Update 11/30 -- The group is looking for 1 more member, and have requested either a wizard or a sorcerer for the final role.

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Hello All -- First things first, apologies for the walls of text, but there is alot of information I like to be up front about, so it is here in the next few posts.

First Post:  Basic Game Info and Setting Details
Second Post:  Rules, rules, rules
Third Post:  Character Creation rules
Fourth Post:  Player Application Template

• Game Time, Absences
• Sessions will start Friday nights at 9 PM Eastern time (US). 
• We will be playing every other week, start date is being targeted as December 29.
• The game will be played online on Roll20 with voice communication on Discord (no video).  (roll20 link)
• Please only apply here OR on Roll20 -- please do not do both.  I'd prefer not having duplicates.
• Please have some familiarity with Roll20.  You don't need to be an expert by any stretch (I know I’m not) but try and have the basics down.  They have tutorials to go through, and they are great (Thanks Silvva)
• The average session will be about 3 hours in length (ending at 12 AM).  We may run shorter or longer depending on the adventure that week, but I personally don't like running super long.  After the 3 hour mark if you have to go, just speak up and we will end the session ASAP.  You won't be penalized/at a disadvantage/looked down upon for having to leave, if it's after the normal 3 hour time frame and one person has to/wants to go, we all stop at the next logical point.
• The first 2 sessions are mandatory.  I'm not expecting full attendance all of the time, but this shows me you are committed.  If you miss either of the first two sessions you will be dropped/replaced.
• After that, I would like close to full attendance, but completely understand things come up.  You won't be kicked out for missing or being late here and there.  I am going to run a large group so we can handle absences without stopping the campaign.
• Please notify me of absences ahead of time if possible, you don't have to tell me why (if it's personal, keep it personal, I don't mind) just tell me you can't make it or will be late/have to leave early. 

Setting:

This is a homebrewed campaign set in the Forgotten Realms.  We won't be following a direct world map as many of the locations will be things I have created, thought it may be possible to visit cities like Waterdeep or Neverwinter if needed/desired.  The deities that exist can be any deity from any setting.  If you worship it, it exists.  I don't foresee deities having a huge role in the campaign, but divine favors, pacts, and interactions can occur. 

 The story begins in the town of Dewsbury, during an annual Festival of Rebirth.  While not the northernmost settlement in the land, it is definitely considered the "north" to the outsiders.  Sitting at the base of a mountain range, this farming community is quite quiet and peaceful.  Their main interactions tend to be local, though most trade goes through the tunnel passage to the north leading to the city of Wallowsdale.  There is a noticeable lack of travelers/merchants from that area, as most outsiders currently in town during this festival seem to have come from the south.

 It's early spring, coming after nearly a decade of particularly harsh winters, with the most recent being the worst in memory.  Food supplies across the entire region are running scarce.  As such, traveling merchants and caravans, particularly those from the north, have dwindled in number.  This festival highlights the farming community and has several sowing events and a few competitions to try and get as many people as possible involved in planting for the community to prosper.  It's a particularly fun festival and word of it has recently spread to nearby towns and villages, which is presumably why the crowd seems to have grown a bit this year.

 Most of the townsfolk and travelers don't know it, but something sinister is coming to the region.  It's hoped with this spring that the hard winters are over for a time, and while that may be true of the weather, the hard times have driven some evil forces south from the even harsher north.

 Rules, rules, rules

• Communication
• We will use Discord for games.  This is required, all games will be done by voice.
• We will not be using Video
• There will be text chat set up within Discord
• I will create two chats, one for RP and one for OOC
• The RP text chat is just for fun things between sessions.  Feel free to interact, however no major developments, decisions, and interactions will occur here.
• Think of it as a place to have fun in character -- want to get smashed at the tavern and make a scene?  Go for it.  Want to go hunting with each other?  Feel free.  Want to take some time in prayer, and try spreading your faith to the locals?  Preach on, sister!
• We will also use the Roll20 Forum for various things.
• One main thing will be posting your absences here.  If you know ahead of time, it's best to put it here, not only in Discord.  In Discord the message could get lost, here we will have a dedicated thread, so it won't.
• I'll possibly post summaries and/or goals/tasks here as well.
  
