- Nov 27, 2009
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Hey guys so the response to the RPG thing was overall very positive, unfortunately, life is getting in the way and I'm actually super busy at the moment so this could get delayed for longer than I would like, the goal is to get things moving by the end of this month preferably in the last week but possibly at the beginning of May.
[HEADING=2]System: D&D 5th Edition.[/HEADING]
Now some things have already been decided to speed up the process, we're going to be using D&D 5th edition because it's not only simple but also the system that I'm most familiar with, I know some people don't want 5E and others don't want Sword & Sorcery but it would be the fastest thing for me to set up at the moment, now I am most likely going to implement some house rules that I feel would improve the experience.
I would also like to address that if this proves to be a success I wouldn't mind running other systems & settings in the future based on public interest.
[HEADING=2]Format: Play by post.[/HEADING]
So a lot of my doubts but also of my ideas came from the limitations & benefits of this format, to be honest, I still have doubts about my capability to run a game on this format, since as you can see neither my writing or my grammar are particularly good, however, it's the format that would allow the largest quantity of people to join & I want to allow as many people as possible to join into this, hopefully it can be a thing
[HEADING=1]Options for the game.[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]The Guild[/HEADING]
So this was actually born of the idea of playing Darkest Dungeon & the concept of the adventurer's league in D&D, but basically, the premise regardless of setting or tone would be the same, you will be working for a noble family that is working for a higher cause, they are hiring adventurers to seek old relics, explore & study old ruins, you're efforts can directly affect the growth of the town & much like in the previously mentioned game this is going to affect your options in town, of course since this is going to be an RPG rather than the game you will have the option to engage with the NPCs & world more when you are in town if you so desire, you will be given the option to RP you time in town if you desire or to just use the Downtime activities rules, this is also good in the fact that if people are not interested in the game all that much we can do a couple of dungeon runs & leave it at that, but this also gives us the ability to divide the players into different expeditions if there are too many players & that way I won't need to do as many on the fly adjustments due to having too many players in a single party, this also has the benefit of allowing for easy integration of new characters if more people wish to join or if someone dies or wants to pay something else.
As for the Dungeons themselves, I don't have the time or experience to craft the megadungeon that I would like to make, but helpfully this premise allows for me to introduce pre-made dungeons easily into the story without much hassle, which can keep things moving and hopefully relatively seamlessly.
The Guild comes in two flavors:
[HEADING=3]High Fantasy[/HEADING]
This is your run of the mill typical just like in the handbook Fantasy Setting, this is mainly if you like the idea of the Guild but want a big variety of adventures, they can be silly, fun or serious just like D&D normally is, a typical but hopefully fun D&D adventure.
[HEADING=3]Gothic Horror[/HEADING]
Like mentioned before the concept of the Guild was taken for Darkest Dungeon and that is also where this comes from, in this while you can still be as whimsical and silly as you wish to be you will have to deal with the extremely harsh and oppressive environment, to be honest, I will be stealing the whole premise of the game if you choose this, but that leads me to why I think it would be interesting, while this would limit us to horror & occult themed adventures I would be using a mechanic similar to the stress mechanic in Darkest Dungeon, which means that we would be dealing with psychological issues and I think this could lead to interesting RP scenarios and would lend more purpose and management challenges to the town sections, as you would have to balance lowering your stress levels with any other activity you wish to accomplish.
I'd also like to add some other details to this to make it more similar to Darkest Dungeon such as guns & other classes but for the first time it's going to be PHB only, if that is not troublesome then we can introduce official material & possibly homebrew.
If the idea of The Guild does not seem appealing I wouldn't mind doing straight up Adventurer's League stuff, I have all modules but you can choose between these modules.
[HEADING=2]Tyranny of Dragons[/HEADING]
For years, the evil Cult of the Dragon has devoted itself to creating undead dragons in a vain attempt to fulfill an ancient prophecy. However, the cultists were misguided. They misunderstood. But now, under new leadership, the cult believes that the prophecy does not speak of undead dragons, but of a dragon empire that's been extinct for 25,000 years. Tiamat, the queen of evil dragons, has languished in the Nine Hells for millennia. The cult believes that the time of her return is at hand.
The cult has a new face and a new mission. It seeks to free Tiamat from the Nine Hells and bring her into the Forgotten Realms. To accomplish its goal, the cult needs five ancient dragon masks and the support of evil dragons everywhere. The cult leaders?each one a "dragon whisperer"?have reached out to the evil dragons of the Sword Coast and earned their allegiance.
