Forty years ago, the world changed fundamentally. The long thought destroyed Cult of the Third Eye (Deus) was reborn with the resurrection of their God, and a plot by S‘Raxxle, the God of Oblivion, to destroy the world was foiled. Of course, this knowledge was bestowed upon the denizens of the world telepathically as the very world was rebuilt by Deus’ hands-can this account of events be trusted? The new generation of heroes can only choose whether to accept or deny written history, as they try and make their own way in this world.
What is Schism of the Third Eye
Schism of the Third Eye is a "Dungeons and Dragons" campaign. The quote marks are there for a reason; the house rules, genre conventions, and pacing all defy traditional Dungeons and Dragons expectations. Borrowing heavily from shonen manga (and really, anime and manga conventions in general), Schism (or STE) is a multi-genre character driven campaign.
Where the PCs come in
The player characters should all be "the next generation" of heroes. This means characters between the ages (for humans) of 14 and 24 (preferably within the 15 to 18 range), to emphasize the shonen manga-y elements. Note that this does not have to be a realistic depiction of characters of these age ranges-remember, this is fantasy manga, not fantasy realism.
The player characters begin play working together as a special Task Force as part of the Robin Hood Guild (Name Change Pending), a thieves guild in the capital of Midas that steals from the oppressive noble lords to help the poor working class. The party will begin their search for the ultimate Big Score, aided in their task by Darius De`Vaimer, the scion of a noble family who has joined the Robin Hood Guild (Name Change Pending) for the sake of justice. Will our heroes find their big score?
Where to start
Combat is essential, and a character's build should emphasize it-however, combat skill is not expected to at any point detract from a character's non-combat capabilities. In short, a character's combat function and character personality are both essential.
Begin by familiarizing yourself with the 4E basic rules; don't worry too much about learning classes just yet (the house rules make some of the class rules obsolete-mostly daily attack powers). Then, check the House Rules of the campaign. The main thing to recognize is that "daily" resources (daily attack powers and healing surges) are handled quite differently, and skills function differently. When deciding on trained skills, focus on what you want your character to be able to do; ignore whether you have such and such ability score (the Skills house rules will make it clear why you needn't worry about this).
One other important thing to keep in mind is visualizing what you want your character to be. If you have a character concept that isn't attainable in the context of the raw DnD system, ask the DM about it. The construction of custom powers and boons is to be expected.
Also note that some encounters may not be winnable in the typical "throw all your encounter attack powers at it and hope it dies" methodology. Sometimes, doing something unconventional will be necessary.
What to Expect
While Schism isn't "the worst of the worst" in regards to "Weeabooism," if you use the term weeaboo unironically, I'm just going to go right out and say you won't like this campaign. Schism goes to great effort to ensure that the comedy doesn't fall flat when it arrives and doesn't just fall into mindless anime tropes, but it's certainly true that the campaign borrows heavily from anime conventions. If that's the kind of thing that annoys you, I would recommend looking elsewhere.
The world of Tarroth is a bit of a contradiction that I call Fantasy Kitchen Sink Minimalism. What this means is that, while the setting has a wide variety of fantasy elements ranging from arcane magic to psionics to a plethora of different deities (that resemble, in part, a wide variety of real world cultures), the setting attempts to avoid introducing concepts that have no "place" in the world. What this means is that it's best to assume that, if something isn't mentioned, it probably doesn't exist. In short, as manga-tastic as it may be, there are no neko-mimi. There are also no faeries. Many fantasy races (halflings) don't exist as well. Rather than trying to play something that doesn't exist, take something that does exist, and make it duplicate the feel of something that doesn't exist.
As for gameplay, there will likely be sessions without any combat. Encounters do not exist to "exhaust resources" but rather to add a gameplay element to the narrative. The primary focus on the campaign is establishing the characters, the world, and the events surrounding said world. Many events are intended to be solved intellectually, rather than through sheer brute force. That's not to say the PCs aren't expected to become badasses of their own, of course.
On the issue of game balance
4th edition is not balanced. My game rules do not change this fact, though some of them attempt to. The rules are what they are, and I reserve the right to nerf (or improve) elements as needed. However, the core "concept" of a character's build is likely to remain unaffected.