  
• Experience and Leveling
• I will be giving XP amounts after certain events (likely when returning to town or a safe space, but possibly at long rests and short rests as well).  It will be an XP amount, and not "you reached level 2 after that event".
• Leveling up can only occur during a long rest, even if you have gained the XP to do so at a short rest.    
• If you are not present for an event in which I give out XP, you do not get that XP.  So if you are late, leave early, or miss a week, you will fall behind slightly. 
• I understand we all have lives, and have no issue missing a session here or there, showing up late, having to leave early.  However, I feel if this does happen you don't deserve to reap the benefits of the rest of the party.
• I will come up with an RP reason you aren't there, or you may do so
• This won't make the game unplayable for you.  If you fall behind enough that it is unplayable, well then that was likely already realized as an issue in itself and you will probably be replaced at that point
• I am running the game with a decent amount of people so that if someone does miss we can still progress.
• I won't be mad if you can't make every session, however the first two sessions are required. 
• It is up to you on a level by level basis if you roll for HP or take the average.  However, if you roll poorly, you cannot decide to change your mind and take the average for that level instead.  You can roll at level 1 and take the average at level 2, and roll again at level 3 if you want -- that doesn't matter.
• Feats are allowed in place of ASI if desired.
  
  
•  There is no PVP
• You can have group arguments and conflicts.  You can choose to not like each other.
• You cannot straight up attack another player with the intention of injuring/killing.  I may allow an unarmed fight here and there if it gets that far, but really would prefer not to have it.  You're a team, working together.
  
  
• You cannot steal from your companions
• I don't care that "you're a thief and it's what your character would do"
• Again, you are a team, you aren't going to steal from your companions.

 A few house rules below:

• Multiclassing -- After your starting class has reached level 3, you are allowed to multiclass into only one other class if desired.  The other class can go higher than your starting class if you desire.  You must meet the prerequisites and all other rules in the PHB for multiclassing. 
• Spell Components -- Your holy symbol, focus, or material pouch mitigates anything without a value.  Anything with a specified value must be held, and is not consumed unless specified.  The house rule is that components can be bought in any town if that value is < 500GP, unless otherwise specified. Anything 500GP or more will have to be sought out in game (basically tell me you're looking for something, or ask an NPC where you might find that item and I'll come up with a way, be it a vendor in a larger city, or a side quest of some sort -- I know several spells require specific ingredients, but I don't know what those ingredients that you desire are, so you aren't likely to randomly find them in a treasure cache if I don't know about them).
•  Food/Water -- I was asked if this needed to be tracked, and my answer is "kind of".  You aren't going to have to specify eating/drinking.  You aren't going to starve or die of dehydration.  So in this sense, no food is not required to be tracked.  You don't even need it in your inventory.
  • However:  If you don't have any food or water in your inventory, you cannot do something that would require food or water.  An example would be encountering a wild beast and wanting to throw it some meat to calm it down/distract it.  Great idea, it might help the encounter (it might not if the beast isn't actually hungry); but if you have no rations or food in your bag, you cannot do this.  The same goes for water, if you have to use water for something while out on an adventure, and you aren't carrying any, you can't use it.  I can't think of an example using water at the moment -- but you guys are the creative ones, right ;)

