Adventurers of the realms

Because of "life" that caused 2 players in our group to bow out for an undetermined amount of time, I will be starting a new campaign and seek 2-3 players to join us online on Mondays. 

A bit about the group:
Players are international, with 1 player in Central Europe and one in East Asia. (Somehow we have made this work for 3 campaigns over years) 
All players (and the DM) have advanced education. with professional careers.
Everyone in the group is liberal-minded, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, but we have a very pronounced pro-Ukrainian position, including family members and personally supporting/serving in the war.. 
Players have a minimum of 5 years experience DM has been doing this for more than 40. 
It is a mixed gender group.

We use D&D beyond for character sheets, Roll20 for our maps (which are very basic), and discord (video optional) for communication.
We do this because I (the DM) likes the electronic character sheets on D&D beyond. Plus I can content share and view your sheets at my leisure.
A simple table top, where we can have tokens and most important for me, easily upload maps created with inkarnate, and discord for announcements, scheduling, lore repository, and secret player chat channel that I never read, for out of character strategizing, etc.
We have had LGBTQ+ players in the group before and it is a safe and welcoming place.
We expect cooperative play. No lone wolves, treasure goblins, etc. Splitting the party always a terrible idea

You must be legally an adult (18 years old minimum) to play with us, otherwise, there is just too much liability we are not willing to accept. 
We do not accept sexually explicit material or behavior, but there is adult humor and some adult topics like prostitution, realistic violence, slavery, cannibalism, et al.  
We do not accept bullying, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, discrimination, or other rude behavior or attitude. We do not tolerate personal attacks or harassment.
English is not everyone's native language in the group and we are tolerant of language barriers and expect the same.

Trigger warning
This is not a good game for you if you have severe emotional or psychological trauma or illnesses. The adventure topics and character actions can be downright brutal. 
Nobody wants to hurt or damage other players, and we have had negative experiences with this in the past.

We are not professional IT or RPG players. If you are expecting the latest and greatest in virtual table top animation and integration, we are just not it. 

The rules
As DM, I am an OG gamer. I started in original AD&D in 1985, and have played every edition of D&D as well as dozens of other RPGs over the years. So I pretty much take what I like from all of them. 

We play on a 5e base game. Not 2024, 5.5 or whatever you want to call it. It has too many errors. 

We use the original AD&D death rules. 0 HP in unconscious, if you land in the negatives, you lose 1 hp per round until -10. In which case your character is dead. If you are reduced to -10 or more by damage in a single action, your character is dead.

If at any time, you are in negative HP, you may choose to go out in a blaze of glory, and finish the encounter regardless of HP, but at the end of the encounter, your character dies no matter what healing they may receive.

There is a custom item quality rule, basically higher and lower quality items cost more/less come with non-magical bonuses.

There is a magical item upgrade rule. So your magic items may get buffed over time. This rule was created because I hate when players get a better item and then go through the exercise of trying to sell or otherwise trade "lesser" magic items. 

There are racial restrictions in the world. Because of survival elements of the game, nobody can play a construct like a war forged or other creature that does not need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, etc..

The world is human-centric and there is racial discrimination. The more "monstrous" the race, the more discrimination and even outright hostility you can expect. 
It is highly suggested if you join the group to collaborate with your fellow players in our "session 0" 

All characters start at level 0. 

You get 1 skill of your choosing related to how you earn a living as a commoner. 1 tool or item related to that. 4hp +con bonus, 79points to buy ability scores with on a 1:1 point buy. Any racial bonuses given by your choice of species, race, whatever you want to call it...You tell me what class you hope to be one day. I create adventures to give you that opportunity to be it. Expect to go 3 or more sessions with no class. 

Upon earning level 1. You will have the equivalent of all of your starting equipment or better, You will receive all of your level 1 class abilities, feats if applicable, and get to choose a background based on your role playing for the purpose of added skills and bonuses.

I have adopted the "I know a guy" house rule from Dungeon Dudes. Every player gets 2 character life-time uses of "I know a guy" where you have some contact with an NPC you as the player makes up as well as how you know them. Don't spend it all in 1 place or too early.

Some general information about the world

I created the homebrew world. It is basically a sandbox, where I give you opportunity to choose your own adventure paths. You will not be able to choose them all. Please try to avoid analysis paralysis.

Every combat encounter is a deadly encounter.

As I said already, racial discrimination set to "on" and the more monstrous the race, the harder the difficulty.

Arcane magic is extremely rare and feared.

Divine magic has been lost to the ages and may be feared.

Players may aspire to be Knights using the Knights of Solamnia rules from Dragonalnce, formal wizard orders such has high sorcery exist. (Because I thought they were cool so I incorporate them.) 

The Pantheon is polytheistic and generic, there are gods of war, healing, or whatever domain is needed in a given moment in the game. Names are assigned when those moments come up. Because there is no point to prepare a pantheon that may never be used.

Some general stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere

You don't need an optimized character, because I will adjust difficulty on the fly to make sure all encounters are deadly. Deadly combat cuts down on murder hoboes, because when a character can die in any fight, fighting everything is a very bad idea.

Role playing is highly desired. There is no blurting out inappropriate things in the game and then "taking it back" retroactively with "that's not what my character said." 

We are patient and accept new or inexperienced players.

 So...

If this sounds like something you would like to be involved in, reply here. 

Make sure you leave your discord handle so I can contact you. 

Tell us (the group reading this) a bit about yourself, your experience with RPGs, why you want to play in this game in particular.
(don't tell me about your awesome character, because if you already made one without talking to the group first, you are starting off on the wrong foot.) 

Ask any questions you may have.

I usually receive dozens of replies, so, unless that suddenly changes, everyone will know by Monday 6th June if you are in the game. 

Campaigns usually last a year or more. There will be days off because of holidays, work, sickness, including anal glaucoma (can't see your ass gaming today) etc.

One of the players is a new DM and may occasionally run a 1 shot. 

But the goal is to meet Monday's at 1800 CEST (aka, the time in Warsaw, Poland) and play 3-4 hours a session.

Game on!