Open Game

[edit] Premise

A game open to everyone on the site at any time -- hence, the "Open Game".

The basic idea:

5 or 6 pre-generated level 1 characters
- Core resources only, to keep it simple, with perhaps a few other base classes like Warlock and Scout.
No one player "owns" a character; instead, a player "claims" a character for X posts in a row.
- I'm thinking X = 3 is probably a good starting point.
Once that player has posted X times, the character is "freed" and any other player may "claim" him/her
No player may "claim" more than one character at any given time.
Role-playing is expected to be consistent with the background provided by the DM, and all previous posts for the character.
Combat will be streamlined in some fashion so the game does not get bogged down in it -- still working on details for this.
- I will probably have players post general strategies for the characters for 3-round periods, with contingencies if needed.
- The DM rolls all the dice to speed things up. (This includes non-combat situations, also.)
We will also not worry too heavily about equipment, encumbrance, and other mundane details. This will be a "rules lite" sort of campaign.

A few ideas I am pondering:

XP is assigned to the player, not the character. The player chooses which character(s) to give the XP to.
- Or perhaps some percentage goes to the player instead.
- Or perhaps, combat/quest XP goes to the character; role-play XP goes to the player.
- Or the player gets some other form of tangible bonus for good role-playing.
Time limits on character claims -- say, 24 hours between posts, or your character gets "freed".
The DM role can, of course, get passed around just like the player roles do.