• Inspiration -- An inspiration die granted by the DM allows any d20 dice roll to be rolled with advantage. You may have a maximum of one DM granted inspiration die, and if granted an inspiration die it never expires. You may use this inspiration die after your initial roll but before I have given the result (you see the number but do not yet know if it is a pass or fail). If you have disadvantage on the roll the inspiration die will cancel the disadvantage. If you already have advantage, you may roll a "double-advantage" roll of 3 dice, however as with other uses of the inspiration die, this must be specified prior to my revealing of the result.
• Critical successes and critical fails -- RAW only designates an automatic hit/crit/fail on a nat20/nat1 in combat, however, I do recognize nat20/nat1 as critical success and fails during skill checks and other events.  Initiative is not effected by a nat20/nat1.  If something is impossible I will tell you and you will not be able to roll.
• The "Rule of Cool" -- If you want to do something, and think it's ridiculous or extreme, or super far out of the box, just ask.  I'm pretty lenient in allowing almost anything to be attempted -- that doesn't mean you will succeed in doing it, but as Matt Mercer likes to say "You can certainly try."  I won't try to pretend to know or  begin to explain the workings of physics and how things actually happen, I know it's probably impossible for a pirate to grab some random rope on a ship, swing around the perimeter of the ship, do a flip, cut another rope, and drop a net of who knows what onto the enemy, temporarily incapacitating them, but it happens in the movies all of the time and sounds/looks amazing, so it's certainly within the realm of possibilities to try!

  Other:

• I have a master tier subscription on DNDBeyond, along with PHB, MM, DMG, SCAG, Volo's, XGTE, and PotA.  There will be a campaign here with the group so that all material is accessible by all, however as there isn't much actual "campaign management" here, I won't be using the site much to run the game (other than looking things up).  
• Feel free to make and keep your characters up to date here, but they must be up to date on Roll20, as that is where the action will happen.

Character Creation Rules

• All Players start at Level 1
• PHB, SCAG, Volo's, XGTE are all allowed, no unofficial content (this means UA, Homebrew).  In your application please cite the source of your race/class/subclass/background  (for example, "Protector Aasimar (Volo's)" is good enough for me)
• No Evil characters
• No races/classes that inherently can Fly at level 1
• Starting stats - Roll 4d6 drop the lowest (you can reroll a score if total is less than 8 once, if the second is still less than 8, choose the higher of the two).  Alternatively you can take the standard array (15, 14, 13 12, 10, 8) or do a point buy.  You cannot choose the standard array or point buy after starting your rolls.
• If you need/want assistance in creating a character, let me know and we can do so before the first session, or dedicate a session to doing so.

Player Application Template (copy this and fill it out):

Player Name (what you would like to be called):

A bit about yourself:  Whatever you would like to share, experience with 5e, what you are looking for in a game, etc.  Doesn't have to be too detailed, just a little bit helps :)

Character Name: 

Race/subrace (source if not PHB): 

Class/Subclass (source if not PHB):

Alignment: 

Character Age: 

Background (custom or from a source if not PHB): 

Backstory (if you want it to be private from the group, that's fine just let me know about it): 

Duke

I've played one game of DnD at my local comic book store. I've always wanted to play but never made the time for it. I'd like to see what DnD has to offer and just have fun. I'm from Southern California and your 9PM-12AM EST works for me.

Shigeru

Human

Fighter

Neutral Good

24

Soldier

I'm trying to make the formatting on these posts better, but these bulleted lists are not friendly here (and like to add spaces where they shouldn't be).  That's the reason for most edits on the posts. 

Player Application Template (copy this and fill it out):

Player Name (what you would like to be called): Fred

A bit about yourself:  Started playing D&D in the 80s.  Took a break but started again when 5E came out.  Living in Texas, play AL weekly and another Homebrew game every other Saturday.  Just looking for another crew to have some fun with.  Have some experience as a DM.  Played OD&D in R20 and familiar with Discord so no tech issues.

