Game: D&D 5e

Group type: Online through Discord (mic required, English speaking server)

Experience: 8 months DMing

Location/Timezone: UTC-4 (EST)

Schedule: ***Edited; Early Morning (10am) Sundays, as this is the date most potential players have been open to.

Roles sought: 4 Players

Game style: This is a free, long term, story driven, exploration heavy experience through altered versions of the “Frozen Sick” and “Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep” modules that will include Homebrewed adventures for levels 13-20 using the “Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount” and “Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn” sourcebooks.

Hello and thank you so much for checking out my post! It’ll be a bit of a read so that everyone understands exactly what kind of game we’re all in for.

Hopes & Expectations For Players

I’ve met many players of D&D who got into it through Critical Role, and while I’m not one of them, my heart has been grasped by the world of Exandria from CR and the extended content & community that’s come through it. I’m looking for players who are interested in exploring this world, whether you’re new to it, a casual fan, or have been passionate about it for the past 7 years!

I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and a woman of color. I hope to form a group that can be comfortable with each other, knowing that when we play D&D we are all in a safe space to have fun and explore a world where our real life struggles can’t get to us. I expect that any person who joins the party is understanding and respectful of everyone.

Many people I’ve played with have voiced their dislike or concerns with running modules, particularly with unbalanced combat, a lack of creativity, and a sense of being rail-roaded without players being able to be flexible. I’d like to run these modules with my own tweaks and flair, adding in homebrew where I feel like it, and especially so; Letting all the players explore, experiment, and interact with the world in the ways they’d prefer to. 

I would prefer if players who have already gotten significant experience with Call of the Netherdeep perhaps give others a chance to experience the module. (Experience with Frozen Sick is fine) However, so long as no heavy meta-gaming is involved, I would be glad to have experienced players of either module join!

Newer players are welcome, however I ask that completely fresh players give this particular campaign a pass; You may find that you’re not a huge fan of the world of Exandria, fifth edition, and even D&D in general! I want to start a group with players who have played at least a few games and know they’re in it for the long haul, as sometimes new players find that they prefer mini-series or one-shots as opposed to years-long campaigns.

There will be no ERP, but I require all players to be 18 years or older due to the more adult themes in the various books we’ll be using.

Consistent players are not just expected, but required and rewarded! Life will always find a way to cancel a few sessions here and there throughout a long-term campaign, and so I’m looking for players who can dedicate 3 hours of their time, weekly, without pre-agreed to obligations getting in the way. This means if you work odd hours, have an inconsistent class schedule, or have trouble committing 3 hours a day each week to a particular hobby, this campaign might not be for you. 

That being said, I want to maintain a group that can be mature and understanding enough to forgive occasional mishaps, and work together to figure out scheduling if & when any particular players’ schedule might shift for the long term. This means that, especially for those in college, I understand that when semesters come and go it can drastically alter your availability. I want to make sure that if rescheduling is possible, we work together to make it happen in a way that best suits the entire party. And if not, to figure out a way to best give your character a satisfying exit to the story.

I want to make sure we have a good group before we start, and so that means we will all have to be patient as we gather our full party. The campaign may not start for a couple of weeks as we find our full party!

Campaign Premise

You and 4 other budding adventurers (who have some interesting talents) find yourselves in the snowy Palebank Village outside the city of Uthodurn. After witnessing a grim funeral, you are tasked with unraveling the mystery behind the deceased’s passing; Some strange illness that slowly turned them to ice. With similar symptoms appearing around the village, it’s up to you and your 4 (new?) companions to travel far north to the lands of Eiselcross, where you just may find a cure. 

Following this adventure, you will all be given some much needed down-time before heading to the city of Jigow within the Krynn Dynasty to enjoy the annual Merit Festival! Competition, celebration, and vacation! …Or, adventure? 

Should the party reach higher tier of play (15-20), we’ll discuss as a group exactly what kind of epic level of adventure we’re all hoping to experience, as very few players have gotten to experience the thrill of a 1-20 campaign. Given that time period is very far off into the future, I won’t tease any concepts or ideas for that currently!

Character Creation

Making a character is incredibly fun and personal, and I would like to make sure that everyone not only has a character they love playing, but one that will fit with the rest of the party. What does that mean?

1. Having a character idea or two already in mind is fantastic, but not required!
   
   
2. Further character creation, or collaboration as I like to call it, will happen as an entire party within session 0. Building on characters together helps better build a dynamic that all players are happy with, and is a great way to intertwine backstories if you’d like your character to have a more personal connection to other PCs from the start of the campaign. We’ll be using the optional Heroic Chronicle from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and the This Is Your Life section in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything to help flesh out any blank spots in backstory/history. 
   
