D&D: "You All Meet At An Inn" Campaign Reboot

[alexandraerin]

Note: If you see this on Facebook and would like to join, please comment on the Livejournal version of the post.



So as I mentioned in the previous post... and as the multiple preceding posts about D&D sort of indicated... I'm getting ready to revive my online gaming groups that were aborted last fall by the death of my desktop computer and the several month delay in getting a working replacement.

I'm going to be running basically the same campaigns as I was before, but due to the lengthy delay and some things I feel I could have done better from the start, they're going to be total reboots. Submissions will be open to anybody who has a Livejournal account or is willing to use OpenID to comment on Livejournal... I'm not going to be using an outside blog site this time, to cut down on my mental overhead.

The "Asfenar" campaign, which met on Sundays, will also be restarting... if you were in the Asfenar group and would like to be again, please wait for that post to go up about a week from now. I'm less satisfied overall with how the "Inn" campaign was going (because of my decisions) so I've been giving it more thought; ergo, it's getting restarted first.

Now, I already know that not everybody from the first incarnation is going to be available. Some people had issues with the time commitment that probably haven't resolved themselves. But if you were in the group before and would like to be again, I'm not trying to exclude anyone by not contacting them directly. I don't have access to the email address I was using to run the games and I don't really remember who you people were.

Even if you did play in the previous version I can't guarantee that anyone's going to be in, except for my actual close friends who I've already guaranteed will be in. That's pretend life. If you played before, please don't feel like I'm snubbing you if you don't make it in again. I'm going to be looking for the characters that I think make the best fit... you folks probably have a better idea what I'm looking for than anyone else. Feel free to submit your old character, a new version of that character, or someone new, if you're interested in playing again.

Though some of the parameters of the campaign have changed, so if you don't feel like participating, or don't have time, don't feel like you're going to be hurting me.

The game will be starting on Thursday, the 29th of this month. Anyone who's interested should have their character submitted before this coming weekend is up. I'm not setting an exact cut-off but I'm going to start putting the group together sometime Saturday, so if you have your character in before then you'll have the best chances.

The details:

1. This campaign has themes that might be found similar to TV shows like Quantum Leap, Time Tunnel, Sliders, Lost In Space, Farscape, Star Trek: Voyager, or even the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon... the characters are "lost" or "adrift" in some fashion. More will be revealed/discovered in play.
   
2. This is going to be a fairly roleplay-heavy, story-focused game. Players should be prepared to roleplay, and to give their actions some descriptive flair in combat. Combats will tend to involve small numbers of enemies, with a focus on interesting environments or combatants. My goal is for the narrative flow of the game to continue uninterrupted throughout fights, avoiding as much of the jarring shift between "story mode" and "battle mode" as possible. This is something I've always believed in, but rarely have able to bring to life.
   
3. Required programs include Skype (free) and a web browser. I strongly encourage the D&D Character Builder (low-cost*) and a (free) IPlay4E account (Google logins work), as it's the easiest way for me to keep everybody's character sheets handy. While we'll be using Skype for chatting (I find it convenient), microphone/voice equipment is not needed, as we'll be sticking to text to avoid the technical difficulties voice conferencing can cause.
   
4. In order to keep the technical requirements low, avoid further problems caused by uneven connection quality, and help keep the combat transitions seamless, we'll be ditching Screen Monkey and using the Abstract Combat Mapless Encounter system I devised. A cleaned up version of those rules with revisions (mostly simplifications) from the playtest session will be posted soon... it's a fairly simple set of "rule hacks" to translate the action from the grid into words.
   
5. Regular game time will be Thursday nights at 9:00 PM central time. Sessions will last approximately two hours, with a half-hour overrun in case we're in the middle of something. In other words, I'll aim to be done by 11:00 central, but please be prepared to go to 11:30. This will be an ongoing game. The tools and parameters I've set mean that I can run it from any computer, anywhere I go, even my little netbook. I don't expect anyone to commit to play "forever", but please don't apply if you know you've got a conflict coming up in the next couple months. Occasional absences and breaks I can deal with.
   

If you would like to play, please comment with a link to your completed character sheet in IPlay4E, or a write-up of your character if you don't have the Character Builder. Please apply with no more than two characters. In your comment, give a brief description of your roleplay experience and your character... tell me what you're going for, basically, in about two-three sentences. Also please tell me if we know each other and how. This includes if you were in the previous version of this campaign... telling me what character you played would be helpful as I'm more likely to remember that than anything else.

I'm as interested in people who have experience with freeform roleplaying (like is often found in forums or Livejournal communities) as experience with D&D, though some experience is preferred.

