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Really hoping I'm putting this in the right spot.

Okay. On Discord I’ve mentioned me running a 5e D&D campaign… and I think I’m at the point where it’s not just a thought experiment?

The plan is to start at level 1. We’ll be using D&D, fifth edition. Volo’s and Xanathar’s guides are allowed (since I own those books). We’ll also be using voice chat on roll20, since I’m not confident in my play-by-post skills or my theatre of the mind. Structure will probably be lots of oneshots, to better facilitate how, well, regardless of players we will be dealing with different time zones. That also means players can dip in and out depending on their own schedules.

I’m putting this up here so people can start making their characters (since that’s a pretty fun part of the whole process). So, I’ve written up some stuff that most people in this setting know.

Fair warning, all the place names aren’t set in stone yet. I kinda just threw them there as placeholders and then had a mix of feelings towards the placeholders and then things snowballed. If there isn’t a suitable place for your character feel free to talk to me and I’ll hammer in another nation and/or invent a town somewhere.

World Backstory

The world is fairly small. One continent, and the edges of it aren’t even fully mapped out. While there is text telling of ancient warring civilisations, tombs brimming with magic, and history beyond the wildest imaginings of any bard, the world as you know it is limited, small, and in recovery from what is called the blight. While the history of the blight is not common knowledge, it is well known that it caused the old nations to topple and suffocate in illness and strife. There are still visible effects from it, too.

The northern portion of the continent, for example, is a barren wasteland known as the Malady Plains. While year by year the ground repairs itself (helped by the efforts of some Druids), the boundary has hardly shifted in the past generations. It is a difficult land to live in, with twisted abominations and the more hardy, monstrous types making their home there. Most instead live in the southern parts of the continent.

Bordering the Malady Plains is the Glass Desert, occupied by the Barroset Empire. Their history is to welcome all who enter their walls, and to actively work on dismissing the smog lying over the Malady Plains. It is an incredibly multi-racial place. Many druids find their home in the oasis cities, prosperous from their consistent cultivation.

To the south-east lies muggy, less organised peoples, and the land is called the Warristrong. This land is roughened by mountains and weak forests, making its history full of different houses and armed folk. A collection of Dragonborn made their home in the hollowed out remnants of an ancient mine, Baraz Duban, learning the practices of the peoples who once owned it. Though recently there are rumours of a civil war amount them. The softer races, such as Humans and Halflings, occupy many unaffiliated villages.

West of the Warristrong mountains is a small kingdom. A vast, empty grassland sits, with a gemstone miles across in its centre. It is difficult to tell what colour this gemstone is. Directly above the gemstone is the land of the ancient elves, Brightspool, floating untethered to the ground. When the sun is in the right position, a glowing silver chord is visible snaking from the gem’s middle up to the floating land. It isn’t in the middle of the habitable continent, instead leaning more to the east, but the knowledge of the elves keeps other races from setting up shop near the island. But the emptiness gives rise to communities of outsiders, wanderers, and those unbothered by the floating rock above their heads.

To this island’s south is another nation, which is most likely where the campaign will be based, but who knows at this point. Cold winds and sleet often beat down on them, keeping many indoors. But the Nation Of Icepeak is composed of three great cities: Scourment, Whitecrest, and Tallmelt. Most dare not travel beyond these city’s walls in the winter, instead paying the extraordinary fees to use teleportation cities to other lands. But in the summer the snow melts, allowing those who are brave enough to visit the ancient shore ruins, some of the last signs of a greater nation.

And lastly in the south-west of the continent is the prosperous land of Elderfaust. Known for its great libraries and luxuries, such as wine and games, its borders are strictly guarded. Rumours claim that Elderfaust was the first nation to recover from the blight, and even more state that their people must know the true nature of the blight. But, while sneaking into the borders is easy enough, getting into any walls is borderline impossible.

Guild of Curiosities (name TBD)

The Guild Of Curiosities was founded fifty years prior in the city of Scourment. Founded by a dwarf named Madame Tolgrin, its goal was the preservation, acquisition, and restoration of the past (does PARP sound better?). Many ancient relics have been swiped from the places they once lay, after all. Tombs desecrated. Cults formed. The GoC works to put things back where they once were.

During the winter the GoC branch in Icepeak usually closes down, its members seeking work elsewhere. But it is stepping into spring right now, with the snow melting, and there are many tasks to be done.

