I am looking for 4 more pay-to-play players for my grim and gritty realism, 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons Espionage campaign!
Game Location: online, via Theater of the Mind, Discord (for voice/community building), and roll20. A microphone is required, as we will use discord for voice communication during the game. Cameras are optional. This game will not stream via twitch. Hoping to find players on the West Coast of USA / Canada, which would be 7pm - 11 pm Tuesday nights. **Brief Introduction to the Setting:** (Further briefing documents will become available as the campaign moves forward) According to the scribes of the Tower of Tomes, it is Late in the Autumn Season of the Year 680. 700 years ago, the city of Baardithorp was "The Jewel of the Uthithar Empire" It was a city of Wondrous Magic, and many Wizards of the Empire dwelt there until a great cataclysm devastated the land. A vast Wild of epic-strength Chaos Magic blasted outward from the city, rending creatures and structures alike. As it passed, it transformed everything and tore asunder the land. The peaks of the Fell Spire Mountains erupted, awakening from millennia-long slumber, choking the air with grey ash and flame, creating the Black Waste, burying the Elven town of Tyaera, and setting the Dwarven town of Dolzerg aflame for weeks. Records from before that time "The Ancient History" are gone, except for those small fragments, hoarded by the Loremasters of the Magocracy, and other private individuals seeking knowledge of the time before the current civilization. It is a known that before The Black wave", the Tomes of Kathrona , scribed in The Arcane Language of the Great Drakes, were collected as "The Ancient Dragon Magicks." The legends that are told among the common folk say that the Tomes of Kathrona burned to embers in the magic hellfire of the Guardian of Secrets, the Female Red Dragon, Xenestrasza, after the fall of Baardithorp, to keep the secrets of the Ancient Drakes from the hands of looters. Seven Centuries have passed since the Black Wave warped and twisted the Land. Now, long after, most of the magic has seeped from the world, dissipated by the Black Wave, and in the East, above the Hell Spires, many days are filled with gloom, in the lands of the Dark Waste, as the sun often hides behind grey clouds of ash. The Recent History: The Wizard Gelmire, Lord of Courage, The Last Great Wizard-King of Valonde, perished 20 years ago. His heir, Baela the Shield-Maiden, is struggling to maintain her power across the Magocracy, of Valonde, beset by multiple threats to her rule, and Valonde is full of conflict: Assassins have attacked and slaughtered whole noble families. The Temples of the Magocracy have fought amongst themselves for followers for years, with no end in sight. Insidious evil cults of Warlocks and Evil Witches have taken root in the forests, holding secret meetings with their Infernal Masters, who are promising power to those who would sell their souls for Eternity. Bandits and Mercenary Sellswords are a continuing problem, the latter cast adrift to the Western Forests, and Fields of the Magocracy after the Devastating Campaigns against Kigossi in the Far East. These Ruffians, along with common Thieves and Rogues prowl the trails, and high roads of the Steel Blade Peaks, and continue to prey upon small groups of unescorted travelers. Behind closed doors, at the Ghostport of Azad, rumors abound of an even more sinister plot coming to fruition. Prophets of Law and Seers peering into the Future have foretold of a great Darkness to come. To those who would name it, these days are but the beginning of the Age of Dark Magic. The Campaign begins in the Ghostport of Azad, where a young lieutenant of the army of Valonde gathers together the squad of dedicated warriors and rogues that will come to be known as The Hand of Glory, tasked with eliminating the enemies of the realm. * * * * This will be a narrative style, immersive combat/roleplay, "gritty realism" setting, with a Dark Ages feel. The campaign is a Low Fantasy, Low Magic game. The characters are mostly Human, primarily non-spell caster PCs. Episodes will involve Espionage, assassinations, burglary, sabotage, and roleplaying, with some puzzles and exploration. Players are encouraged to engage in Deep Character Immersion, as much as possible. New players to D&D or the 5th edition are welcome to participate. I am writing a setting briefing doc. Costumes and webcam use are optional, and if you want to wear a costume, etc, while playing, you are encouraged to do so. Or not. I ask that players portray the character as written within their alignment, using suggested personality as a guide, in the beginning, as you develop your character from Traits, Bonds, and Flaws. The DM gives each player three sessions to figure out the aspects of their character that they would like best, for best fit with their personality, and the party. After the player has played three sessions of the campaign, please no random or unwarranted personality changes, unless it is fitting with the ongoing style and episodes already completed. Some of the characters will be Morally Questionable, or Ambiguous Morality, but most of the Characters are good, and / or heroic in nature. Please, no murder Hobos . That is defined as a group of lawless characters, going from town to town, slaying at will. Killing Anyone they meet, just because they feel like it. The planned scenarios are part of an overall Espionage storyline, and will often be violent. No inter-party violent conflict. No Directly EVIL CHARACTERS will be permitted, even as replacements for characters meeting death during the campaign. Right now we have one player.
The game is going to start in about 2 weeks on Tuesday night EDT, 31st of May 2022. At that time I will run the game for whoever we have even if it's less than five players.
About Me I have been DMing for 45 years, I have been a DM on roll20 for over 8 years and have well about 4 thousand hours on roll20 as a DM. I use Roll20 as my VTT, and discord for voice chat, plus the community space of all the campaigns that I run. We have a pretty active community, especially when it gets near game time but we have in between role-playing as an improv play by text, conversations between characters, etc. I run a structured sandbox with lots of player agency. I try and give each group about three options for scenarios to take each session, although sometimes the path forward for story reasons will be obvious. I run the game rules as written, however I have some DM options in play as long as limiting some other options. For example, I normally use lingering injuries from DM's guide page 272 but this campaign will not have that. But also for this campaign short rest is 8 hours and long rest is a week which will drastically limit the power of almost all classes except Warlocks who are the source of the Nemesis forces of the campaign. The tone of this campaign will be grim and serious espionage with NPC betrayals and success-only missions that will be very challenging, about 50% combat and 30% role-playing 20% puzzle. Payment is required to be made to the Game Master via startplaying.games and I collect payments on a weekly basis. Games will be paid at a rate of $10 per player per session, SESSION ZERO IS FREE, plus a small administrative charge for stripe processing for 4 sessions a month. . The time zone for the game time listed is EDT. That's pretty late at night, so I'm primarily seeking either night owls who are up around midnight on the East Coast or evening players from the west coast of North America.. But really anyone who can fit the time is welcome to join. More campaign info to follow in future updates For more info, contact me here.
I can PM you my server links for Discord and the game server. Roll20 is not responsible for any payment transactions and cannot enforce any private arrangements.