   
3. Characters will start at level 1, and become level 3 by the end of the Frozen Sick module. Characters will then be given some downtime before starting Call of the Netherdeep at level 3. 
   
   
4. We will be using Milestone experience, but I will be tracking experience normally gained by killing monsters for some fun interesting bonuses the party may receive in between levels.
   
   
5. No core sourcebooks are banned, and Homebrew is allowed after being reviewed by the DM.
   
   
6. I am allowing all of the subclasses and backgrounds from Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn! 
   
   
7. “Power Gaming/MinMaxing” is allowed; So long as you’re invested in the story, world, and RP, I’m not against Variant Humans with Strixhaven backgrounds and 3 separate stats being 16+!
   
   
8. Stats will be rolled before session 0 in the Discord server using the Avrae bot. We will be using Rolled stats, where you roll 4d6, and dropping the lowest number. You will do this 12 times, and from that pool of 12 totals, you’ll mix and match them for your 6 starting Ability Scores. This allows for some freedom for both min-maxers, newbies, and those who like to play around with low scores alike!
   
   
9. All players will be guaranteed 1 stat to start with at an 18. The caveat being you will be required to have 1 “dump stat”, or negative stat, to balance this. I believe that all truly successful adventurers should have 1 thing they’re especially good at, along with 1 weakness.
   
   
10. Players who are uncomfortable with rolled stats may use Standard Array or Point Buy if they’d like to.
    
    
11. “Evil” characters are allowed! Morality is a complex thing, and so long as your character has a motivation to work with the party (even if you’re planning to betray the party down the line!), your actions and motives are your own responsibility. Be prepared for the world to react to your actions, though! There are consequences for stepping outside the boundaries of the law; Even when it’s to do the “right thing”.
    
    
12. PvP is sanctioned when, above table, consent is given. PvP can be extremely fun, but when it becomes malicious, or is used in a way that’s intended to force another player to roll a new character, that’s when it becomes a problem. (Keep in mind that, if you are planning to betray the party in some way, the DM must be notified, as I will not allow for things like premeditated murder of another PC.)
    
    
13. Each character will start with 1 common (not uncommon) magic item, cleared by the DM before session 1.
    
    
14. Each character will start with 1 character appropriate feat, again cleared by the DM before session 1. (Yes, this also means Variant Humans with the Strixhaven background)
    
    
15. Players may pick either Starting Equipment, or roll for their Starting Gold within the discord server. If you would like to swap out an item or two from the Starting Equipment for something that makes more sense for your character (like Hide Armor instead of Leather, or a Boomerang instead of a Dagger), feel free to ask the DM if it’s appropriate.

Lines & Veils

For those unfamiliar with the term, Lines are topics that are hard boundaries; They are not to be discussed by players, their characters, the DM, or the NPCs within the game. Veils are topics that are allowed to exist in the periphery, like a fade to black in a T.V. series; They’re mentioned, and canon to the story and world we play in, but they’re not focused on or explained in graphic detail.

What are lines and veils for each person will differ, and they will be discussed in session 0. Players who would like to keep their lines and veils private may message the DM the details of their lines and veils. The DM will include them in a clearly viewed, pinned message within the discord server, anonymously, so that we’re all on the same page about what is and isn’t okay to mention in or out of sessions.

That being said, D&D can get quite grim and uncomfortable, especially when we all become attached to the characters, story, & world we’re playing in. For this reason, any player can send a red X either within the Discord server, privately to the DM, or verbally out loud if we need to take a break/skip over a particular scene. 

A few uncomfortable topics and concepts will absolutely be brought up within this campaign, however;

• Mention of gore & blood
• Horror elements
• Mechanical Self Harm (Blood Hunters, Blood Clerics, Barbarians, Necromancy spells such as Life Transference, etc.)
• Loss of human life
• Mention of children losing their lives
• Creature/Animal suffering in combat
• Serious/Lethal violence (this will not be a campaign you can get through with just diplomacy)
• Terminal illness
• Mention of enslavement
• Physical and Mental disabilities, and the struggles associated with them
• Threat of violence
• Religious strife & zealotry/cults
• Player character death
• Strife between communities/territory disputes

Some topics and concepts that will either be removed from, or will not be brought up within this campaign;

• Sexual assault
• Graphic details of children losing their lives
• Graphic details of creature/animal suffering
• ERP/Graphic sensual intimacy of any kind 
• Extreme/graphic torture (Batman-esque assault for interrogations or threats may come up)
• Plot lines requiring committing acts of, or fixing racism (Fantasy racism exists, but it will not be a heavy overtone of the story)
• Homophobia or Transphobia

House Rules

Many of these can be discussed and tweaked during session 0, however if too many of these aren’t your cup of tea, it’s good to know before you commit!

