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In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety.

Quote

As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.

That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. I've got starting gear from my class that I won't be needing/using. Do you allow players to sell gear they don't want at half price in order to buy stuff they do want?  I can afford to take the loss. But if I can start with more money, that's good. Related to this question, what are the limits of what we can purchase with our starting 200 sp?  Can we, for example, purchase healing potions? Better yet, can we use the money to have previously crafted minor magic items or healing potions (as per the revised "Downtime" rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)? I ask because this is part of what pre-campaign-start Augur does with his money, he uses it to craft minor magic items which he sells in his role as a hedge wizard. 

8. Are you OK with refluffing of spells. For example, could I refluff Silvery Barbs as a divination effect related to Augur's ability to hear whispers of warning, doing or saying things that swing combats in his favor. Similarly, could I refluff Mage Armor as more of the same: the whispers helping Augur, anticipate his opponent's moves, dodging or avoiding attacks through trickery and/or seemingly preternatural reflexes? 

9. Totally random, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety.

Quote

As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.

That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. I've got starting gear from my class that I won't be needing/using. Do you allow players to sell gear they don't want at half price in order to buy stuff they do want?  I can afford to take the loss. But if I can start with more money, that's good. Related to this question, what are the limits of what we can purchase with our starting 200 sp?  Can we, for example, purchase healing potions? Better yet, can we use the money to have previously crafted minor magic items or healing potions (as per the revised "Downtime" rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)? I ask because this is part of what pre-campaign-start Augur does with his money, he uses it to craft minor magic items which he sells in his role as a hedge wizard. 

8. Totally random, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. I've got starting gear from my class that I won't be needing/using. Do you allow players to sell gear they don't want at half price in order to buy stuff they do want?  I can afford to take the loss. But if I can start with more money, that's good. Related to this question, what are the limits of what we can purchase with our starting 200 sp?  Can we, for example, purchase healing potions? Better yet, can we use the money to have previously crafted minor magic items or healing potions (as per the revised "Downtime" rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)? I ask because this is part of what pre-campaign-start Augur does with his money, he uses it to craft minor magic items which he sells in his role as a hedge wizard. 

8. Totally random, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. I've got starting gear from my class that I won't be needing/using. Do you allow players to sell gear they don't want at half price in order to buy stuff they do want?  I can afford to take the loss. But if I can start with more money, that's good. Related to this question, what are the limits of what we can purchase with our starting 200 sp?  Can we, for example, purchase healing potions? Better yet, can we use the money to have previously crafted minor magic items or healing potions (as per the revised "Downtime" rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)? 

8. Totally random, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. I've got starting gear from my class that I won't be needing/using. Do you allow players to sell gear they don't want at half price in order to buy stuff they do want?  I can afford to take the loss. But if I can start with more money, that's good. Related to this question, what are the limits of what we can purchase with our starting 200 sp?  Can we, for example, purchase healing potions? Better yet, can we use the money to have previously crafted minor magic items or healing potions (as per the revised "Downtime" rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)? 

8. Totally randome, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. I've got starting gear from my class that I won't be needing/using. Do you allow players to sell gear they don't want at half price in order to buy stuff they do want?  I can afford to take the loss. But if I can start with more money, that's good. Related to this question, what are the limits of what we can purchase with our starting 200 sp?  Can we, fur example, purchase healing potions? Can we use the money to have previously crafted minor magic items (as per the revised "Downtime" rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)? 

8. Totally randome, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. Totally randome, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building latitude" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. Totally randome, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. (Yeah, I saw that his offical portfolio only includes Arcana and Trickery--which is a perfect fit for an Arcane Trickster, but...) My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character concept to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages (implied in Nezeris' titles). If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building flexibility" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. Totally randome, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!

In that case...

