This is going to be a campaign which has come about as a collaboration between Tweedeh and myself, in response to several players wanting to play a game based around a Witcher/Bloodborne aesthetic. We will be co-DMing, and are looking for any players who have an interest in such a game. Said game will be low on magic, and high on action focusing mostly on monster slaying although there will be the opportunity for other missions such as carrying messages, acting as bodyguards etc. We plan on making it somewhat more like a videogame by having a "respawn" system, the particular mechanics of which will depend on the faction you have aligned yourself with or are working for.

The way we have attempted to create a setting like this in DnD is by going to Waterdeep just after the Spellplague. Fear not for any of those who hate 4E/The Spellplague, this is not the version that has since been changed, but rather an alternate version. Waterdeep is a city under siege from within. The Spellplague has changed the nature of magic, and caused numerous parts of the city to merge with various other planes as well as warping creatures already present there. The results have been steady attacks by myriad monsters and the retreat of most Waterdhavians to a select few fortified locations. There are several factions which have survived the changes wrecked upon the City of Splendor, which we will delve more deeply into once we have chosen the party. Most of your jobs will involve working for one or more of these factions to help clear the city of monsters as well asto simply survive. Do you have what it takes?

Although this will be as mentioned a low magic setting we will not have a restriction on classes. Just be aware that the abilities/effects magic users have in-game will change due to the nature of the Spellplague. Please post your concepts/pitches here since we have two DMs, pm's would not be overly helpful. Please provide:

Character Name/Race/Class/Background. Level 3 with point through Standard Array, Point Buy, or roll dropping ones once.

How familiar you are with Witcher or Bloodborne.

A little about your experience/playstyle.

A little about another hobby you have besides DnD (doesn't need to be more than one sentence if you don't want to write more).

Please stick to official material (to include CR), we are both fairly new to DMing and trying to get more practiced at it so we'll probably save UA/Homebrew for another day. Plan on posting at least once a day. No need to come up with a backstory yet, as we will work those out with the players chosen, so as to mesh them in to this new world better and help decide exactly how we start.

Huh... Co-DMing sounds interesting and I wonder how you'll pull it off... I personally have no experience with Witcher and am already in quite a few games so this is not an application, but I might take a glance at your campaign thread occasionally to see how it is working...

Good luck to all the applicants and may the dice roll ever in your favor!

I’ve actually really been wanting to play a straight up fighter for a while, so this would be a good place for him I think :)

Character info: Duncan Tabr, Human, Fighter, Soldier

Familiarity: almost none at all, though I have the first Witcher book that I’ve been meaning to get around to, and this would be good motivation to finally pick it up~

My style: though I do enjoy a bit of min-max, I also like to RP. None of my posts are pure rolls, as I’ll always describe what my characters are doing, and I sometimes will take the less optimal choice if I think it’s better for the character.

other hobby: I enjoy freediving! - Though I haven’t been in the water much recently :( - my current personal bests are 4 min, and 40m deep, on a single breath of air (not at the same time)!

Character info: Cy Hanali Markonus, Wood Elf Ranger.  A reclusive guardian of a mysterious object even he doesn't understand (Horizon Walker subclass, not sure what background yet).

Familiarity: Negligible with Bloodborne, I know the general atmosphere and a few plot points and that's about it.  For the Witcher, I've read all the books and have some slight knowledge of the 3rd game (haven't seen the series yet).

Style: Mostly geared towards combat, although all combat can be just as boring as all roleplay.  My characters tend to not speak in lengthy speeches, both because I'm not great at dialogue and just because of personality.  In terms of experience, most of my D&D experience is through PbP.  Started playing around 2015, but only rarely managed to actually find a meeting/group until I joined DDB and started PbP.

Other hobby: I'm a semi-professional musician and a beginning composer, been making piano arrangements of some game music during lockdown.

Edit: Are you allowing Tasha's?  The Ranger optional features are quite nice.

All official material is allowed so Tasha's is a go. 

Sounds good, thanks.

Ah, one two more questions—what level are we starting at?  And what type of ability score generation?

Oh, I'm a little late, aren't I?

Edit: Kenku Warlock, rough draft sheet for anyone curious https://ddb.ac/characters/39120203/foKbmQ

I'm familiar enough with Bloodborne and Witcher, though my adventures with the former are usually cut short due to rage-quitting—

I've been role-playing a lot longer than I've been playing TTRPGs, so combat isn't exactly my strong suit. I like the story, if that makes sense, and sometimes have trouble keeping up with action.

As for other hobbies, I'm an amateur author, avid gamer, and spend a bizarre amount of time doing research for someone who hates doing research. 

Edited original post to reflect starting level and stats.

Also as mentioned, don't feel like low-magic means you can't play a magic user. 

Are Tasha's changes allowed, forbiddened or each case by itself? Especially the racial ability increase changes for now but everything in general.

Also, is knowledge of the story required? I have watched the show but neither reas the books nor played the games so I wouldn't call myself very knowledgeable.

Considering the above, can someone sum this 'spellplague' in short so I'd understand the settings a little better? Not planning on playing a spellcaster, but many subclasses of various classes gain some access to spells in different ways so...

Ability scores: 12 11 16 17 7 13

(Oh.  Ok then.)

Char sheet if you want it now: https://ddb.ac/characters/40234150/q1dXJn

Greeting all. It is I, the dreaded second Co-DM!

