LFP
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
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:
Your D&D/TTRPG experience. New players are fine.
Your timezone and general availability.
Whether you already know Discord, D&D Beyond, Tupperbox, and Avrae.
A rough character idea, if you have one.
What you most enjoy in D&D.
Confirmation that you understand this is an asynchronous text campaign, not a scheduled voice game.
Quelenna Lovechild of Corellan Lorethian
Already apart of this campaign. Trust me, you'll get hooked once you learn how to make money. The DM is awesome, helpful, and supportive, but they will occasionally place you back in the line when nessecary. The DM is amazing, the characters are amazing, the story and lore is amazing... Need I say more? JOIN LINE OF THE SAND!!
(This is my compensation for not being able to bump it)
Hi! Your campaign sounds super fun! I've never done a play-by-post before, but I'd like to try it out, would that be okay?
Answers to your questions:
1. I've been playing 5e 2014 for about 7 years, a few months as a player, most of the time as DM; other systems as both player and DM; I have not yet played 2024 but I'm interested in trying it out
2. I'm in PST and tend to be available throughout the day Wednesday - Saturday, less availability Sunday - Tuesday but would probably have time for a few posts even then
3. I know Discord and D&D Beyond, I've experimented with Avrae but haven't used it for an actual campaign, and I am not familiar with Tupperbox (willing to learn)
4. I'd like to play a Rogue, because that was the class that got me most excited when skimming through the 2024 rulebook. I'd craft the rest of the character after reading the lore, I'd like to make something that fits with the setting. I normally play Clerics, so we'll see if I can manage to make a Rogue as a support character. Probably lean into the skill monkey aspect.
5. I'm still figuring out what I like as a player because I mostly DM, but I tend to enjoy social interactions
6. I understand it's an asynchronous text campaign!
I am going to send you my discord contact information directly.
Quelenna Lovechild of Corellan Lorethian
Completely New. I just made my first character. Know a few things about dnd and how ttrpgs work. I watched a few youtube campaigns recently and it made me want to play.
GMT+6. I live in Bangladesh. If you don't know the country, it's a southeast asian country neighboring India. I am free pretty much 4 days a week (Monday, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday) for 5-6 hours randomly throughout the day. The other 3, I have university and only have like 1-2 hours free.
A Ranger-Fighter Half-Elf(Elf if legacy race is not allowed) who was part of his village militia growing up (his hometown was attacked orcs, they are his favored enemy) and later joined the imperial(royal, whatever works for the campaign) army after his hometown was wiped out by a young red dragon.
I have always enjoyed games where I can make choices. somehow missed dnd and got into visual novels(yes, i am a weeb, well certainly was one, less so these days) and liked all the different endings but when i saw youtube campaigns, i realized that's what i wanted from visual novels, not a set list of things to do but whatever i wanted to, not just inspect the very specific object you point out but just walking around looking at things and picking out things to inspect and things of that sort
Yes, I understand this is an asynchronous text campaign, not a scheduled voice game. That's the main reason I replied to this. I think because of my location, this type of campaigns would be the best for me right now.
Ooh, a kind of D&D MMO, are you a developer making all those systems? Pretty cool.
Here's my 6:
1. Played and run many homebrew 2024 PBP (and live) games. Also some PF2 & SF2 as well, but that's not for here.
2. US EST, generally evenings for extended posting windows, but have time during day to post too.
3. Comfortable in all those tools (used them for some of my games too), though could always learn more about custom Avrae solutions and Discord bots in general. Tupperbox with HeroForge avatar incoming if chosen to play.
4. Goliath (hill giant ancestry) dance bard with entertainer background who joined an orcish dance troupe (is it cool if I make it up myself? I already have a name and chant/motto already) to see the world, learn about other cultures, and one day make a name for himself as a performer. Capoeira is his go-to, especially for Hill Giant's Tumble. And question: are you okay with changing background/origin feat musical instrument proficiencies to languages? That fits my head cannon for the character better than 7 musical instrument proficiencies (3-4 is okay and carryable), and from what little I've read so far about Calimshan and Memnon on here, languages would go much further.
5. Using unique abilities/features/spells (and generally as much of a PC's kit as possible), interacting with teammates, general escapism, and shenanigans if the tone of the game/group calls for it
6. Async pbp? Yes please, no one wants to hear my voice anyway.
My Discord username is the same as this one if it's okay that Idk much about the setting. Willing to read up on it of course.
Any hints for money making? And what does "back in the line" mean? Like a "wait your turn" kinda deal, not active, something else?
I sent you a FR on discord. As for what Ash is saying, that looks like a typo and there are too many possible variations with different potential meanings for me to speculate on this
Quelenna Lovechild of Corellan Lorethian
Send me a PM with your discord. The legacy races are not allowed, but you can mechanically be an "elf" on paper while in the lore having a mixed heritage. I don't think, at a glance, anyone can tell the difference between an elf and a half-elf anyway.
Quelenna Lovechild of Corellan Lorethian