New PbP DM looking for chill, literate ROLEPLAYING/STORY focused players for ToA.
Cellar of Death requires characters who have a common, very good friend/mentor/whatever who has perished and can't be rezzed. Character should be local to Baldur's Gate or thereabouts, but since this is a laid back game, I'm also open to anything you can rationalize (and that the final group of players agrees on). Post a link to your character and details about the slain friend; the final details of the friend can be hammered out on the thread between the players accepted.
Applying: Thoughtful, well-grammared (yes, I realize the irony there) posts will take preference. Don't join if you only want to kill things; this campaign will be heavy on role-play. That said, there will be plenty of enemies to slay.
Commitment: I will likely only be able to post once a day unless we're having combat or back and forth one line dialogue. I understand that life is, well, life and that this is a game, so I don't have a huge expectation on turnaround time for player posts; however, if you're consistently very slow, you'll get a warning and then start to be skipped.
Style: We're playing a game, so fun is key. No whining if/when you die, ToA is brutal, so know what you're getting into. We'll get you back in the game fast.
Last thing: While it's a published campaign and in some parts there's definite direction, in others it's open world. Players are expected to drive the narrative.
Taman's mentor, an elder of the temple of Azuth, who lived in a nearby village outside of Baldur's Gate, recently died. He traveled out of the city to see what he could learn on the death of the monk and found a young apprentice that the old monk had recently taken on.
Gotch is an oddity in the temple of Azuth in Baldur's Gate. The others there first watched him carefully, worried he would destroy the books he seemed to enjoy reading so much. After some time though he became a fixture there and proved he was as careful with the books as anyone could be. His mentor, a learned monk that lived outside the city, had first brought him to study here, and often the two would meet up at the monk's home to talk. Recently Gotch learned that his old friend was now dead, and he traveled to the monk's home to see what he could learn. Once there he found an apprentice the old monk had taken on.
Awesome. We're up to 2; should be a Tiefling Monk posting here soon as well. Her mentor was her Master. I can work with these two not being tied into one another.
Backstory: Cimeri was picked up from the street by Master Ziman (human monk) at a very young age (an act of kindness to a tiefling child), and brought to his house to eventually become an apprentice. They lived outside of BG's walls in a small village - a simple life of learning and meditation. Master died recently protecting village from a sudden attack of opportunistic bandits. Villagers, that loved Master Ziman, were ready to collect the gold to raise him - alas, nowadays it is not possible. Cimeri would go to BG to search for help.
Local government scribe that worked to keep the records of Baldurs Gate and the smaller towns around. Flynn was in small town where his old friend Augustus Ziman was killed. Knowing all the his associate has left behind, Flynn plans to keep an eye on that young tiefling child as he traveled back to report of the census and current events.
I’ll offer up two characters - whichever fits the team/campaign is good for me.
Vane - Aarakocra fighter (Arcane archer) Vane is long-travelled, having left her original roost in the Star Mounts of the High Forest when she was barely more than a chick. She’s worked her way south and taken on all kinds of jobs, from courier to mercenary to dockworker. She’s always been plagued with visions of a plague of death, and in Baldur’s Gate, has found some guidance from learned people, including Master Ziman, who had been helping her make sense of her visions before his untimely death.
Scoria - Earth Genasi Barbarian An outlandish-looking outlander, Scoria came to Baldur’s Gate looking for answers around her Dao heritage. She’d found some leads with the Magisters of the Temple of Azuth, who have some knowledge of the magical planes and their peoples, but her contact recently died in suspicious circumstances.
I've also been chewing on the idea of a second ToA campaign that 'competes/helps' with this campaign to get to the Tomb, should we start to see more players than desired. Would create a second post for a second group; how do peeps feel about that?
Local government scribe that worked to keep the records of Baldurs Gate and the smaller towns around. Flynn was in small town where his old friend Augustus Ziman was killed. Knowing all the his associate has left behind, Flynn plans to keep an eye on that young tiefling child as he traveled back to report of the census and current events.
So we don't double-up on wizardly things, what are you planning to do for this wizard's school of magic? Taman is planned to go into Divination, but I can change that up if you are planning that route. I have a conjuration wizard I could change to if you are going divination.
"Slow" is slower than others. I can tell about 3 of us, that we post several times per day in different topics. You were going to answer once per day - hence, anything less than once per day is "slower".
I, personally, no too keen about second group in the same campaign. But this is absolutely personal from a very modest experience of this type of campaigns and should not affect the decision. You specifically might prove me wrong.