To answer Firecat5's excellent question, the Spellplague is a kind of cosmic event wherein the goddess Mystra is slain by nefarious means by one of the other gods. The resulting shift in the Weave loosens the rigid structure that binds the planes themselves, causing them to tumble in a chaotic manner until eventually put to right over the course of one (or many) campaigns taken on by the best and brightest of heroes. In our version, we are focusing our view down to the material plane only, leaving for now the more metaphysical explanations as to why things are happening. In the material plane, the Spellplague, or something similar, is causing the planes to collide, magic to sometimes malfunction, and much chaos to ensue. We will begin in Waterdeep, though the effects of this Spellplague are felt far and wide beyond the city. At the end of the day, knowledge of the Spellplague is optional, at most, and has been/will be altered to suit the creative and/or narrative purposes. In the same vein, knowledge of the worlds featured in the Witcher series and in Bloodborne will, at times, help inform the aesthetic description of that which we have created, and will perhaps guide your choices mechanically when approaching some challenging encounters. As 10cent previously noted, combat in this game will focus on tougher, stranger monsters with enough added difficulty to warrant the incorporation of a soft "respawn."

Do with that what you will. 

Uuuh, sure. Yeah, I'm in on this.

Roll for stats: 16 13 15 11 13 11 (EDIT: Darn, not quite as good as I'd like. lol)

Character Name: Wolfgang "Wulf" Walden
Race: Wildhunt Shifter
Class: Path of the Beast Barbarian
Background: Outlander

I am passingly familiar with Witcher (could never play the games though) and I've played some of Bloodborne (up to Father Gascoigne) and watched lore videos on it.

Roleplayed for years (basically 15 years) with various systems of DnD, forum games, etc. I'm in a few forum games right now, actually. I *try* and do mostly RP, while retaining good mechanics in the background. The character should explain the stats, not necessarily the stats defining the character.

I game, playing RPGs and strategy games usually.

https://ddb.ac/characters/40237600/CqBKOf My character sheet for you.

Withdrawn

Ability scores: 12 11 13 17 14 14

Character Name:

Race:

Class:

Background:

Familiarity: I am slightly familiar with both, though I am more familiar with the witcher.

Experience/Playstyle: I've been playing D&D for about 2 years now, and PBP for about half that time. I usually like to have a mixture of optimization and RP. I want to create an effective character, but most decisions (spell choices etc.) will be character choices.

Hobby:I enjoy writing and just beat NaNoWriMo (Writing 50k words in a month.)

Ability scores: 16 15 13 16 18 14

I was wanting to try out the new Peace Domain cleric...

Name: Kathrin - Race: Custom from Tasha - Background: Acolyte

Ability scores: Ability scores: 17 13 13 14 14 14

Sheet: https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/CodesterV8/characters/40249789

Name: Lyric Cha’pun

Race: Goliath

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Oath of the Watchers

Background: Acolyte

I am not familiar with the stories themselves, but I am familiar with the general setting and theme of them.

Ive been doing dnd for around 6 years now, and my primary play style is to fill in the roles the party may need (I primarily play Bards, Artificers, Sorcerers, Clerics, and Paladins.)

(Not manipulated just forgot to rr ones)

Ability scores: 11 11 15 13 16 9

Harlon Brend was a bodyguard/mercenary for hire. One fateful  day he was escorting a merchant from Neverwinter to Waterdeep. Somewhere near the Mere of Dead Men, the caravan got ambushed by barbarians and wolfs, who slaughtered the whole crew. Harlon was left for dead, but some kind of twisted luck made him survive and now he is gifted with new strength and physical resistance, but around every full moon, he shows very agressiv tendencies and blackouts during the night.

I’ve read most of the witcher books, but have no clue about Bloodborn.

Due to an odd working pattern and/or covid, most of my experience is in PbP. I dm two games at the time and favour action based plot.

Hobbies: cycling, running, swimming in the ocean.

Houndmouth / Ranger / Human / Acolyte from Baldur's Gate
without going too much into background, my idea would be an Acolyte of Torm, working as a bounty hunter and killing as a means to honor Torm but also make money.
Believes in treating people fairly, staying loyal to his squad, but is ruthless when it comes to killing monsters.

Familiar with the ideas of Bloodborne and Witcher but haven't played either or watched the show.

Playing style is straightforward and generally roleplay as myself, no-nonsense pragmatic personality. I've only got pbp experience with one other campaign, but it's been fun so far.

Since 2010 I've been involved with hot air ballooning, mostly as a crew member but as landowner relations in the event in my town. A few weekends a year are spent waking up at 4:30am to be ready an hour before sunrise.

Interested, lemme roll up stats first.

Ability scores: 10 14 15 13 9 12

Sounds like an awesome setting, I've been on a Witcher kick recently so this came along at the perfect time. 

A Human Fighter, Bennam Ironsmith. (Thinking either battlemaster, or possibly re-flavouring echo knight to fit with the Weave acting oddly- he might have learned to tap into the chaotic magical currents). A disgraced former bodyguard of a noble family, he was terminated when his young charge was killed in the chaos. Since then he has cared only about drinking enough every night to forget his shame.  Ability scores: 12 13 8 10 15 12 ((I set it not to re-roll, not sure if that is right))

I know a bit about the Witcher world- read the first book, seen the show and currently playing game 3. Haven't played Bloodbourne but I understand the general idea. I like the whole dark fantasy vibe, should make for a fun time! (for the players, not the PCs. I imagine they will not be having much fun at all).

As for my experience, have been playing regularly for a few years, and occasionally DM-ing. Am actually starting to run a Traveller game with my regular D&D group. With regards to play style I mostly enjoy RP and exploration, though I do enjoy the combat. I'm not particularly focussed on being the optimum combat machine, and sometimes will spend my turn doing RP stuff instead of hitting things, which I know can piss some fellow players off (sorry guys!). One recent example, our party were fighting our way through a cult lair, I spent several turns trying to talk one of the young cult recruits into giving up instead of throwing their life away. 

Hobbies besides D&D... I like a making cocktails? (To drink while enjoying fantasy things). Sorry for the novel!