Quote from Charwoman_Gene >>

I think them being a squad, accused of a crime they didn’t commit and on the run from authorities is key.  An Everton setting has real potential as the framing happens during the last war.

BA cannot be a Dragonborn or Goliath.  He needs hair.

You could give a dragonborn hair and a beard. I just did a pretty awesome Hero Forge version like that.

Quote from Ben_Evolent >>

Quote from chrisbodmann >>

Hannibal could be a changeling. 

Heh.  I was thinking about changelings earlier.  If Faceman is a con-artist charmer (high CHA with a focus on persuasion and especially deception), it could make sense for him to be a changeling.  If not, again, maybe a Warlock with the Mask of Many Faces invocation? 

Quote from chrisbodmann >>

I thought about the classic party composition as well. Seems like there is possibility to make that work if we’re all flexible. Hannibal as a war priest might work, but seems like face or Murdoch have the best opportunity for fulfilling cleric role. 

Yeah, I wasn't trying to squeeze the party into the "standard 4" roles.  Bards and Artificers are already hybrid classes.  Depending on the campaign, something like this might work::

• Hannibal - Bard (College of Valor)
• BA Barracus - Barbarian (Path of Ancestral Guardians) w/ Artificer Initiate
• Murdock - Artificer (Alchemist or Battle Smith)
• Faceman - Warlock (Archfey)

Bards and Artificers both have some healing spells.  Bard is a full caster with a limited set of known spells.  Artificers are INT-based casters who can change their prepared spells after every long rest.  The Warlock brings some illusion or enchantment spells to the mix.

But, like you said, other combinations would work well together:

• Hannibal - Wizard
• BA Barracus - Cleric, STR-based (Forge Domain)
• Murdock - Artificer (Alchemist or Battle Smith)
• Faceman - Bard (College of Valor or Eloquence)

And, really, if it's a non-standard campaign, you could go with a really non-standard party composition: 

• Hannibal - Fighter (Eldritch Knight), STR + INT
• BA Barracus - Fighter (Rune Knight), STR + CON
• Murdock - Rogue (Arcane Trickster), DEX + WIS expertise in stealth and thieves' tools
• Faceman - Rogue (Swashbuckler), DEX + CHA expertise in deception and persuasion

It just might require the DM to think harder about encounter planning and for the players to be a lot more creative!

The key, I think, will be for the group to discuss and come to a consensus on the mix. Honestly, I'd play any of the roles and I think you could make most anything work.

This is a few comments away from debating why female Dragonborn shouldn’t have boobs.

Geez some heated discussions here.

I plan to run this as a homebrew light hearted campaign, but if you're against it, I can take a pre existing world at least. We could start at level 3 so you ain't squishy. Your story would be just like the series - ex military guys from some bullshit war, like Nam was. You are hunted by some war comissar about X that you didn't do. You have your secret base of operations with resources, food, weapons etc. From time to time a young farmer/merchant comes to you to say that the local goblin mobster is not allowing him to do business. On parallel you are trying to prove yourselves innocent.

Right now we have 3 players

Quote from Charwoman_Gene >>

BA cannot be a Dragonborn or Goliath.  He needs hair.

Is the hair necessary?  Give him a crest along the top of his head and then some shorter, spiny horns on the sides of his head and face.  The visual effect would be similar.  😜

https://yourimageshare.com/ib/tA21FiZCkC

Hee hee. I was playing around with Hannibal as a Giff. Actually would be funny to make them all Giff. 

Quote from _Miglasezis_ >>

Geez some heated discussions here.

I plan to run this as a homebrew light hearted campaign, but if you're against it, I can take a pre existing world at least. We could start at level 3 so you ain't squishy. Your story would be just like the series - ex military guys from some bullshit war, like Nam was. You are hunted by some war comissar about X that you didn't do. You have your secret base of operations with resources, food, weapons etc. From time to time a young farmer/merchant comes to you to say that the local goblin mobster is not allowing him to do business. On parallel you are trying to prove yourselves innocent.

Do we have to keep breaking Murdock out of the sanitarium, too? 😉

Note:  I'm not 100% in.  I like thinking about party compositions, and I've found the discussion fun so far.  I'm just not sure that I have time for another PbP game.

