September 1st 2018: Still looking for a game.

Game time: I'm in Central US (Chicago time) but my availability is only from UTC 4pm to UTC 10pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

My experience level: I’ve run three long-term games before (homebrew worlds and homebrew systems), run many oneshots (homebrew worlds and homebrew or 5E as a system), played in a few oneshots (5E, Apocalypse World, 3.5E), and played for a short time in a long-term 5E campaign (homebrew world) that I left because it turned out to not be a good fit. I occasionally watch TTRPG-related videos from Web DM, G&S’s GM Tips, Matt Colville, Dael Kingsmill, Adam Koebel, etc. I’m currently running a long-term 5E game in a homebrew setting.

I've never played or run an official module before, so have no worries if you're looking to run one for uninformed players and you think I'd fit as a party member.

What I'm looking for in one sentence: I’m hoping to join a respectful and thoughtful group of players who emphasize roleplaying and character commitment, and to play in a game that focuses on the character group at least as much as everything else (exploration, combat, narrative, etc.).

Expectations of other players and of the GM

I expect the same things from the other players and the GM that I expect from myself. Namely,

Respect

• Everyone at the table should be treated well/fairly. If someone has a difficulty with something, the group should figure out if there’s a way to make things easier for them. If someone finds themself uncomfortable with something in the game, the group should stop the game and figure out how to move on without that thing being included from then on.
• No one should be treated poorly because of frustration or personal differences. Bigotry/intolerance shouldn’t be tolerated. “Trolling” other players shouldn’t be allowed, either in terms of out-of-game behavior (such as “jokes” about someone’s character) or in-game behavior (such as stealing items or ruining people’s plans).
• Sometimes people in a group don’t fit together for one reason or another. Everyone should respectfully be honest about any mismatch they feel, and everyone should respectfully decide, as a group, in a group conversation, who should go separate ways.

Consideration/Care

• Everyone is a player, including the GM. Players play one character, the GM plays the world. Everyone has a responsibility to communicate frequently (and in a timely manner - usually within a minimum of 36 hours after seeing a question or request, which should be checked for at least 2 days before a session starts) with the others, to focus on what makes the game fun for other people, and to make their character/”the world” forge positive connections with the other players’ characters/”the world”.
• If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so and talk about how you might find an answer. If life gets crazy or you might not complete something you said you would, let everyone know ASAP, and keep them informed every few days. Leaving people in the dark is worse than letting them know that you won’t be able/weren’t able to do something, because it prevents people from being able to make decisions about how to handle the unexpected difference.
• Individual players should not try to keep the spotlight only on what they themselves enjoy, step on other players’ toes, or do things that they know annoy other players.

Investment

• Everyone in the group is part of a team. Everyone should create background details and make connections in the world, but should also help other players (including the GM) with what they’re doing. If someone is working on a character goal of obtaining a certain item or having a certain status in a city, the other players should look for ways to help them accomplish that goal - which might include making suggestions to the GM about what things might exist in the world. If the group uses maps or automation, players might help the GM or other players with finding resources or setting things up. If the party is going to a lot of locations, the GM might appreciate help with finding lists of names for places or NPCs.

Personal Responsibility

• Although everyone should be looking for ways to help each other have fun and to help reduce the difficulties and bad experiences others might have, the ultimate responsibility for how much fun any player is having rests on their own shoulders. A GM or player who isn’t feeling interested in what other people are doing or what’s happening the the world/game should tell others about it, but should also look for ways to get interested in what’s happening or in what could happen in the world (and then communicate with everyone about those things).

What I want from the game (Listed in order or importance/priority)

If anything is unclear in this section, perhaps what I've written in the game doc for the campaign that I'm running will help you understand what my perspectives are.

Must Have

• A GM that does a Session 0 before the game starts - preferably before people start creating characters
  • Session 0 should include discussion about, at minimum
    • GM style and Player styles
    • What type of game the players want to play
    • What kind of setting the players want to play in (global and local)
    • Race/Class/Subclass/Background/Feat/Stat Determination options (I’m partial to Point Buy or 4 sets of 4d6kh3, from which the group picks one set that they all draw from for their stats, swapping numbers between scores as they like)
    • Particularities of any rulings the GM might make that might not be like what a lot of other GMs do
    • Expectations players (including the GM) have for each other
    • What will be done when there is interpersonal conflict in the group
    • What will be done when someone misses a session (or multiple sessions)
    • Does the GM use critical failure and critical success rules for rolls other than attack rolls? If so, what are those rules, and what negative/positive results do they cause?
    • Does the GM award “inspiration”? If so, what are the criteria, what is the “inspiration” benefit, and how long does it last? 
• A player group that is 100% respectful, and that cares about each other. No anti-LGBTQI+ behavior, no anti-people of color behavior, no anti-people-with-difficulties behavior, no “edgy” jokes, etc. The only acceptable intolerances are intolerance of harm to others, intolerance of bigoted intolerance, and intolerance of uncooperativeness.
  • This includes not making characters that will abandon the group, betray the group, or piss off people in the group - that’s disrespectful to other players’ investment in the game, in their characters, and in the other group members
  • To reiterate what I wrote in my list of expectations: Communication. Communication. Communication. In-character during the game. Out-of-character during the game and outside of the game.
  • This also includes players learning their character’s abilities and the rules that the group uses, so that play doesn’t get slowed down and people don’t get frustrated/angry/resentful. Respect everyone’s time and investment.
• A character group that is invested in each other and prioritizes each other over anything else
• A character group that doesn’t include any traditionally "Evil" characters (characters driven by greed, enjoyment of inflicting pain, etc.)
• Players that focus on the game while it’s being played, instead of goofing around or otherwise disrespecting other players’ investment (such as by chatting with each other out-of-character while the GM and another player are interacting in-character, looking at websites during the session, or texting with friends during the session). Exceptions obviously exist for unavoidable things like interruptions from family, calls from a job, crises, etc.
• Players that are ok with sexual assault and torture being completely excluded from the game
• Players that are ok with farts/*****/vomit etc being excluded from the game, including in terms of jokes
• Players that are ok with sexual stuff being an instant “fade to black” thing (e.g. the way Critical Role handles it)