Meanwhile, evil dragons in partnership with the cult seek to amass a treasure hoard worthy of their dark queen, not by plundering their own hoards (of course) but by stealing money from cities, caravans, good-aligned dragons, merchant ships, and other sources. Their ravenous hunt for treasure throws the Sword Coast into upheaval. Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate?no city is safe from their depredations.
The situation is dire. However, the Sword Coast is far from defenseless. Powerful factions are ready to rise up and put an end to the tyranny of dragons. Adventurers throughout the Realms must join forces to face Tiamat, destroy the Cult of the Dragon, and prevent the rise of a new dragon empire. The Harpers have since shared their intelligence with the remaining factions. To combat the Cult of the Dragon, Lord Dagult Neverember of Neverwinter proposes that adventurers representing each of the five factions be sent north to investigate?and to report back with haste.
In their hands, the future lies.
[HEADING=2]Elemental Evil[/HEADING]
Four apocalyptic cults of Elemental Evil are building secret sanctuaries and outposts throughout the North, bringing terror and destruction to the Forgotten Realms. Each cult is devoted to one of the Princes of Elemental Evil (godlike entities embodying air, earth, fire, and water) and is led by a nihilistic prophet, corrupted by power. The cruel elf princess Aerisi Kalinoth speaks for the air Cult of the Howling Hatred, while Marlos Urnrayle, a fierce male medusa, leads the Cult of the Black Earth. The Cult of the Eternal Flame scars its followers at the behest of the beautiful and deadly tiefling Vanifer, and the mutilated sailor Gar Shatterkeel plots to drown the world with his Cult of the Crushing Wave.
The cults use devastation orbs, forged of raw elemental power, to ravage Faer?n with horrifying earthquakes, typhoons, tornados, and other disasters. Independently, the cults are terrible adversaries, but now they have secretly begun transforming a long-lost dungeon into a huge subterranean temple dedicated to an alien entity known as the Elder Elemental Eye. To prevent this union of the Elemental Evils into one catastrophic force, heroes must expose the prophets' true agenda. The cults' agents are everywhere and their power is immense.
When you don't know whom to trust, knowledge is your only weapon. Unearth the Deception.
[HEADING=2]Rage of Demons[/HEADING]
The main storyline for Rage of Demons takes place in the vast subterranean world known as the Underdark. This dark landscape is a twisted labyrinth where fear reigns, and is home to horrific monsters that have never seen the light of day. It is here that the dark elf Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, performs a foul ritual meant to tap into the magical energy of Faerzress that suffuses the Underdark?and tears open portals to the demonic Abyss in the process. The creatures that step through those portals horrify even the archmage, and from that moment on, demonic insanity pervades the Underdark and threatens to shake the Forgotten Realms to its foundations. Adventurers must stop the madness before it consumes the Underdark and spreads to destroy the surface folk of Faer?n!.
[HEADING=2]Curse of Strahd.[/HEADING]
Under raging storm clouds, the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of Castle Ravenloft. Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind's howling increases as he turns his gaze down toward the village of Barovia. A lightning flash rips through the darkness, but Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind fills the midnight air. The master of Castle Ravenloft is having guests for dinner?and you are invited.
[HEADING=2]Storm's King Thunder[/HEADING]
Ages ago, giants and dragons waged war across the Savage Frontier. These battles are long forgotten by the human civilizations of today, but ancient relics remain. And now, the land shudders once more with the thunder of giant footsteps.
Hill giants raid farms for food and livestock, as stone giants lay waste to settlements in their path. Frost giants plunder coastal towns, as fire giants gather slaves. Cloud giant castles drift across the sky, casting ominous shadows on the cities of the North. But no threat compares to the wrath of the storm giants, who stand betrayed.
Puny adventurers must rise to the challenge, gather their strength, unlock the power of ancient runes, and take the fight to the giants' doorsteps. Only then can they discover a hidden evil fomenting a war between giants and small folk. Only then can they forge an alliance to end the war before it begins.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now keep in mind that all selected modules have a lot of additional content that was published as Adventure's league material so if the group is too large they all have parts of the story in which different quests have to be decided and the rare ocurence of doing both quests could happen, of these I have played all of them except Storm's King's Thunder but only ever finished Tyranny of Dragons & Curse of Strahd, due to the way it's laid out I feel CoS would work best in this format but I think Elemental Evil is also a good choice if you want a more typical fantasy setting, Rage of Demons has a cool element of the Madness mechanic & well it's the Underdark that's always laden with Eldritch horrors but also Demons, Tyrany of Dragons I can't comment much on because I played a heavily homebrewed version that converted it to DragonLance but it's a typical stop the Evil Dragon cult, a quintessencial D&D experience as for Storm King's Thunder, I haven't played it but it has some really good dungeons and it's probably the one after Ravenloft that has the most sidequests.