Whatever characters you make, please give them a reason to be level one characters at the Guild, since that’ll be the excuse plot throwing bands of characters into misadventures. Please let me know if you need to know anything else/if you're interested, either here, on Discord, etc! (Also regarding stats, feel free to use standard array or 4d6 drop one. Just, if you're using the latter, try not to be a cheat about it, please?)

I've never played DnD but I really would be interested.

Same, but also interested

Have played, but not 5e. Can't be too different, right? So I'd be interested.

I am down!

I have a DnD 5e group in college. I'd be interested in participating here too. Might start crafting up some character ideas.

Structure will probably be lots of oneshots, to better facilitate how, well, regardless of players we will be dealing with different time zones. That also means players can dip in and out depending on their own schedules.

Hmmm, this sounds particularly well-suited to a West Marches style of campaign.

How do you plan on handling leveling up in this campaign?

Well. That was more response than I expected. Y'all know how to overwhelm a person.

Hmmm, this sounds particularly well-suited to a West Marches style of campaign.

How do you plan on handling leveling up in this campaign?

Huh. I've never heard of West Marches before. But it sounds interesting, and the form of it fits the function, especially when the world gets a little bigger (and I was thinking of going "hey what do you want to look for in your next job", which sounds pretty on-brand for that style). Heck, if someone else wants to run a game, they can totally jump in.

I was thinking to keep it experience based, given out at the end of each session? I'll probably track how much everyone's gotten, but people should probably keep an eye on it just in case I make an error.

And yeah -- anyone who's interested, feel free to mock up characters. Any world building you need for any character backstories will make the whole world a little richer (since I probably won't have thought of it).

Sounds interesting. How much knowledge does a player need to get involved, and what would the time commitment be like?

Sounds interesting. How much knowledge does a player need to get involved, and what would the time commitment be like?

Like I said, I have physical books for character creation, so if someone wants help I'll be willing to do so (provided I'm awake and available). I'm also making up a world for all of this because wrapping my head around official canon is not my strength, so, no required readings on that part. You can download the basic 5e rules for free, which has four races/classes available, but limits suck. So you can get access to the other classes on the roll20 compendium (although they only have one subclass each, from what I recall) and probably the other races from the player's handbook too.

I'm not sure how often I'll run games once this starts up (So... maybe try run two a week to account for timezones? Oh boy), and like I said I'm thinking of doing oneshots, so people can dip in and out depending on time and the like. Plus, more people get to play. (I also have no idea how long a game would run. I'm guessing there will be trial and error and/or twoshots when I misjudge things).

I took a look at the link, most of the more important aspects of a character appear to me to require that I work it out with the DM so I'll wait on those but I do have the rough outline of a character I built while looking at the rules. I'm really interested and hope this comes to fruition.

I took a look at the link, most of the more important aspects of a character appear to me to require that I work it out with the DM so I'll wait on those but I do have the rough outline of a character I built while looking at the rules. I'm really interested and hope this comes to fruition.

Feel free to PM me here or on discord about it. Or Voice Chat about it, come to think. What type of things do you need?

=/

Okay, after a bit of mucking around I've found some summaries of the different classes and subclasses available in 5e, because the online versions of everything only ever have one subclass visible. So, if you're going off online stuff and you go "huh this thing sounds interesting" let me know and I'll tell you about that subclass's mechanics. Oh, and when they mention SCAG (Sword Coast’s Adventurers Guide) or GGR (Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica) please keep in mind that I don't have those books.

Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, and Druid.
Fighter, Monk , Paladin, and Ranger.
Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard.

Also, for anyone who wants to work on character sheets for specific character ideas, I'd definitely recommend these class-based character sheets someone made on reddit last year. They're a free download for all the classes, as well as ones for each PHB subclass, as well as UA classes (Artificer, Mystic, Revised Ranger) and popular homebrew ones (both of which according to what Elbbsas has said won't be in this campaign, so ignore those).

A lot of it won't be very relevant for early level campaign stuff, but it's definitely rather convenient for the character sheet to be tailored to the class (as well as having all the relevant class info on there already; you can learn the class from the character sheet!) rather than having a blank one that may not fit yours properly.

I've more or less got my character sheet ready so I'm down whenever all of you are! :]

Referring back to the sheets Tau posted, would you be opposed to any of those classes? For example, the cook? I immediately got fun vibes there.

Also: https://www.astraltabletop.com/partnership/?utm_source=DriveThruRPG&utm_medium=DTRPGCheckout&utm_campaign=DTRPGSite