Character Name: Priest (Still a work in process on the name)

Race/subrace (source if not PHB):  Human (Variant) - Dual Wielding feat

Class/Subclass (source if not PHB): War Cleric

Alignment: Good

Character Age: 27

Background (custom or from a source if not PHB): Soldier

Backstory (if you want it to be private from the group, that's fine just let me know about it): Served in the King's Army as a Chaplain.  Got tired of seeing his flock slaughtered and lost it on the battlefield.  Picked up the weapons nearest to him and went on a rampage, killing 3 men and rallying the troops to a small victory.  The troops he served with loved it of course, delivering god's rage on the battlefield, that's why they gave him the name Priest, which is all anyone would call him for the remainder of his service.  Over the next two years he was not satisfied with just sitting in the back and "offering prayers and healing", it was time to kick-ass!  From then on he was always found as close to the front-lines as possible, doing the most good for god by serving those who needed him most.  Eventually he was discharged because during his one of his rampages Priest may have injured his commander's best mount (it's unclear and has never been proven and depending on who you ask it may not have been an accident considering the commander was weak and was going to get Priest's men killed), and to be honest the rest of the Chaplains feared him and urged command to get rid of him (lest they too have to pick up arms). 

Do you have a specific sequence of Fridays you're planning on? I'm unavailable every other Friday (November 17, December 1, and so on), and can't change that schedule, but I'm available on the other Friday.

Basically, is this game going to be played on the November 17, December 1 sequence of Fridays or on the November 24, December 8 sequence?

I was aiming to start Dec 29 

I am definitely interested in this. The only problem i could see arising is that I live in Norway which means that the sessions will be starting at 3am in the morning for me. However, I am fairly certain  it will be fine as I usually don't have anything going on during weekends, so I will be able to catch up on sleep. Another thing is that (Being Norwegian) my English isn't "perfect", but I am sure I will be able to play it off as my character just having a weird accent (and maybe have him be more of the silent type).

I don't currently have a character ready, but if you have room for more people I will have one ready to go in a couple of days.

Player Name (what you would like to be called): Foxi

A bit about yourself:  well i am very new to dnd, only played about 6 hours to just try it out, my timezone is pst so i can totally make this time

Character Name: Ebzire Ruthwalk

Race/subrace (source if not PHB):  wood elf

Class/Subclass (source if not PHB): rogue

Alignment: neutral

Character Age: 124

Background (custom or from a source if not PHB): criminal

Backstory (if you want it to be private from the group, that's fine just let me know about it): lets just say he is a kleptomaniac

I'll note this -- I don't mind where you're from -- if the time fits it fits.  Doesn't bother me at all if it's 3 AM for you, or 7 AM, or 5 PM -- I don't know your schedule, you do.  If you can commit every other week from 9-12 EST (Eastern US), works for me.  My last game included two people in EST, two in CST one in PST, one in AEST.

English is the language that will be spoken/used, if you're comfortable with it and can communicate it, that works for me.  Also this is a game, not a litigation, your english doesn't have to be perfect, I know mine isn't :)

As far as responding to applicants, I will likely start within the next week or so as I'm having quite a busy weekend and it is also a busy time at work right now.  The target start date is December 29, and I have edited the first post to reflect that.  I will also post here notifying everyone once the group is full (I'm looking for 6 players).

Hey guys, thanks for the applications.  I'm still looking for about 3 more players.  For those that haven't heard back from me yet applied, I'm looking for a bit in a character backstory, not just a listing of what the background is.  I don't need all of the details (but won't be upset if you share them ;) ) , but I want you to have something more than just a "hermit" --  what are your motives?, why are you here?, why are you looking for an adventure, or willing to undertake one that happens upon you?, etc.  

If you are new and need help developing something like that, PM me and we might be able to work something out, maybe I'll even let you join the campaign to look at the XGTE This is your life section for ideas if you need it. 

Player Application:

Player Name (what you would like to be called): Gabriel

A bit about yourself: I am fairly new to D&D as I am currently playing in my first campaign. I have always wanted to try D&D, but never had anyone to play with until now. I just want more experience with this game, and it would be nice to talk to others from D&D community while doing so. I am From Norway, but the timezone shouldn't cause any problems.