1. Character death will happen, and we will be using Matt Mercer’s resurrection ritual rules when determining if a PC can be brought back to life. This is primarily to give players the option to privately let the DM know if their character’s soul is even willing to return to life, rather than a way to make resurrection harder in general.
   
   
2. Flanking gives +1 to attack rolls; This is because there are already so many ways to gain advantage within the game! It also means that enemies that flank PCs won’t just automatically be coming in with Pack Tactics every fight.
   
   
3. Food, water, comfortability (temperature rules, proper bedding at night, carryweight rules), and standard encumbrance rules will be in place. This won’t be a heavy “survivalist” campaign, but I find that a lot of interesting RP comes out when players are deciding what to eat, dealing with inclimate weather, or arguing over who’s tasked with dragging all the trash loot out of the Goblin den they just cleared out!
   
   
4. There are no races that are purely evil or purely good. Every creature has the same capacity for help vs. harm as the next. This is more of a world building thing than a house rule, but I’ve encountered a decent amount of tables that considered it a sort of variant rule.
   
   
5. Skill versatility; If you can make a decent argument for why Performance can be rolled instead of the Animal Handling check that’s been asked for? You can try it! Some players often get stuck in a rut of only wanting to roll for things they are “good” at. Just consider this; A +12 to Stealth doesn’t change a Nat 1, and a -2 to Athletics doesn’t change a Nat 20.
   
   
6. “It’s what my character would do!” If in a situation you realize you would not have cast a spell, moved to a certain location, or said something specific in character? You can go ahead and do a little bit of a time warp to fix it. We’re all here to have fun, and Player mistakes shouldn’t completely screw over a Character’s well being. Just be sure you’re not meta-gaming so hardcore that you think you have the Gift of Gab spell as a cantrip.
   
   
7. Meta-gaming is okay, actually; To a degree. D&D is a collaborative story telling game, and talking above table about fun concepts & ideas you’d like to explore is perfectly fine by me. When it gets to a point where you’re Insight checking every person in a location due to Player knowledge, when your Character has never been there before? That’s when it becomes a problem.
   
   
8. Monster knowledge; It is typically considered taboo to look up monster statblocks. The way I’m ruling it is this; If it’s in the Basic Rules? You as an adventurer know its monster statblock. Homebrew and extended monster book information, however, will require rolls to determine your character’s knowledge of a creature. 
   
   
9. Passive skills are real! Everyone’s heard of Passive Perception before, but there’s also Passive Insight and Passive Investigation. This means that instead of calling for “Insight Checks” so often, I’ll be going off of your characters’ passive insight against privately rolled Deception checks to see how much your character knows. If your character is understandably confused, curious, or suspicious, that is when an active “Insight Check” is appropriate.
   
   
10. Intelligence does matter! While fifth edition D&D doesn’t show much love for Intelligence (or even Strength, arguably), I personally think it’s a missed opportunity for RP, combat, and exploration. Intelligent characters will be able to substitute some classically Wisdom based skills with Intelligence. (This means that, yes, sometimes a Perception check is not enough. You need to investigate!)  Skills and situations may vary, but one in particular I allow is, again, Passive Insight. Intelligence is all about drawing conclusions and recalling details from prior events; Both things that could be quite handy in gaining some “insight” into different characters and events.
    
    
11. Inspiration. Inspiration can be expended to gain advantage on any action taken within the game. Inspiration will be given out during impressive RP moments, creative combat tactics, and interesting problem solving during exploration and puzzle solving segments.
    
    
12. Crafting. While fifth edition doesn’t give much love when it comes to using proficient tools, custom-designed spells, and crafting magic items? I’d love to explore all of those things if your character would be interested! We’ll be using a special way to train for appropriate skills, as well as make the pre-existing rules for crafting a bit more streamlined and adventurer friendly.

If you made it all the way down here, even if you skipped some sections, thank you so much for giving this post a read! If this sounds like the kind of campaign you’d like to join, please send me a private message with your Discord tag and a little bit about yourself!

hello, i am very interested in your game that you plan to run. i do have a question regarding homebrew content.

Game: D&D 5e

Age: 29

Experience: Two months

Discord ID: Amadmaniac#0612

Location/Timezone: Wisconsin/CDT(UTC-5)

I have watched some episodes of critical role, but my desire for D&D started from watching play throughs on youtube by amateurs and I thought that it could be fun. I was in another campaign earlier but the DM was changing things around too much and made it very clear that my character was basically a punching bag, I would prefer a game where I could collaberate with other players and roleplay for a story.

