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]

"Knowing what to expect" is pretty good. I have a friend who had to back out for time reasons whose level of experience consisted mostly of listening to podcasts of other people playing, though she's got a lot of experience with freeform roleplaying which is why I wanted her. I don't suppose you have any experience with that sort of thing? Or improv? Anything that involves putting yourself into a scene somehow?

In any event, you're more than welcome to make a character and throw it up.