Oh god what is this I'm not good with computers

Hi everyone! This is Jon...your freindly neighborhood DM. I apologize for tonights session being cancelled. Stupid weather. I am going to put a few suggestions here to speed things up before we meet next Friday.

1. I was planning to run the campaign in Ptolus. However, I am quite familiar with Greyhawk, Ebberon, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Midnight, and several other worlds so if anyone would rather play in another world let me know. I am flexible.

2. I looked over the character ideas that everyone had and they all look fine to me. All I ask is that if you want to play a non standard starting class (e.g. Dragon Shaman), please let me know what the sourcebook is that it comes from so I can research it. I am fine with pretty much anything. I just dont know them all by heart.

3. We will actually create the characters together. I certainly dont mind if you want to create your own prior to the game. However, I have some very different rules for ability score determination, starting hit points, and several other things. My way is generally more beneficial to the player so it is probably in your best interest to wait. However, it you wish to create your own prior to starting using the standard rules in the PHB, that's ok by me.

4. I gave DigDog some blank character sheets that are pretty good. However, I would imagine that most of you will probably want to keep your characters on computer. This is fine. I will just want to record everyone's base stats for my own recordkeeping. We can take care of that Friday.

5. The most time consuming part of character creation is skill picking. You may want to look over what skills are considered class skills for the class you want to play so you can have at least an idea where you want to spend your skill points. Just a general idea will help. No need to get detailed as you wont know how many skill points you have until we make the characters.

6. The next most time consuming part is picking out equipment. Again, it isnt a bad idea to look over the equipment lists to get an idea of what kind of stuff you want. Ptolus has some "oddities" that you can purchase as well but we will go over all of that when we meet.

7. If it isnt too much trouble, I would greatly appreciate if you all would post a quick comment here when you have time telling me your names and a little bit about yourself. I only know Thomas obviously, so it would be great to have some idea about you guys prior to starting. I will post a comment sometime soon and do the same about me!

8. Finally, if any of you have played DND before and have a particular style of role playing you prefer (method acting, strategist, completionist, etc...) let me know and I will try to DM in a style that best suits everyone.

I am very much looking forward to getting started. While I have been DMing for 38 years off and on, the last time I DM's a group was about a year and ahalf ago. It will be great to get back into the swing of things. I appreciate all of you allowing me to join the fun. See you all on Friday!

-Jon McAllister