I've never done a silly, light-hearted campaign, but it could be fun to try that for a change.  Maybe we could run a "one shot" first and see how it goes?

Are you thinking of something like a low-combat heist?  Or a more even mix of role play and combat?  That might affect which classes / skills / feats / spells we chose.

Unless you've already cooked something up, you really might want to look at KftGV. 

Keys from the Golden Vault presents thirteen Dungeons & Dragons adventures that feature heists. In each adventure, the characters receive a mission, plan the job, execute their plan, and try to escape the scene. You can run each heist as a standalone adventure or as part of a larger campaign

Grabbing one of those heists and running it as a one-shot would be a super low-overhead way of trying out this idea before you sink too much time into cooking up any missions yourself.  (I'm not that familiar with the adventure, so I don't know whether any of them line up well with the tone and style you're going for.)

Quote from chrisbodmann >>

The key, I think, will be for the group to discuss and come to a consensus on the mix....I think you could make most anything work.

Totally agree!

I haven't seen the show in decades, and other than the theme song, my memories are pretty thin.  I was most interested in playing B.A or Murdock, but I thought that @Charwoman_gene and you had claimed those two roles, respectively.  If you're really open to playing any of them, I might jump in with one of the Murdock ideas I suggested, but I'd be sad to prevent you from playing that aarakocra Artificer.  That idea sounded really fun.

I'm definitely not interested in Faceman.  I already have a high-CHA character who has to do a lot of talking in another campaign.  I really don't want to have another one of those on my plate.

I don't remember Hannibal very well other than his catchphrase.  Not even sure what I'd do with that one.

Quote from chrisbodmann >>

https://yourimageshare.com/ib/tA21FiZCkC

LOL!  Oh, that just looks wrong.  

Quote from chrisbodmann >>

Hee hee. I was playing around with Hannibal as a Giff.

Ha!  I've never played (or seen) a giff in a game.  I've also never played in a game where firearms are available.

We can do a oneshot. It would be combat-RP 50/50% I'd say. I will look through the heists you provided. Could probably work.

If we're doing the funny campaign, we have to break out Murdoch at least once.

I'd play anyone, really.  BA was my first choice, but I could probably do any of them justice, I have to do some wikipedia diving for Hannibal or Face as I do not have as much inspo memory on the characters. My order is BA, Murdock, Hannibal, Face. I warn you, if this gets too goofy, Hannibal goes from being played by George Peppard to being played by Leslie Nielsen,

I'm interested enough I'm strongly considering adapting the idea into an Eberron campaign of my own, with slightly looser characters.

I have a theory on how to decide characters if we are all competing (For BA and Murdock if I read correctly).  We could each send a separate private message to the DM rating our preference from 12 (I want to play Faceman and will leave the campaign if I can't) to 0 (I walk if you stick me with BA). The trick is each player has 2 rating points

So someone who is dead set on only one character puts all 12 there and zeroes for the others,  someone completely neutral does all 3s.

As a example:
Hannibal: 2
BA: 5
Murdock: 4
Faceman: 1

The DM then gives the character to whoever rated them higher, adjudicating ties himself.

I’m open to playing anyone tbh. But whatever works. 

Just picking up on this thread - As a regular watcher of the TV show when it aired, I'd love to join in.

Faceman would certainly be my preference of character, though I like the idea of a bardlock for him. 2 levels of Warlock to get the Mask of Many Faces invocation (both thematically and mechanically on point, and a pun all in one) then taking the rest of the levels as an Eloquence bard.

I think the ideas for the other characters have some pretty solid suggestions so far.

Finally we have 4 people that are interested in at least discussions about this.

So right now we have

• PolarBearSoup
• Charwoman_gene
• Chrisbodmann
• Ben_Evolent

Will leave the thread open, but will DM all 4 of you to decide whether we can put something together.

Quote from PolarBearSoup >>

2 levels of Warlock to get the Mask of Many Faces invocation

 
Or play human or custom lineage to get it with Eldritch Adept.

Yeah, definitely consider @Charwoman_Gene's suggestion of getting Mask of Many Faces via a feat.  That way, you could start the campaign with the Sliver Tongue feature from College of Eloquence.  It doesn't guarantee success, but it helps to avoid any catastrophic rolls, like a deception 6 when trying to talk your way past some guards.