1. The Piety rules indicate the following as a reasonable expectation of a PC's advancement in Piety. [quote]As a general rule, you can expect to increase your piety by 1 during most sessions of play, assuming that you are following your god's tenets.[/quote]That brings to mind two questions. First, any chance you'll be awarding some amount of Piety based on our player application/Backstory, reflecting the past Piety we would have earned in the process of reaching Level 3. Second, mechanics that are based on "sessions of play" tend to breakdown when applied to PbP. What is done in one 5 our session of FtF play might take months or even a year in PbP. So should we expect, as with XP and leveling, that our Piety scores will remain relatively stagnant in this PbP medium?

2. I was very happy to see that Nezeris, your God of Trickery, also the "Path Maker" and "Messenger," is Chaotic Good. This is such a cool pairing of roles and alignment! I was hooked as soon as I read it. My character will be an Oracle of Nezeris, and I've designed the character to incorporate these three (Nezerisian?) themes of travel, trickery, and delivering messages. If you read between the lines of some of what I've written, you'll see that I have particular ideas about what Nezeris is all about and what it is like to serve him. So, I'm wondering, are players allowed any degree of "world building flexibility" with regard to the conceptualization of (some of) the deities you've provided?  Or do you have the Gods and their agendas clearly mapped out as part of the world that is closed to player world building? If you are open to world building on this issue--or even dialog--I've got ideas about a conceptualization of Nezeris I'd like to pitch. 

3. A central idea of this character concept is that he's a hedge wizard (a conman/minor wizard steeped in the tradition of self-taught wizards) even though mechanically he is an Arcane Trickster. So one of my goals is to make him appear as a (minor) wizard more than a rogue. Hence he wears no armor and fights with a dagger and... you get the idea. That said, (mechanically speaking) it would be a bad idea to give him ranged combat cantrips because his potential for ranged sneak attack will always be much more effective. And yet, I'd like there to be something magical about his ranged fighting. You've indicated that the sources for character creation are limited to official sources, which is fine by me. I've finished the mechanics for the character at this point, and if he relies heavily on his sling and darts for ranged combat, I can live with that. However, I'm wondering if you would occasionally make exceptions to your "official sources only" policy. Specifically, I'm wondering if there might exist a cantrip that would operate as do Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and other cantrips that require you to make a weapon attack as part of the cantrip--but rather than provide additional damage or rider effects to a melee attack, this cantrip would apply to a ranged attack with a light thrown weapon, and its only effect would be to cause the weapon to return to the caster's hand after the attack. This would look cool and feel magical--in a "minor magical" way. And it would allow my PC to walk around with only one weapon on his person, which he would use for melee or ranged attacks, giving him the flavor of relying less upon an arsenal of weapons and more upon magic to support his fighting.  And given that he's got sneak attack potential, it would be pretty cool that he's throwing a dagger which is doing much more damage than it should (due to sneak attack) and then returning to his hand due to his spell casting. No worries if this is a "hard no." Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd be willing to give up one of my current cantrips to get this proposed cantrip. I just wanted to know if something like this would be an option. 

4. A central idea of this character concept is that the character is young--at the border between adolescence and adulthood. In 3.5, that age would have been 16, but 5e didn't keep those granular rules, instead saying simply that "Humans reach adulthood in their late teens." Using that standard, sixteen would be the midpoint between early and late adolescence. Does 16 fit your setting? I've been assuming that my PC has been traveling and having adventures in his childhood and early(er) adolescence that got him to this minimum "adult" age (for a human) with enough XP to already be 3rd level. I'm also assuming a typical Western-European feudal setting where a sixteen year old would be capable of setting off on his own to make a life for himself. Does this sound right for this setting?  Do you have any concerns about me playing a minor (by modern standards)?  

5. I thought I saw a spot on your pages where you providing naming conventions for the setting, but maybe I was looking at a different game. Do you have information somewhere about naming conventions we might use in naming our characters?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

6. I made a custom Background that will serve as a significant part of this character concept. If it's a thumbs down from you, I'll need to rework a few aspects of the concept. So I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing you would be willing to look over and provide feedback/approval/disapproval before the submission deadline. 

7. Totally randome, but... I saw that there are airships in this setting. Way cool! How common are they? How affordable is travel by air as opposed to travel by sea?  

That's plenty of questions for now. Thanks for your willingness to answer questions!