In my experience, two campaigns in competition with each other are really difficult to run well - or rather, without giving yourself an immense amount of stress. Largely because if one group falls behind for whatever reason - maybe they spend more time roleplaying, rather than laser-focused on the ojective, maybe they run slow for whatever reason - then they suddenly have lost a lot of impetus to play. Why bother, when the other team has already done that location, beaten that challenge, won that fight? PVP campaigns are awkward. On the other hand, if that’s a challenge you want to set yourself as a DM, that’s up to you
I’d also suggest that four players is a solid number, especially for a TOA campaign - it’s easy to add/drop players should it be necessary, and keeps a good pace.
I'm convinced that a second ToA campaign is a bad idea, and convinced that four is a good number.
Are y'all Discord-literate? Should we start a server to ensure everyone aligns on party makeup and character creation? LMK
Is this going to be played here on DND Beyond or on Discord? I am fine hashing out character makeup here in the forum, but will have to bow out if we move to Discord.
Ok, we'll stay on here then. Here's where we stand with moving forward:
Action Items:
@Papervolcano needs input from all re: character choice. I lean towards the Genasi but both are great. Other players, if you don't care, pls just let us all know here.
@Woogles pls respond to @DragonDenn re school of magic choice
@Bluebayou, @DragonDenn, pls figure out if your characters know each other, how well they know each other, etc.
All: Please PM me whether or not you have any character secrets, etc., that you don't want in the public forum. I'd prefer there's no really rough party dynamic secrets, but I can work with anything.
When we see that's all taken care of, I'll send the Intro PMs and first post! Excited to be playing w/ you all!
I modified the short backstory I put in my first post. The monk and the elder are now the same person. Let me know if that isn't going to work out for some reason.
I will post a link there as well to the other character, so we can see what the others think of that one instead of Taman.
@DragonDenn: Haven’t decided yet, but open to playing anything. So I will definitely not pick divination if that’s what you’re going for. Also, I can go glass cannon if you’re thinking utility.
New PbP DM looking for chill, literate ROLEPLAYING/STORY focused players for ToA.
Cellar of Death requires characters who have a common, very good friend/mentor/whatever who has perished and can't be rezzed. Character should be local to Baldur's Gate or thereabouts, but since this is a laid back game, I'm also open to anything you can rationalize (and that the final group of players agrees on). Post a link to your character and details about the slain friend; the final details of the friend can be hammered out on the thread between the players accepted.
Applying: Thoughtful, well-grammared (yes, I realize the irony there) posts will take preference. Don't join if you only want to kill things; this campaign will be heavy on role-play. That said, there will be plenty of enemies to slay.
Commitment: I will likely only be able to post once a day unless we're having combat or back and forth one line dialogue. I understand that life is, well, life and that this is a game, so I don't have a huge expectation on turnaround time for player posts; however, if you're consistently very slow, you'll get a warning and then start to be skipped.
Style: We're playing a game, so fun is key. No whining if/when you die, ToA is brutal, so know what you're getting into. We'll get you back in the game fast.
Powergamers and trolls need not apply.
(OOC:So much for proofreading)
Last thing: While it's a published campaign and in some parts there's definite direction, in others it's open world. Players are expected to drive the narrative.
Taman Landon
Taman's mentor, an elder of the temple of Azuth, who lived in a nearby village outside of Baldur's Gate, recently died. He traveled out of the city to see what he could learn on the death of the monk and found a young apprentice that the old monk had recently taken on.
Gotch the Learned
Goblin Wizard (conjuration)
Gotch is an oddity in the temple of Azuth in Baldur's Gate. The others there first watched him carefully, worried he would destroy the books he seemed to enjoy reading so much. After some time though he became a fixture there and proved he was as careful with the books as anyone could be. His mentor, a learned monk that lived outside the city, had first brought him to study here, and often the two would meet up at the monk's home to talk. Recently Gotch learned that his old friend was now dead, and he traveled to the monk's home to see what he could learn. Once there he found an apprentice the old monk had taken on.
Awesome. We're up to 2; should be a Tiefling Monk posting here soon as well. Her mentor was her Master. I can work with these two not being tied into one another.