Important to me, but not required

• A player group that uses Lines and Veils and/or the X Card in some way
• A player group that uses the word “triggered” only in the sense of “it caused a really horrible experience for someone, so we should avoid it.
• A GM who follows logic and rewards ingenuity rather than strictly going by “abilities as written” [Logic/narrative over Mechanics, not Mechanics over Logic/narrative]
• For example, a rewarding GM would give enough weight to preparation and good roleplaying that a number of skill checks could be bypassed (or at least rolled with advantage), and would allow spells to affect the environment in ways that can provide more advantages than just a small amount of damage or something
• A GM that doesn’t follow/enforce alignment according to D&D’s default guidelines
• A GM that allows players to work with them to create variants of existing Class/Subclass/Background/Feat options (such as swapping out a 3rd level subclass ability from one subclass for a 3rd level subclass ability from a different subclass)
• A game that is driven by the aspirational/social goals that characters have and/or troubles related to their past, rather than by “questing” (monster hunting, dungeon crawling, etc) or “big events” such as invasions, war, the rise of Vecna, or what have you
• A character group and world that doesn’t include “animal-type” NPCs: Dragonborn, Tabaxi, Aarakocra, Centaur, Kenku, Kobold, Lizardfolk, Minotaur, Loxodon, Viashino, Tortle, Simic Hybrid, Shifter, etc.

Desired, but not as important as the rest

• A game that is significantly driven by social elements - one that often takes place in cities/villages/etc, or in which there are many social interactions that can influence what benefits the group can get (e.g. getting lower prices on items, being helped in combat by NPCs, finding items, discovering secret routes, getting political allies, avoiding traps, avoiding encounters, distracting enemies in combat in a way that has mechanical effects, turning enemies into neutral parties or allies in the middle of combat)
• A character group (and game) that is driven the the desire to create a family among themselves, and to “do good” in the world (in the sense of working to help the poor and the sick, working to remove abusive people from power, getting rid of evil creatures that kill people, etc.)
• A character group that deals with social/mental/physical difficulties in life to a significant degree (instead of those things just being background details that are largely forgotten about or not brought into play in terms of the social setting and in terms of combat) - I want a more “ensemble cast” “this is our life” emergent story, than a “hero team defeats big bad enemies” episodic show
• A low-power campaign (or a campaign that very slowly builds up power levels) - staying at low levels can be fun; a different kind of fun from becoming spellcasting-and-killing powerful
• A GM that doesn’t require ammunition tracking, unless the game has a scarcity of resources and/or ammo-tracking is central to the game’s thematic purpose. Ammo-tracking is time-consuming, and it doesn’t add fun to a game unless ammo-tracking is very meaningful in-game. If ammo-tracking doesn’t serve an important thematic purpose, it’s just needlessly restrictive and frustrating, and annoyingly time-consuming and distracting.
• Milestone leveling, rather than XP-tracking (from combat or otherwise)

I also don’t want characters to flirt with mine, and I’d prefer that flirting didn’t happen between party members, because I’ve seen it lead to problems more often than not.

Other stuff

I have a homebrew (Lore Bard Sage variant) character that’s planned out fully to Level 12, and that is roughly planned out to Level 20, that I can provide as an example of how I like to create characters (including how the build relates to the specifics of the character’s background/personality/core themes).

I’m happy to make a new character for any game, suiting the world, themes, and party. I generally play studious/skill-based characters (educated or bookish Bards, Rogues, Wizards or Sorcerers), and I generally focus on utility spells and utility abilities. I might be willing to play a Cleric if the "patron deity" aspect can be cut out from it, or if the deity has little power and is distrustful or disdainful of other deities because said deities don’t do enough to help people.

i would like to join im noob so i hope u will accept me