In case there are any problems with the site, I have created this Discord Server to allow communications between us.
[HEADING=2]System: D&D 5th Edition.[/HEADING]
Now some things have already been decided to speed up the process, we're going to be using D&D 5th edition because it's not only simple but also the system that I'm most familiar with, I know some people don't want 5E and others don't want Sword & Sorcery but it would be the fastest thing for me to set up at the moment, now I am most likely going to implement some house rules that I feel would improve the experience.
I would also like to address that if this proves to be a success I wouldn't mind running other systems & settings in the future based on public interest.
[HEADING=2]Format: Play by post.[/HEADING]
So a lot of my doubts but also of my ideas came from the limitations & benefits of this format, to be honest, I still have doubts about my capability to run a game on this format, since as you can see neither my writing or my grammar are particularly good, however, it's the format that would allow the largest quantity of people to join & I want to allow as many people as possible to join into this, hopefully it can be a thing
[HEADING=1]Options for the game.[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]The Guild[/HEADING]
So this was actually born of the idea of playing Darkest Dungeon & the concept of the adventurer's league in D&D, but basically, the premise regardless of setting or tone would be the same, you will be working for a noble family that is working for a higher cause, they are hiring adventurers to seek old relics, explore & study old ruins, you're efforts can directly affect the growth of the town & much like in the previously mentioned game this is going to affect your options in town, of course since this is going to be an RPG rather than the game you will have the option to engage with the NPCs & world more when you are in town if you so desire, you will be given the option to RP you time in town if you desire or to just use the Downtime activities rules, this is also good in the fact that if people are not interested in the game all that much we can do a couple of dungeon runs & leave it at that, but this also gives us the ability to divide the players into different expeditions if there are too many players & that way I won't need to do as many on the fly adjustments due to having too many players in a single party, this also has the benefit of allowing for easy integration of new characters if more people wish to join or if someone dies or wants to pay something else.
As for the Dungeons themselves, I don't have the time or experience to craft the megadungeon that I would like to make, but helpfully this premise allows for me to introduce pre-made dungeons easily into the story without much hassle, which can keep things moving and hopefully relatively seamlessly.
The Guild comes in two flavors:
[HEADING=3]High Fantasy[/HEADING]
This is your run of the mill typical just like in the handbook Fantasy Setting, this is mainly if you like the idea of the Guild but want a big variety of adventures, they can be silly, fun or serious just like D&D normally is, a typical but hopefully fun D&D adventure.
[HEADING=3]Gothic Horror[/HEADING]
Like mentioned before the concept of the Guild was taken for Darkest Dungeon and that is also where this comes from, in this while you can still be as whimsical and silly as you wish to be you will have to deal with the extremely harsh and oppressive environment, to be honest, I will be stealing the whole premise of the game if you choose this, but that leads me to why I think it would be interesting, while this would limit us to horror & occult themed adventures I would be using a mechanic similar to the stress mechanic in Darkest Dungeon, which means that we would be dealing with psychological issues and I think this could lead to interesting RP scenarios and would lend more purpose and management challenges to the town sections, as you would have to balance lowering your stress levels with any other activity you wish to accomplish.
I'd also like to add some other details to this to make it more similar to Darkest Dungeon such as guns & other classes but for the first time it's going to be PHB only, if that is not troublesome then we can introduce official material & possibly homebrew.
If the idea of The Guild does not seem appealing I wouldn't mind doing straight up Adventurer's League stuff, I have all modules but you can choose between these modules.
[HEADING=2]Tyranny of Dragons[/HEADING]
For years, the evil Cult of the Dragon has devoted itself to creating undead dragons in a vain attempt to fulfill an ancient prophecy. However, the cultists were misguided. They misunderstood. But now, under new leadership, the cult believes that the prophecy does not speak of undead dragons, but of a dragon empire that's been extinct for 25,000 years. Tiamat, the queen of evil dragons, has languished in the Nine Hells for millennia. The cult believes that the time of her return is at hand.
The cult has a new face and a new mission. It seeks to free Tiamat from the Nine Hells and bring her into the Forgotten Realms. To accomplish its goal, the cult needs five ancient dragon masks and the support of evil dragons everywhere. The cult leaders?each one a "dragon whisperer"?have reached out to the evil dragons of the Sword Coast and earned their allegiance.
Meanwhile, evil dragons in partnership with the cult seek to amass a treasure hoard worthy of their dark queen, not by plundering their own hoards (of course) but by stealing money from cities, caravans, good-aligned dragons, merchant ships, and other sources. Their ravenous hunt for treasure throws the Sword Coast into upheaval. Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate?no city is safe from their depredations.
