Greetings, adventurers! Welcome to the OOC thread for our little Dungeons & Dragons game, all iteratively titled "Adventurers Ascending." Alternate titles included "Adventure Trek," "Heroes Most Humble," "Quests Are Hard," and "The Yet Unnamed Campaign."
I, SonofJET, am your humble Dungeon Master. If you are just joining us, let me fill you in. Those of you who have been here since the ponderously titled Interest Check, you can ignore this part.
I have been DMing for about two years now. Apparently, people like some of my games. I don't know if that means that I am good at it, or if they simply lack good taste. However, since I believe it is my love for role playing, writing, and storytelling that has made me such an enjoyable DM in the eyes of my friends, I figured that it was past time I take to the forums with one of my most favorite hobbies.
Which brings us to this thread. At this moment in time, there is no real direction for this game.
Don't run off just yet. Allow me to explain a bit.
It is my belief that a good game of D&D is grounded in realism, almost as much as it is in fantasy. Also, the wants of the players must be given great consideration. If I were to say "There is a Big Bad Evil Guy, go level grind until you can kill him and become big heroes," I believe that would remove some of the responsibility (and motivation) from the players. After all, when the driving force of your character is spoon-fed to you by someone who did not come up with your character (
YOUR CHARACTER!), most of the role playing seems to have been done for you. Everything else seems like an extension of that main goal. I especially dislike tying multiple characters together through the BBEG Backstory, when they have no reason to be so connected. Real life has taught me that ideas, more than events, connect our modern adventurers.
So, there is no grand scheme that I have for all of you potential players out there.
Veterans from the IC thread? You may rejoin the class now.
I offer you a world that, as far as the uninterested role player is concerned, doesn't exist. I also offer the promise that, should the question be asked "What's going on in this part of the world?" An answer will be given. I detail when details are sought. I introduce plot lines when players want a quest, and I have planned for one to be present. When I make a world, I make many of its inhabitants, and I make many of them only too eager to present a chore, er, adventure to the intrepid heroes that enter my world.
I am fairly lenient, as DMs go. As far as options for characters go, look to any published work. If you only have the core books available? That's fine. The options have certainly aged well enough for my tastes. Any of the "Races Of" series lining your bookshelves? Fantastic! We play humans all day anyway, why not try something else on for size? Books of Vile Darkness and Exalted Deeds and Erotic Fantasy? Er, they're a bit out there, in some cases, but I have had fun with aspects taken from each (and no, before you ask, there is no good thing that can come from a group of Sailors playing BEF D&D during those long at-sea periods, only sadness and discomfort).
I hate to limit imagination more than the rules dictate, within reason of course (no, your level one fighter can't have a Souldrinker, it doesn't matter who he inherited it from).
I also hate game-breaking optimization. Yes, I peruse the various forums on which these optimizations can be found. Yes, I have Google. No, I will not let you play a character build that I found, word for word on an optimization board, with a simple search.
The point is to create something that you enjoy, because you developed it. If the only way you can enjoy something is by ruining it for everyone else, there are some organizations I would like to introduce you too. Also, you're no fun to play D&D with.
With all of that being said, here is the basic outline of where this campaign will begin.
The characters will begin play in the Southernmost region of a continent primarily inhabited by wild race, near the relatively new settlement of Bayton. Only a few centuries after it's founding, this town has grown to a population of nearly 4000.
Over the past several years, tensions have run high between the city council and the natives. As Bayton grows ever larger and more prosperous, it's borders continue to encroach on the wilderness that surrounds it, which is far from appreciated. Whether elves or fae creatures in the forests to the West, or the numerous races that reside in the plains and mountains to the North and East, few are optimistic about the idea of human expansion.
Characters will be class level one. You may have a higher effective character level, but be advised that you will need more XP to advance in level.
Attacks and skill checks will be resolved here via the dice app, and the results will be integrated into your posts. Most combat should be resolved before too many posts, as the math-y part will be dealt with OOC.
