[Online] [5e/Homebrew] [Westmarch] [Play-by-Post] Gem Westmarch

A dying god-gem, six worlds inside it, and missions that don't have clean answers.

The pitch: The gem is alive. Not metaphorically. It's a conscious entity, and the worlds inside it are its facets: a scrub-haunted wood, a dwarven hold with something wrong under the ice, a pirate archipelago, a cold Norse coast, a crystal world. It's also slowly dying, and someone has noticed.

You're not a chosen one. You're an adventurer who took a job. Somebody with deep pockets is paying people to go into the gem and find out what's in there, and you answered the ad.

Structure: Westmarch, built to run long. Every mission is self-contained and takes you from one level to the next, so there's no session you can't miss. Six storylines run in parallel across the facets and you're free to hop between them; take a job in the dwarven hold this month, sign onto a ship the next.

What I'm going for: shades of gray. Every mission is a genuine moral dilemma with no clean resolution, and the antagonists have reasons you'll find uncomfortably good. If you finish a job certain you were the good guys, I probably wrote it wrong. Character-driven over optimization, combat happens, but the interesting points are emotional.

Pace: A post a day is the sweet spot. Mid-mission I ask for a post every three days so nobody's party is left standing in a hallway, and if you go past it, I'll just take a sensible action for your character and keep the scene moving. No penalty, no drama, you slot right back in. Between missions, life happens and I'm not counting. The only real ask is that you say something if you're going quiet; a one-line "work ate me, back in three weeks" is all it takes. Disappearing wordlessly for a month is the one thing that costs you your spot, and even then you can come back and make a case for picking up where you left off.

Details:

- System: D&D 5e, milestone leveling (one mission = one level)

- Format: Play-by-post on Discord. I'm the only DM right now, so text is what I can sustainably run. no scheduling, no timezone problem, play from anywhere

- Experience: any and all. Total beginners genuinely welcome, PBP gives you time to look things up, and I'll walk you through it

- Characters: everyone starts at level 1

- SFW [focused] server

- Limitations google doc available for use for those with triggers

- Free

The server's small and building its roster, which means you'd be getting in early enough that your character's choices are what later players inherit.

Link auto-roles you [DDB] so I know you came from here:

https://discord.gg/xDQDWwpxWd

Interested, going to link