Looking for players for homebrew Sword Coast campaign over Discord

I'm looking for players to try out a play by post campaign I've been working on for some time, as well as test some homebrew rules with.  

Me: I'm an experienced DM and player, I've been doing both since Gary Gygax days, but I missed 4e, and only started again a few years ago, so I’m still learning some of the ways people play these days.

The Game:  a version of D&D5.5e with homebrew rules.  There are a few aspects about 5e I find frustrating, so I'm curious to try some changes out. Added complexity warning.

The Story: while each of you was a few days away from Daggerford (perhaps in Waterdeep), you each came by a posting calling for adventurers to be in Daggerford on the first day of Midsummer, conveniently timed as the exact amount of time you'd need to get there.  Everything about the post felt strangely customized to you, but vague enough that it may have been a coincidence.  Needless to say, it caught your attention, and you changed whatever plans you had, leaving for Daggerford that day.

The Group: The group is meant to have 4 players, but I'm okay with 5 in case someone drops off for real life reasons.   Characters will begin at level 2, and should at least reach around level 9-10 before the part that I've written will likely end.  I'm open to continuing on after with some sort of 'sequel', depending on how people feel. 

The Players: respectful, patient people, 18+, willing to try out different rules, and that can work well with a group.  I like to see players that derive at least as much enjoyment from role-playing as they do from min-maxing stats and accumulating loot.  However, you don't need any prior experience with D&D at all.

The Player Characters:  Willingness to roll a human character is a plus, but anything commonly found on the Sword Coast is fine.  Evil alignments are allowed if you can commit to writing a very compelling reason for them to want to work with the group, and not be disruptive.  

The Rule Changes.  They mostly have to do with combat (armor most of all, but weapons as well, especially relating to mounted combat). I added some 3.5 edition-like themes back into the mix, as well as some of my own ideas, but they shouldn’t be anything unfamiliar to anyone with reasonable familiarity with any sort of RPGs.  Everything should integrate with the rest of 5.5e, but there may be a couple bumps.  If you find 5e already complicated or confusing and/or aren't excited for rules that add a lot more tactical options in combat, then this probably isn't the group for you.

If all sounds good to you, please reply answering the following:

1. What you want people to call you (with pronouns), and something about yourself, such as how long you've been playing D&D maybe, and what you like about it, and your timezone (or anything else you'd prefer to say).
2. An idea for a character that would have been in Waterdeep a tenday or two before the first day of Midsummer (we'll call it 1496 DR).  If not a city person, then some smaller settlement along the round to the east perhaps, or even south.  If you don't know Forgotten Realms lore, that's fine, you can make up a tiny village.  Just know that Waterdeep is a really big city, and Daggerford is a very small town a few days south of it.  Any other details you can make up and I'll help you adapt it to FR later.  
3. What one word would summarize a privately held motive/ambition that your character has?  

Don't spend a ton of time on it, just write a rough idea for their backstory/motives.

I'm going to pick the first 4 people that clearly read the message, answered the questions, and seem like they are a fit.  I am on Pacific time, but since it’s PBP it shouldn't matter too much if you're a few time zones away).  I'll send you an invite link if you're one of those four.

Geoff (he/him).

You can call me Jordan or by my character name he/him

I haven't locked in what character I will be playing for sure yet. I usually check what the party is playing and try to blend my character with the team

I know i probably want to play either a bard, artificer or paladin. Im curious what day/time we are playing and when the first session will be

Hi Jordan. Thanks for the interest.  I am going to run it over discord, so its play by post.  There may be times when we're all on that things will clip along, but other times that it slows down. 

I'd like everyone to be able to post at least a couple times a day on most days, but life happens.  I'm pretty flexible about that sort of thing. 

During parts where things get tense and go into initiative order, I'll try to find a time we can all be available for an hour or two to get through it so that the momentum doesn't stutter too much, but that may not always be possible.

No need to lock anything down, just curious about what your thoughts are re: character and backstory.  Those are all good class choices.  If you're still up for it, maybe let me know some thoughts on why they'd have been in Waterdeep, and what one word would summarize a privately held motive/ambition they have.  You're not committing to anything, just curious to see where you go with it.  

1. I can just be called Culuril. I have played D&D over a rather long period of time. (Starting with AD&D though I skipped editions in between.) I have been doing mostly PbP on DnD Beyond for about 5 years I think. I very much like the role-playing aspects, but the tactics of combat definitely add to the interest as well. I am Pacific time zone. 
2. Off the top of my head, I am thinking to make a Fighter character, though I'm very open to adjusting if the group has need of something else. Perhaps a Farmer or Crafter for background and lived in or just outside Waterdeep. 
3. One word to summarize character's motive/ambition: wealth (To expand on the thought - the character would want to earn money to be able to help her family who is in some sort of financial distress.  I see more to the character, but that's probably a primary motiviation.)  

I hope that's enough for now. I am starting to think about fleshing out the character idea more, but that gives a start!  

This sounds fantastic! I also run tweaked combat in my games when I DM, so I’d love to see what direction you’ve taken it in, especially for a PBP ^.^

You can call me Bandit or my PC’s name (He/they - either works ^.^) - I’ve been playing frequently for the last 2 years and absolutely loving it. As a DM, I run my games like fantasy sitcoms - a lot of slapstick humour, comedic timing, characature NPCs, social drama, and player-first stories. As a player, I like to play the *tasteful* comic relief character, like the geriatric old mentor, the overprotective group mom, or the sassy socialite. Always deeply engaged in other player’s stories, but in a more personal way rather than a glory-and-honor way.

For this, I’m thinking of playing a really bright and bubbly human character who comes from somewhere mysterious (maybe raised by fae in the woods, from a place that doesn’t exist, or a nomad with a bizarre reason to be travelling alone all this time) - They see the best in everyone, they’re bright-eyed, no-filter, and unbelievably gullible / naive, as if they’ve never been in common civilisation before. When they saw the poster, there wasn’t a single moment where they thought it was strange. They just saw it, got excited, ripped it off the board and started skipping down the street. They find every other player fascinating, and are just happy to be there.

Motivation: “Exploration! Friendship! Knowledge! Oh drat, that was more than 1… hmm….  Oh, I know! Adventure!”

I've never done play by post but I'm willing to try. 

I think for this campaign I want to play a reanimated artificer which hasn't released yet but will soon. 

The reason my character went to water deep is that he found a strange dead octopus on the beach and hes has been trying to get someone to help him resurrect it. (Its not actually an octopus but that's part of the fun lol)

In one word my characters motivation is either love or responsibility. As we progress this "octopus" will become my subclass companion and ill be modifying it and getting into shenanigans with it as we go

I sent each of you messages with invite links to the campaign here, and to the discord server.  Discord is free, and it helps things move along more smoothly.  When everyone is available, PBP D&D on discord can almost feel live, but it retains the anonymity element that can help some people to roleplay more.  

When you get there (if you do), use the Out Of Character (OOC) channel to say hello, and who you are, since your discord display name is probably different.  We'll be using discord bots to create names to use for the game that don't require changing anything with your discord profile.