About the DM: (44M) I first started playing D&D in middle school, so First and Second Edition, and DM'd for my friends all through Middle, High School and even College. By the late College years we had switched to 3E/3.5E. Then we got jobs, spouses, houses, kids, etc. etc. Life took us all elsewhere. Now I am ready to try this new way of playing on Roll20, and to try 5E, which will be new to me. Players Wanted: 4-8 Players. We'll start at Level 1 and go from there. Game Setting: Homebrew campaign setting – Asterra. Note that not every option in the PHB will be available or allowed. This setting was developed through playing campaigns 20 years ago. It is a Gritty campaign setting - thematically similar to Dark Ages (Arthurian) Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Life is nasty, brutal, and short, and the heroes are those that can survive long enough in a world brimming with strange beasts and horrible monsters. Mix LoTR with GoT and you'll have a good approximation. Play Style: I am heavy on improvisation. I don't plan out my campaigns in great detail. Instead there is a setting, and things are happening in the world, which the players can react to or not. There are villains and terrible tyrants with evil motives, which players can choose to go up against or not. Obviously I intend for players to take a hook, but which one? and in which direction? The player's decisions will inform how I plan the next session and thus the direction of the campaign. Actions do have consequences and shape the world. Safety Tools: Explicit themes or storylines may occur. The extent to which they do and the limits of those themes will be discussed in "Session 0." We'll make use of: 1. Lines - "these boundaries shall not be crossed (period)." 2. Veils - "when these themes or scenarios are encountered we fade to black and move on to the next scene." 3. The Luxton Technique - A great description can be found here Commitment: I am looking for players to commit to one 2-3 hour weekday evening session (Pacific Time) per week. And possibly up to one longer weekend per month, depending on the appetites of the group. Please be committed to attending. Frequent absences will result in being dropped from the campaign. Interested in Joining the Party?: Drop me a PM with a brief description of who you are, your favored style of play and what type of character you want to bring. Formoria - The Dark Age 305 A.K.: These are dark times for Formoria. The recent invasion of the Kingdom of Drakkar by the Vaadmooran Empire has left the Dale lands undefended—a situation that was quickly taken advantage of by the Orcs of the “Severed Head” tribe. Now a small hamlet-come-refugee camp called Korin, under the protection of the great wizard Mythra, is the only free human settlement for hundreds of miles. Mythra has called for a Grand Council, and now envoys of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, and Men head to Korin to plan the next move for their beleaguered peoples Longer Background: Only a few years ago the Dalelands were a prosperous region ruled mainly by a young Chieftain named Erik de Ardaran. From his Castle Fort at Forksdale, Erik ruled the towns of Ardaran, Byrth, Forksdale, Gared's Rock, and Korin. Forksdale had good relations with the Halflings of the Halfling Dale to the west, with the Dwarves of Mordek-Tek and the Gnomes of the Spider Wood to the south, and with the Elves of the White Wood and the Kingdom of Drakkar to the East. Its only enemies were the Orcs who infest the Sawtooth Hills, particularly those from the Severed Head tribe. But with military aid from the Kingdom of Drakkar and Mordek-Tek, Forksdale had always been able to keep the Orcs at bay. That changed in 302 A.K. when the only daughter and sole heir of the King of Uthaan, a petty-kingdom to the east, and a long-time rival of Drakkar, was wed to a Vaadmooran prince, making Uthaan a vassal state of the Vaadmooran Realm. Vaadmoor immediately began an invasion of Drakkar. The forces of Vaadmoor made spectacular gains in the first few months of the war and managed to siege the Drakkaran capital by early 303 A.K. The siege lasted almost a year, until the city was relieved in the spring of 304 by reinforcements from the North. Now neither side can gain the upper hand and a stalemate has existed for the past year. In the meantime Forksdale was left vulnerable and the Orcs of the Severed Head wasted no time. They quickly seized the town of Gered's Rock and made their way to Forksdale where they began a siege. The siege ended in failure for the Orcs when Lord Erik's forces were able to rally from the castle in the winter of 303. Knowing that the Orcs would soon be back in even greater numbers, Lord Erik chose a group of local heroes to escort much of the local population North in search of safer settlement. However, Forksdale was sacked by the Orcs later that winter, the castle was left in ruin, the town burnt to the ground and Lord Erik was killed. Of all the original towns of Forksdale only Korin remains free of Orcish harassment. This town is made secure by the magical workings of the great wizard Mythra. The other towns are subject to the tyrannical occupation of the Orcs who treat what remains of the local human populations as a slave class. This is the current state of affairs the Players will find themselves in, as either a local resident of the town of Korin, or among one of the envoys summoned there by Mythra from among the surrounding non-human communities.