Legal characters:

• All characters should be level one, using standard point buy or an equivalent method of generating ability scores. (No rolling.) Standard 100 GP for starting equipment and money. What your character is carrying/wearing is all you'll have access to in the campaign... you can have other property "back home" if it fits your character, be it a hovel or an estate. Your clothing can be of any quality/description suitable for travel without having to pay out of your equipment budget.
  
• You do not start with any magic items. I hope none of the old group is disappointed by this. I'd like to keep things simple for less experienced players.
  
• If you select Backgrounds for your character, do not pick one that gives a non-standard benefit.
  
• You can pick campaign-setting-specific Backgrounds and Deities. Feel free to create your character as if they are from the Realms or Eberron or any permutation of the vaguely defined core D&D campaign setting. Or not.
  
• I'm not going to veto any race or class that's in the Compendium/Character Builder. If anybody wants to play as a Monster Manual race I may have to alter their racial abilities for balance. Please don't take that to mean that "monster" races will be deprecated in favor of Player's Handbook ones.
  
  Also, people who read this journal regularly should know I see serious issues with the Drow. Keep that in mind before submitting a character. I'm not saying there is no Drow character I would accept. But it's not likely a given person will come up with one.
  
  Other than that I'm not going to favor any selections over others, except that I'm not likely to pick two characters from the same race if that race is one of the ones that sounds more like a superhero origin story than a people with a culture. Keep that in mind when asking to play a telepathic crystalline construct made from fragments of the Living Gate or an undead being called forth into new life by the Raven Queen. Elves and Dwarves and Goblins and Gnomes and things will be evaluated on their own merits. Shardminds and Revenants and such will also be evaluated on how far the rest of the party's composition is straining my credulity.
  
• I'm not aiming for a specific number of characters in each role this time. However, I will be trying to make sure every role is covered.
  
• I'm not aiming for a specific group size, either. If there are too many characters I like, I may create a "second cast" that meets on a different night.
  
• While creative interpretation of character abilities (also known as "re-skinning" or "re-fluffing") is a good thing, all characters must be valid, legal 4E characters with no homebrew abilities. Please don't ask me to approve any power customizations or substitutions not allowed by the rules as written.
  

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*The full version of the Character Builder with up-to-date information can be downloaded by anyone with a D&D Insider subscription. It's possible to get a one month subscription just to download the current version of the program, giving you a one-time fee of $10. Sharing DDI passwords or copies of the program is a violation of the license terms and will thus not be discussed here.

If you already have access to the books you need to create your character but don't have the Character Builder, you can post the salient details in a comment and... if selected... I'll run it through the Character Builder and put the results up in IPlay4E. It's just less work for everybody if you have the Character Builder.


Update on 7/16:

The group list is almost set, see the next post for details. I wouldn't mind having another character or two who can fight on the front line/in melee, again, see the next post for details. Please follow the instructions above to apply with them. If you've already applied and didn't make the list, you can submit a new character.

Comments

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I wanted to make sure you see the update I'm adding above... so far I'm seeing a lot of overlap in the classes people are applying for, so I'm going to suggest that if you want to maximize your chance of playing you apply with a second character. I'm not wholeheartedly opposed to duplicate character classes in one group, but I'm going to be looking at building a group that strikes me as interesting and where everyone's going to have their own things to do.

[sylvandragoon.livejournal.com]

Well... To be honest, I really would like to play *this* specific Paladin, mostly because I've tried to start him in a campaign three separate times now, not including this one, but each time the group has dissolved after 1-2 sessions for time reasons. But, I also would really like to play, so here is a changling seeker.

http://iplay4e.appspot.com/characters/agdpcGxheTRlchQLEgtDaGFyYWN0ZXJWMhjw2IACDA

I have a better idea of the background.... mostly because I was going to put more here, but for some reason a random button on my keyboard closed this tab last time when I was almost done >.<

Dyne is an urban tracker and free spirit. He was orphaned at an early age when a pair of ignorant but well-meaning adventurers murdered his parents, mistaking them for doppelgangers. He does not know what he is, and considers his ability to change his form fairly unique. He has used this ability to survive on the streets on his own, first by begging for food as different children and then by trying to gather information or find those who did not want to be found using a combination of his extraordinary perception, insight, and roof-running abilities.

Dyne has lived in several large cities, moving whenever he felt his "true" identity was at risk of being revealed. He has an enormous amount of respect for nature, as during his travels with various caravans no amount of trickery could substitute for skill at tracking, hunting, and noticing that which is out of the ordinary. However, the draw of the city has always pulled him back... Companionship, wine, and the secret life of the throng are all guilty pleasures he knows he could live without, but cannot resist.

