've got up to +8 waiting for you with all of your companions rolling assists. It will be fair when appropriate, and ridiculously unfair in either direction when appropriate. (A 1st level character is NEVER going to convince the King to give him a parcel of land, I don't care how many 20s you roll.)

Also, a word on Sunrods. 20 FREAKIN' SQUARES?!? They're a frickin' DAYLIGHT spell, for fucks' sake. That said, I'm not going to alter their makeup... yet. I'm just going to warn you that if you use one, you are lighting up your square like a Christmas Tree that can be seen for hundreds of feet in all directions. Infer from that what you will. :)

Finally, the Extended Rest requires EIGHT hours, not six.

Everything else is as written in the PHB.

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Chapter 9: Combat

Yeah, no way I'm even THINKING of messing with these rules until I've played a /lot/ more combats out. Besides, Wizards spent more time on this than anything else, and what they developed does seem, IMHO, to be a lot more fun and manageable than previous versions of the game.

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Chapter 10: Rituals

Again, a place where making my own additions is wiiiiide open. :) I'm going to do the first one now, and subsequent ones when I feel the urge:

Dismissal

Level: 13 / Component Cost: 1450 gp
Category: Travel / Market Price: 2900 gp
Time: 10 minutes / Key Skill: Arcana
Duration: Instantaneous

When you perform this ritual, the subject is sent to the exact location of his or her birth, regardless of distance - even those born on a distant plane of existance are returned to the spot. The ritual does not require that the recipient be willing, but it does require that the recipient remain inside the Ritual Circle for the duration of the ritual. Anything that happens to be in the exact space where the creature was born will be pushed out of it to make room for him/her. The tie is to the coordinates - if someone was born on the fourth floor of a building that has since been torn down, he/she will materialize in mid-air and fall normally. If someone was born at a spot that has since had solid rock put in it's place, that solid rock is shifted to make room for the new arrival.

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Encumbrance and Item Positioning