Oh my goodness, I'm so impressed with your setup! I'd love to play a long-term campaign, as I've never gotten a chance to play until higher levels. 

Love your style and story genre for the campaign. Don't know if you're still looking for players, but I'd love to join ya!

I have an already fully written character that I believe will fit this tone well! Arlen Rembrite, 26, Kalashtar, Ranger (horizon walker): an intelligent, mysterious empath tasked to fulfill his destiny by his Quori spirit, plus some elements that we'll keep private for now.

A bit about myself: Alan, 27, 3 years of dnd 5e experience. Currently acting, drawing, singing, writing and attending Psychology postgrad.

Also my discord is Ezra Wolfwood (Alan)#6976 , feel free to hit me up there!

Hey! This looks amazing and I would absolutely love to play.  

A bit about me: My names Austin, and I'm 24

Experience: About 8 months of dnd. I first got into the game from watching critical role campaign 1 streams.

Location and available times: I am in the Eastern us time zone, 10am is a perfect time for me and I can play on either Wednesday or Monday mornings 

If you want to contact me my discord Austor77#4126

Game: D&D 5e

Experience: Too many years to count (see below)

Discord ID: Catnip#1885

Location/Timezone: Virginia (EST, GMT -4?)

Does age matter? Being an elder *cough 55+cough* RPGer I know that some younger gamers feel uncomfortable playing with players old enough to be their parent. That being said, I'm a fun-loving player who has been doing various forms of D&D and other RPGs off and on for the past 30 years. I enjoy role playing, though I'm not always the best at it. And though I may not catch all the jokes and slang of the younger generation, I like to think that I'm young at heart and fun to game with. I work onMonday and Wednesday mornings, but would be up for either Saturday or Sunday morning gaming. I'm a casual Critter, watching it when I have the chance, though my daughter is very much a Critter, having watched EVERY EPISODE of the three campaigns...so if I have any questions I'm sure she can fill me in!

Deeply interested in this campaign conception, and implementation so far!

Me: Retired stay at home dad. 33...so I'm not that old...yet. Been a DND nerd since DND 2nd edition.
My discord is Kalypso#8167 and located on the west coast, CA. I'm flexible on times and days. I have tons of fun character concepts and love collaboration and immersive RPing. 

This sounds great!

My last campaign just ended so perfect timing and I am totally interested, below is my info.

Game: D&D 5e
Group preferred: Online, but face 2 face if near by.
Experience: A few years / veteran
Location/Timezone: Pacific Standard (Southern California)
Availability: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Preferred role: Player
Game style: Looking for any type of campaign from modules to homebrew.  Willing to start a new game or jump into an already established one.  I have quite a few different character concepts that can be developed accordingly.

Discord:   BeardedBully#9471

This sounds great

Game: D&D 5e

Ive been playing for about a year now and im still new to it all, I can be available at pretty much any time, 19 and a rouge for life!

First time looking for an online group

Discord: Lazarus#9524

One quick clarification: are we starting at level 1 or level 13?

 Nvm. Noticed in #3 that we'd be starting at lvl 1.

Still looking for players! Keep in mind that I'm only considering players who are reading my post fully, so please do try to get through the whole thing before private messaging me with details! Thanks!

Game: D&D 5e

Age: 27

Experience: 1.5 years

Discord ID: Deviant Gazer#4150

Location/Timezone: EST

I very much enjoy the setup that you have for this campaign. It sounds very promising and very interesting. I am very eager to join this campaign. I have a surplus of characters that I very much would love to try out. However there is one question I have about this. How long will these sessions last?

The reason I am asking this question is due to my current job occupation, it takes a part of most of my later afternoon/evening, leaving only my early mornings free. I understand that this can make things complicated, but I have been very eager to join another campaign

There aren't too many spots left, though I've altered the available timeframe to be Sundays exclusively. My deepest apologies to all who applied or hoped to, that are unable to play on this day.

Hi! Wow, so much detail!! This sounds very interesting, and it would be great to join your campaign.  I’ve only been playing DnD for the past 6 months and I’m in love with it. I play in a long campaign (we meet once a week) and a few one shots and they’re so much fun… I want to play more. I have only ever played face to face but unfortunately there aren’t many people who play the game in Egypt which is why I started looking to join an online group. I haven’t used Discord before but I imagine it won’t be an issue…

Oh the day and time work for me and I’m quite flexible with the character build since there are so many classes that I still want to try out 😃

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

Hello, myself (Liam 26) and my girlfriend (Jackie 27) are very interested in joining the game if you still have slots open. Sunday morning is no issue with us. I have about a year and a half experience back with 3e however I haven't played any of 5e due to being in the military and hadn't found a group to play. If you'd have us we would love to join!

I would like to join I have a character set up