Dyne is a male, but spends anywhere from 30-40% of his time as a female, and indeed takes great comfort in his ability to switch gender roles. He feels as though this has helped him to truly understand people, and will often take on a form that is stereotypically descriptive of how he wishes to be treated at the time. If he desires companionship, he may take the form of a beautiful woman, whereas if he wishes to drink and boast he may appear as an older hunter or mercenary, scarred by years of experience. Dyne is effectively bisexual, but tends to enjoy the company of women more as they (usually) must be actively pursued, and he is a hunter at heart.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Your preference is noted.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Also, could you post some background/personality stuff here in the thread for your Paladin?

[sylvandragoon.livejournal.com]

Tsk, did I just post a duplicate class of one of the people who is guaranteed to be in the group? Gah, my apologies. Makes it even worse that it is a Seeker....from what I saw that class doesn't have much variation yet. I'll edit that post or reply to it with a different character class, same background, mostly same skills. Might make it a ranger instead.

Anywho....Ashkevron!

Ashe is the child of a pair of adventurers, an Elven "Sorceress" and Human Cleric. His parents, with the aid of their dwarven warrior friend, have righted many wrongs, etc. etc., but this is not their story.

Having spent most of his life traveling, Ashe feels that he is simply no stranger to peril. Because of this he is extremely reckless where his own health and well being are concerned. His early exposure to three distinct and wonderful cultures has given him a deep appreciation for the struggles of all sentient beings, and any time he can place himself between the blade of claw of one creature trying to murder another, he will try to do so.

When in cities he prefers to mingle with the crowd and listen to the business of the day, or simply wander around and learn what local history he can. He has studied many different faiths, and while he bears respect for many of the gods, Avandra, Bahamut, and Moradin all hold special places within his heart. Libraries, temples, and other places of learning are his favorite places to be, as the craft and history of different peoples, as well as the preservation thereof, fascinates him in an childlike way. (Don't get him started on the awesomeness of paper! We owe so much to the first guy to come along and think "Hey, wouldn't it be nifty if I could have a hard copy of this thought, just so I don't lose it later"!)

As a final note... Ashe's fighting style is fairly unique, a blend of the arts of war learned from his father, mother, and "uncle". Though he is far from a typical example of elven dexterity, in battle he moves like water, gracefully redirecting the force of his opponents blows using a mixture of martial skill and arcane force. His armor is covered in softly glowing blue and gold runes in common, elven, and dwarven. These runes act as both an advertisement of his chosen profession (full text available if you want it) and a focus for Ashe's divine and arcane abilities. When he wishes an enemy to know that *he* is their opponent, the runes on his armor will intensify in radiance, fly free of the armor, and bind themselves around the sensory organs of whatever creature Ashe is facing, restricting their field of perception of every target save Ashe himself. Should his chosen foe strike out at any other target, the runes will move to restrict and slow the movement, making it easier for those he is protecting to escape harm.

Well....that is Ashkevron in a nutshell. Patient, friendly to all, a courageous bookworm who uses his knowledge to protect those who have never had his sort of training.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

It's not like it's a huge faux pas or anything... you didn't know. That's one of the reasons I decided to put what everyone's applied with.

I'm not going to nix duplicate classes completely. As things stand right now, there will probably be two Warlords in the group. But they're so completely different that you would never know they were the same character class if you didn't know the class power lists. Of course, that's easier to do with Warlords, who have three books worth of updates. Seekers just came out so it is harder to differentiate them.

[kynn.livejournal.com]

dyne's got some pretty odd views about women. well, i guess you did say he's male.

[sylvandragoon.livejournal.com]

If you'd like to discuss them further in some sort of private messaging system, they have a source. It is The Red Queen, Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. It is mostly an amalgamation of research on the sexual habits of many different species, humanity included. Its main pretext is basically the question "Why sex?" when asexual reproduction is basically about twice as efficient.

I assume Dyne is living in a society with many different species, where each have their own sexual practices, which hopefully we won't be delving TOO much into in the campaign...if at all, if I am in it.

However, I fear I may have already strayed too far into discussions we won't be having here, so I shall simply end on the thought that yes, Dyne is still only a male creature who can and does pretend to be female at times because he is aware that people tend to treat men, women, and whoever can squirm their way out of restrictive labels, differently.

By the way, here is a revised ranger Dyne. I hope this doesn't violate the rule of two character per submission... Feat, skills, background and everything is mostly the same, stat assignment as well (spread out, int just for Linguist, Wis just because, still no con.....kinda bad for a ranger I guess) No major changes, just reskinned him to be a striker.

http://iplay4e.appspot.com/characters/agdpcGxheTRlchQLEgtDaGFyYWN0ZXJWMhjw2IACDA

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

lol evoloutionary psych lol

Yes, this is so not conversation we're having here.

[sylvandragoon.livejournal.com]

My sincerest apologies.