Hopefully, this should be a good long campaign. Character sheets should be sent to me by PM for approval. Once the group has been assembled (more or less, applications will always be reviewed, even if the party gets full because things happen, characters die, players lose interest or have to deal with real life, and the show may need to go on), posts may begin IC.
Please include a fairly detailed history with submitted character sheets. I base a lot of adventures off of character back stories, so you will get what you give.
Some more details (copied from the IC post):- "Low Level/Setting/XP Talk" | +
SonofJET wrote:
As far as a more "realistic" struggle, if we were starting as level 1, that would absolutely be the mission du jour for the most part. I wouldn't pit a bunch of peasant kids against any Elder God status challenges as soon as they picked up the adventuring kit.
If it were going to get to that point, and the game would have to last long enough to do so, then it should feel more like a natural progression. (See
this link for an explanation of what I'd be going for).
As far as setting, I don't really know much about them. When I DM, I usually go by the "If it's published, it exists somewhere in the world we're playing in" mentality. See a race from Eberron you want to play? Maybe the character's family wanted to make their fortune in a new country. Faerun class you're interested in? Maybe you saw an example on vacation one year, and were inspired to follow that example as you grew older. This keeps options open, as far as creating flavorful character builds and stories. It also keeps my options open as far as monsters, magic, loot, storytelling, etc.
And we would be using XP on a more lenient basis. If I feel the story warrants a particularly tasty bonus, I'll dish it out. If someone is just wandering around picking flowers and expecting their use of the skill "profession: florist" to net a level gain, I'll check some tables and grudgingly issue the minimum amount of XP that that example would be worth. I like to see depth, as well as excitement in my RPs. Sometimes that means combat = XP, other times it means intrigue or character development = XP.
- "Stat Rolls/Leadership" | +
SonofJET wrote:
I'm fine with rolling for everything. If it's level one, take max HP for HD, if its multiple HD, take max for the first, average for the rest if you end up truly unsatisfied with the result of rolls.
So far, I've only got Ragnar's sheet, and he used the pathguy generator, which has options for rolling stats. I prefer 5d6, drop the lowest two. And you can reroll any result lower than 8.
As far as companions go, I'm fine with all of those examples. You can have as many zombies as you can control, golems as you can afford/create, and followers as you can lead. I've never really used Leadership, but that's more for simplicity. Just try not to let followers/cohorts get out of control. Could you (potetially) attract an army? Yes. Are they all going to be min/maxed supersoldiers? Unlikely. That takes the attention from the actual player characters.
Notice: Active recruiting is now CLOSED! :(If you still want to be involved, by all means, PM me with your ideas, stat rolls and characters, and we can see if you can be inserted into the group, or if you can be saved for a later date. Who knows? I might just start another group if I get too many submissions!
SonofJET wrote:
I think we're sitting around seven.
I think I'll go ahead and call an end to open casting for our adventure. If your name is on the following list, please get your character sheet and backstory to me.
So far, we have (in order of character submission/roll/interest):
Ragnar - Character Submitted
Maxx - Character Submitted
Uratan - Character Submitted
Zavyr - Character Submitted
Dawn - Character Submitted
Malikai - Interested
Eferhilda - Character Submitted
If your name is not on this list, but you are interested, don't be sad. Submit an idea/stat rolls/character sheet to me via PM, and I'll either squeeze you in or save you for a rainy day.
I plan on starting this a bit before the actual IC goes up. The idea is to do a short, opening side-quest for each of you via PM (dice rolls, discussion, everything like face-to-face classic D&D), purely to get the roll-y math-y part out of the way (much like what will happen during the IC proper in this OOC thread), and let you compose the actual writing part after the quest is resolved. These quests will also lead the characters to meet up IC.
But, before I can link everyone up, I need some character sheets! Backgrounds! Motivations!
Get to it!
:D
IC Thread