Character Name: Veldrin

Race/subrace (source if not PHB):  Dark Elf (Drow)

Class/Subclass (source if not PHB): Ranger

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Character Age: 35

Background (custom or from a source if not PHB): Urban Bounty Hunter (Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide)

Backstory (if you want it to be private from the group, that's fine just let me know about it): When Veldrin was 15, his parents were killed during some slaves attempt to flee. Now an orphan he was recruited as an informant by the local law enforcement in the city of Eryndlyn. 5 years pass, and he’s now stepped further than just information gathering. He works as a bounty hunter, finding and eliminating groups of conspiring slaves as well as the traitors who would seek to help them. He was good at it too, some would even say the best. One day, while out gathering information he picks up on something that leads him to accidentally injuring a priestess of Lolth. This is of course grounds for torture and execution, as Veldrin well knows. So he does the only thing he can think of, flee to the surface, the same thing he has stopped so many others from doing. But he knew it would be the only way to survive, as most Drow never go to the surface (for obvious reasons: who would want to live among the humans and Darthiir (Surface Elves)).

Player Name (what you would like to be called): Mike

A bit about yourself:  Played 2E on and off for several years. Introduced in 1983 to D&D (Yes that shows my age) w/ 1E Keep on the Borderlands. Brand new to 5E and Roll20. I have wanted to start back and finally decided to make the plunge.

Character Name: Gorrbatten or Gorrb

Race/subrace (source if not PHB):  Dragonborn

Class/Subclass (source if not PHB): Monk/ Way of the Open Hand

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Character Age: 16

Background (custom or from a source if not PHB):  Folk Hero- You come from a humble social rank, but you are destined for so much more. Already the people of your home village regard you as their champion, and your destiny calls you to stand against the tyrants and monsters that threaten the common folk everywhere.

Backstory (if you want it to be private from the group, that's fine just let me know about it): As the tried and true story goes.....you were left on the doorstep at a monk's monastery up in the mountains of Faerun. The monks were against bringing you in due to your white dragon heritage. One blind monk Raekwan took you in and raised you in the Way of the Open Hand. Your adopted father never saw the color of your scales, nor took stock in that certain creatures are inherently evil. He thought of you as his only son and heir to his secret ways. Brought up in a respectful and loving environment the other monks soon after accepted you as well as a fellow brother in The Way. With Rakwan dying breath he requested that you seek out the true light and history of The Way and help those less fortunate from evil and tyrannical beings. You left the safety of the monastery to bring light and the teachings of The Way to all people and creatures.

Player Name (what you would like to be called): David

A bit about yourself: Unfortunately I was late to the D&D world, wish I had known what it was growing up. Been playing 5E for about 2 years now or so. Was instantly hooked from day one. Played a few campaigns since, and have taken my own turn DMing a small game for a group of friends that had never played before. Just looking for a fun campaign that will last quite a while. Never made it past level 10/11-ish and would really like to be a part of a campaign that made it to the upper levels. If not, as long as it's fun and has a satisfying end I'm still happy. I just enjoy seeing everyone's characters grow and the world/story the DM has created.

Character Name: Morvoth Jezid Hallowbane III or Mort for short.

Race/subrace (source if not PHB):  Human

Class/Subclass (source if not PHB): Sorcerer/Shadow Magic Orgin (Xanathar's)

Alignment: Neutral (leaning toward chaotic neutral)

Character Age: 38

Background (custom or from a source if not PHB): Operative

Backstory (if you want it to be private from the group, that's fine just let me know about it): I'd prefer most of it to stay private that I'll be happy to send you. Morvoth was a promising young student that seemed to disappoint his teachers more often than not. He had the talent, the intelligence, but lacked the work ethic. If he simply took the time to put in the work, he would've went far in life. Yet no one seemed to be able to get through to him no matter how hard they tried. Following school, he worked several meaningless jobs to pass the time. He would stumble upon a group of individuals he went to school with, each of them plotting an uprising against the less than desirable regime in town. Morvoth joined their cause, however, the night before their plan was to go into action, soldiers raided their base of operations. Those who weren't killed were captured outright. Morvoth, himself, was never seen again and is officially listed as deceased.

Thanks to all, the group has filled!