Tiefling monk Cimeri
Backstory: Cimeri was picked up from the street by Master Ziman (human monk) at a very young age (an act of kindness to a tiefling child), and brought to his house to eventually become an apprentice. They lived outside of BG's walls in a small village - a simple life of learning and meditation. Master died recently protecting village from a sudden attack of opportunistic bandits. Villagers, that loved Master Ziman, were ready to collect the gold to raise him - alas, nowadays it is not possible. Cimeri would go to BG to search for help.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
https://ddb.ac/characters/18872507/4QGqdO
Flynn Fynestyll
Wizard - High Elf
Local government scribe that worked to keep the records of Baldurs Gate and the smaller towns around. Flynn was in small town where his old friend Augustus Ziman was killed. Knowing all the his associate has left behind, Flynn plans to keep an eye on that young tiefling child as he traveled back to report of the census and current events.
I’ll offer up two characters - whichever fits the team/campaign is good for me.
Vane - Aarakocra fighter (Arcane archer) Vane is long-travelled, having left her original roost in the Star Mounts of the High Forest when she was barely more than a chick. She’s worked her way south and taken on all kinds of jobs, from courier to mercenary to dockworker. She’s always been plagued with visions of a plague of death, and in Baldur’s Gate, has found some guidance from learned people, including Master Ziman, who had been helping her make sense of her visions before his untimely death.
Scoria - Earth Genasi Barbarian An outlandish-looking outlander, Scoria came to Baldur’s Gate looking for answers around her Dao heritage. She’d found some leads with the Magisters of the Temple of Azuth, who have some knowledge of the magical planes and their peoples, but her contact recently died in suspicious circumstances.
So we now have four, which is the number I had running this in person, though since it’s online we could easily have more.
Player thoughts on that concept? Number of players per group?
I am good with whatever works for the group.
In my experience 4 is fine but any slow poster become a problem. And when it's over six - it's kind of crowded.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Please define 'slow' for the group's benefit. :)
I've also been chewing on the idea of a second ToA campaign that 'competes/helps' with this campaign to get to the Tomb, should we start to see more players than desired. Would create a second post for a second group; how do peeps feel about that?
So we don't double-up on wizardly things, what are you planning to do for this wizard's school of magic? Taman is planned to go into Divination, but I can change that up if you are planning that route. I have a conjuration wizard I could change to if you are going divination.
"Slow" is slower than others. I can tell about 3 of us, that we post several times per day in different topics. You were going to answer once per day - hence, anything less than once per day is "slower".
I, personally, no too keen about second group in the same campaign. But this is absolutely personal from a very modest experience of this type of campaigns and should not affect the decision. You specifically might prove me wrong.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
In my experience, two campaigns in competition with each other are really difficult to run well - or rather, without giving yourself an immense amount of stress. Largely because if one group falls behind for whatever reason - maybe they spend more time roleplaying, rather than laser-focused on the ojective, maybe they run slow for whatever reason - then they suddenly have lost a lot of impetus to play. Why bother, when the other team has already done that location, beaten that challenge, won that fight? PVP campaigns are awkward. On the other hand, if that’s a challenge you want to set yourself as a DM, that’s up to you
I’d also suggest that four players is a solid number, especially for a TOA campaign - it’s easy to add/drop players should it be necessary, and keeps a good pace.
OK, here is where we stand:
I'm convinced that a second ToA campaign is a bad idea, and convinced that four is a good number.
Are y'all Discord-literate? Should we start a server to ensure everyone aligns on party makeup and character creation? LMK
Is this going to be played here on DND Beyond or on Discord? I am fine hashing out character makeup here in the forum, but will have to bow out if we move to Discord.
Ok, we'll stay on here then. Here's where we stand with moving forward:
Action Items:
@Papervolcano needs input from all re: character choice. I lean towards the Genasi but both are great. Other players, if you don't care, pls just let us all know here.
@Woogles pls respond to @DragonDenn re school of magic choice
@Bluebayou, @DragonDenn, pls figure out if your characters know each other, how well they know each other, etc.
All: Please PM me whether or not you have any character secrets, etc., that you don't want in the public forum. I'd prefer there's no really rough party dynamic secrets, but I can work with anything.
When we see that's all taken care of, I'll send the Intro PMs and first post! Excited to be playing w/ you all!
I modified the short backstory I put in my first post. The monk and the elder are now the same person. Let me know if that isn't going to work out for some reason.
I will post a link there as well to the other character, so we can see what the others think of that one instead of Taman.
@DragonDenn: Haven’t decided yet, but open to playing anything. So I will definitely not pick divination if that’s what you’re going for. Also, I can go glass cannon if you’re thinking utility.
Edit: maybe I’ll go abjuration and go support.