The situation is dire. However, the Sword Coast is far from defenseless. Powerful factions are ready to rise up and put an end to the tyranny of dragons. Adventurers throughout the Realms must join forces to face Tiamat, destroy the Cult of the Dragon, and prevent the rise of a new dragon empire. The Harpers have since shared their intelligence with the remaining factions. To combat the Cult of the Dragon, Lord Dagult Neverember of Neverwinter proposes that adventurers representing each of the five factions be sent north to investigate?and to report back with haste.
In their hands, the future lies.
[HEADING=2]Elemental Evil[/HEADING]
Four apocalyptic cults of Elemental Evil are building secret sanctuaries and outposts throughout the North, bringing terror and destruction to the Forgotten Realms. Each cult is devoted to one of the Princes of Elemental Evil (godlike entities embodying air, earth, fire, and water) and is led by a nihilistic prophet, corrupted by power. The cruel elf princess Aerisi Kalinoth speaks for the air Cult of the Howling Hatred, while Marlos Urnrayle, a fierce male medusa, leads the Cult of the Black Earth. The Cult of the Eternal Flame scars its followers at the behest of the beautiful and deadly tiefling Vanifer, and the mutilated sailor Gar Shatterkeel plots to drown the world with his Cult of the Crushing Wave.
The cults use devastation orbs, forged of raw elemental power, to ravage Faer?n with horrifying earthquakes, typhoons, tornados, and other disasters. Independently, the cults are terrible adversaries, but now they have secretly begun transforming a long-lost dungeon into a huge subterranean temple dedicated to an alien entity known as the Elder Elemental Eye. To prevent this union of the Elemental Evils into one catastrophic force, heroes must expose the prophets' true agenda. The cults' agents are everywhere and their power is immense.
When you don't know whom to trust, knowledge is your only weapon. Unearth the Deception.
[HEADING=2]Rage of Demons[/HEADING]
The main storyline for Rage of Demons takes place in the vast subterranean world known as the Underdark. This dark landscape is a twisted labyrinth where fear reigns, and is home to horrific monsters that have never seen the light of day. It is here that the dark elf Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, performs a foul ritual meant to tap into the magical energy of Faerzress that suffuses the Underdark?and tears open portals to the demonic Abyss in the process. The creatures that step through those portals horrify even the archmage, and from that moment on, demonic insanity pervades the Underdark and threatens to shake the Forgotten Realms to its foundations. Adventurers must stop the madness before it consumes the Underdark and spreads to destroy the surface folk of Faer?n!.
[HEADING=2]Curse of Strahd.[/HEADING]
Under raging storm clouds, the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of Castle Ravenloft. Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind's howling increases as he turns his gaze down toward the village of Barovia. A lightning flash rips through the darkness, but Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind fills the midnight air. The master of Castle Ravenloft is having guests for dinner?and you are invited.
[HEADING=2]Storm's King Thunder[/HEADING]
Ages ago, giants and dragons waged war across the Savage Frontier. These battles are long forgotten by the human civilizations of today, but ancient relics remain. And now, the land shudders once more with the thunder of giant footsteps.
Hill giants raid farms for food and livestock, as stone giants lay waste to settlements in their path. Frost giants plunder coastal towns, as fire giants gather slaves. Cloud giant castles drift across the sky, casting ominous shadows on the cities of the North. But no threat compares to the wrath of the storm giants, who stand betrayed.
Puny adventurers must rise to the challenge, gather their strength, unlock the power of ancient runes, and take the fight to the giants' doorsteps. Only then can they discover a hidden evil fomenting a war between giants and small folk. Only then can they forge an alliance to end the war before it begins.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now keep in mind that all selected modules have a lot of additional content that was published as Adventure's league material so if the group is too large they all have parts of the story in which different quests have to be decided and the rare ocurence of doing both quests could happen, of these I have played all of them except Storm's King's Thunder but only ever finished Tyranny of Dragons & Curse of Strahd, due to the way it's laid out I feel CoS would work best in this format but I think Elemental Evil is also a good choice if you want a more typical fantasy setting, Rage of Demons has a cool element of the Madness mechanic & well it's the Underdark that's always laden with Eldritch horrors but also Demons, Tyrany of Dragons I can't comment much on because I played a heavily homebrewed version that converted it to DragonLance but it's a typical stop the Evil Dragon cult, a quintessencial D&D experience as for Storm King's Thunder, I haven't played it but it has some really good dungeons and it's probably the one after Ravenloft that has the most sidequests.
In case there are any problems with the site, I have created this Discord Server to allow communications between us.
