Hey, you! Yes, you! Come over here, quietly... No need to fear me. I'm but a messenger. I have a patron of arts who is interested in your work. What? I know you don't paint. I speak of the arts of deceit, spionage, blending with the shadows, infiltrating places, that kind of thing. There is an abundance of that in Melvaunt, I know. But most are tied to one family or the other. You are free for the taking. If you are still here, I assume you are interested, so here's the gig... The Campaign This campaign, aptly named Grime & Shade, takes place almost entirely within Melvaunt, the City of Swords, set on the Northern shores of the Moonsea in the continent of Faerûn (Forgotten Realms). Melvaunt is a metropolis of craftsmen, metalworkers and traders. It is crowded and made of stone with slate roofs; a gray dull place in which gardens are few and far between, reserved to the upper classes. The furnaces run all day night to help produce the high demand of metal products of all kinds that are to be exported for cheap to lands far away. This keeps a lot of pollution in the city, which is nearly always covered in haze and smog, with the grime and smoot dripping from the rooftops with the frequent rains. And that is just the first sight of the problem. Ships come in and out of Melvaunt's docks, with goods being taken in and out of the market square from sunrise to full darkness. Despite the reputation for the trading of arms, the City of Swords is also infamous for its slave trade, which is one of its most profitable businesses. To keep the trade flowing within the city, slave ownership is reserved to nobility, registered merchants and foreigners with the right permits. All of which give the bureaucrats of Melvaunt an extra edge in the social scale. But not all is lost. In this harsh and opressive environment, the common folks must find their own ways to survive and prosper. Often working on the edge of the law or straight outside of it, most melvauntians are no strangers to crime. Thieves, thugs and brigands can always find work in the city, whether for sabotage, information gathering, robbery, kidnapping etc., there is always a coin for those able to do things without getting caught. For those who fail, torture is the easy way out, as capital punishment is almost guaranteed for any transgressing peasant. The Game To better make use of the theme, we are limiting the choices for class, race, feats, spells etc. We will use milestone experience, so everyone is kept at the same level. This is an urban crawl game focused on roleplay and stealth, so combat is better avoided or dealt with in a quick and efficient manner. I try to bring a realistic feel to the game as much as possible, including gruesome deaths, corruption, prejudice and the relativization between good and evil. Sessions run for 3h, starting at 7pm EST, and have a 5min break in the middle. We use premium Discord bots for music and ambience sounds to craft the right soundscape for each moment in our sessions, but you can just as easily mute those if you prefer. For the maps, we use a combination of original maps made from scratch, purchased Roll20 maps and imported maps made by Afternoon Maps. The campaign has no main questline as of yet, since that will depend on what is discussed on session 0 and where the players take it from there, so we will start with an episodic format in which I always keep 4 quest options available. You may still find your own things to do, of course. The quests are there to provide options, not to limit them. When developing quests, I may use some 3.5 modules here and there, but most of the quests are entirely original and homebrew. The Dungeon Masters Yes, we are a duo. I, Drakonyan, am the main Dungeon Master and coordinator and runner of the show. But my assistant Khessoros is there to help me prepare the material, discuss ideas, (role)play a couple of NPCs, manage the Discord bots and so on. I have well over a decade of experience DM'ing on my back, most of it in 3.5, my prefered system. We work together to provide quality content with great execution. We believe communication is of utmost importance, so we are always open to answering questions, concerns and we are quite eager to receive feedback, whether it comes in the form of praise or criticism. The Beginning The campaign hasn't started yet. I aim to have a session 0 on the first Thursday in which we can have 6 players present. Then session 1 will be 2 weeks after that. Session 0 is free of charge, of course, as it only serves to discuss party formation, character options and campaign feel and direction. A couple of these details are already set, as you can see in our Character Creation and House Rules documents. For example: the campaign will start with everyone at level 2. Schedule - Thursdays 7:00pm EST (UTC-4) - 3h sessions Useful links Context & Lore Character Creation House Rules Contacts card LFG page This game will require payment to the Game Master at a rate of 15,00 USD per player per session paid via PayPal. Roll20 is not responsible for any payment transactions and cannot enforce any private arrangements.