Welcome and here is the skinny...

Hello dear friends and family members. I hope this finds you well. First things first regarding the upcoming "Summer Break" Campaign of D&D. First things first, aka Rule #1: As game designer Jolly R. Blackburn says (In the voice of uber-hard GM Nitro), "The Gamemaster is always right." Of course, don't let this somewhat harsh tone scare you, the game belongs to everyone. Now, onto brass tacks:

First things first: This will be a D&D v3.5 game. I have almost all of the books and even a few extra Player's Handbooks for gameday use.

(Click on any image to see a larger version)

Our first session will be (tentatively) the weekend of May 22-23, exact day and time to be determined. This first session will be a general meet-and-greet and character creation/refinement.

If you choose to make a character beforehand, you may not be privy to some options I may include by that date. If you do decide to roll your own character (ahem: Mikey) you are only allowed to use the Player's Handbook v3.5. No other crazy and/or potentially unbalanced crap will be allowed from the multitude of D&D 3/3.5 books. As for the characters you create;

I am all for originality and uniqueness, however, I have no qualms in disallowing character names and ideas based on and/or variations of real celebrities, known people, popular characters etc. (e.g. Christiano the XVII, Yensid Tlaw, Wooden Tiger, Ubermensch, Klar Ken, etc.) The idea needs to be original, not recycling someone's name or concept that you like and admire. Also, in May I will have a background of the world you are going to adventure in, this may give you hints and ideas for a name appropriate for the world (if you are having trouble coming up with an original name).

Also, the format for rolling abilities will be thus: 4d6 for 3d6 worth of stats. re-roll 1's and 2's the first time. Re-roll 1's the second time but if you choose to re-roll a 2 the second time, you are stuck with the result, even if it is a 1. No third re-rolls. Drop your lowest number, add the remaining three and assign it to an ability. This should give all Player Characters a very decent set of beginning abilities and modifiers.

or...

On the day of our first session, you can choose to roll for your PC, in front of the GM (or as D&D veterans call it, DM) using the classic "guts" method of using 3D6 and assigning the pure and un-tampered result to an ability in the order in which they are rolled. If you cannot meet the requirements of the class you are going for, you will be allowed to re-roll (from the beginning, i.e. another set of abilities) until you match them (all subsequent re-rolls still must follow the "guts" method). If you choose to roll using the "guts" method, you will enjoy an in-game ability called "DM's Favor", exactly what that means has yet to be determined.

With all of this said, if you are available earlier than that date, please feel free to come on over and make a character, and/or play D&D in a gladiator style environment to help you (and me) get the rules down pat. No experience will be awarded, it is for us all to understand the rules better.

One final (and potentially ominous) note: You, as a player, are responsible to have an understanding of how your character works. Including feats, skills, spells and special abilities. You, as a player, should also have a basic understanding of how combat works (which is actually very simple). This is not to say that I (as the DM) am looking to kill anyone outright but I do like to run a deadly game and while I have no problem helping new players, the points I have listed above can be learned in a couple hours reading, if that. If you have not cracked your Player's Handbook at all, your chances of Player Character death (and total party wipe-out) increase exponentially, not to mention your (and everyone else's) enjoyment of the game is reduced.

Thar be dragons here...