LFP | Online Async Text | US Eastern / Global | D&D 5e 2024 | A Line in the Sand — Ongoing Calimshan Sandbox

I am recruiting up to 10 additional players for A Line in the Sand, an ongoing asynchronous, text-only D&D campaign set in Calimshan.

We currently have a dozen active players. The campaign is well underway: characters have formed companies, completed contracts, investigated crimes, rescued people, traveled beyond Memnon, hired NPCs, made contacts and enemies, earned reputations, and changed things that later characters have had to deal with.

New characters enter that same world.

Game: D&D 5e / 2024 rules
Group type: Online, Discord, asynchronous text-only play-by-post
Cost: Free
Experience: New and experienced players welcome
Timezone: DM is US Eastern; players can be anywhere
Schedule: No fixed sessions. Play happens throughout the week as people post.
Roles sought: Up to 10 additional players
Starting level: 3
Advancement: XP
Tools: Discord, D&D Beyond, Tupperbox, Avrae
Setting: Forgotten Realms — Calimshan, currently centered on Memnon
Style: Sandbox play, roleplay, exploration, investigation, combat, travel, factions, personal goals, and persistent consequences

What kind of campaign is it?

A Line in the Sand is a large persistent sandbox rather than one party following one adventure path.

Players operate alone, in pairs, in temporary groups, and in established adventuring companies. They take jobs, pursue leads, travel together when it makes sense, split when it doesn't, and cross paths again later. What one group does can become somebody else's rumor, opportunity, problem, or consequence.

That structure is also why a campaign with this many players works. Twenty characters are not standing in the same room waiting for initiative. They are spread across different scenes and parts of the world.

Memnon itself is part of the game. It has inns, guilds, moneychangers, mapmakers, apothecaries, caravan yards, merchants, shrines, guards, artificers, Mechanical Wonders, hired specialists, criers, and people with their own interests and routines. Beyond the city are roads, forts, settlements, ruins, desert, oases, factions, genies, and the rest of Calimshan.

Sometimes the solution is combat. Sometimes it is investigation, negotiation, preparation, hired help, the right piece of equipment, or knowing when not to pick a fight.

There is a lot going on under the hood

I have built systems specifically to make a campaign of this size work asynchronously.

Discord threads function as locations and active scenes. The campaign maintains persistent continuity while allowing different groups to act separately. First-time navigation has rules. Directions, landmarks, maps, guides, signs, and getting lost matter.

The Guildhall tracks contracts, party names, payments, message routes, and who actually accepted a job. Inns track rooms, keys, belongings, stabling, and messages. NPCs and institutions remember previous dealings. Reputation can affect access, information, prices, and future opportunities.

Travel accounts for routes, water, weather, mounts, equipment, maps, guides, supplies, encumbrance, and time. Local currency matters. Carrying capacity matters. Ordinary adventuring equipment gets used.

Combat has its own play-by-post procedure built around complete turns, simple contingencies, reactions, positioning, resources, and keeping initiative moving.

There are systems inside systems because a persistent asynchronous campaign with this many moving characters needs them.

This is not a casual Discord server where the DM occasionally drops a quest into chat. A great deal of infrastructure exists to keep the world consistent and let players have genuine freedom inside it.

What I expect from players

There is a substantial Player Manual. You do not need to memorize it, but you do need to read the parts relevant to what you are doing and make a reasonable effort to follow the campaign procedures.

New players are welcome, and I am happy to teach D&D, Tupperbox, Avrae, or the campaign systems.

What matters more is initiative.

Walk into the Guildhall and look for work. Ask an innkeeper about rumors. Hire a guide. Research something. Follow up on another character's message. Prepare for an expedition. Investigate something nobody offered you money to investigate. Form a group around a job. 

You do not need to write an essay every time you post. Clear intent is more useful than elaborate prose.

Give your character something to do, and the world will answer.

Character creation

New characters begin at level 3.

We use the 2024 version of character options when one exists, Fixed HP, XP advancement, Variant Encumbrance, and coin weight.

Characters are made through the campaign's D&D Beyond link. Homebrew Content is off. Player options come from approved sources, with a limited selection of specifically approved third-party subclasses.

Tupperbox handles character presentation in Discord. Avrae handles D&D Beyond integration and rolls.

The campaign is cooperative. Characters can disagree, keep secrets, make poor decisions, split from groups, pursue different priorities, and be difficult people. They cannot be used as an excuse to sabotage another player's game.

Tone

This is heroic desert fantasy with consequences.

Calimshan is hot, wealthy, old, crowded, magical, commercial, and dangerous. Water matters. Shade matters. Reputation matters. So do contracts, caravan routes, money, practical magic, old ruins, genie politics, and who remembers your name.

The desert is dangerous, and encounters do not conveniently reshape themselves because a group arrived unprepared or understaffed.

Preparation is rewarded. Cleverness is rewarded. Talking to people is rewarded. Exploring is rewarded.

Most importantly, players are given room to decide what their characters actually do.

Interested?

Reply here or message me with:

1. Your D&D/TTRPG experience. New players are fine.

2. Your timezone and general availability.

3. Whether you already know Discord, D&D Beyond, Tupperbox, and Avrae.

4. A rough character idea, if you have one.

5. What you most enjoy in D&D.

6. Confirmation that you understand this is an asynchronous text campaign, not a scheduled voice game.