A call out to 5E DMs who might wish to work on a open world campaign/league support.

Hi! My name is Saevar Leadon and I have been DMing for about 12 years If not more. I have played through editions 2 to 5 of dungeons and dragons. So far 5E has shown me a lot of promise for a simple yet tactical and fun version of dungeons and dragons. I have played through some of the play test and the first episode of The Lost Mines of Phandelver and needless to say I loved it, the players loved and they were left craving more! We performed all of this using the Roll20 engine. What I am posting for here today is a desire to bring together an online group supporting The Adventurers League. As it stands right now online play for d&d expeditions is not allowed which I believe is quite unfair. I wish to bring together a kind of collaborative effort for creative stories and a interactive world between DMs and players. Allowing players to bring their characters to each other's Encounter/Adventure/Campaign even if online play is ignored. I came up with this ambition after being introduced to the currently still being run module called Escape from Uncertainty (EFU) in the old Neverwinter Nights PC game. A collaboration of DMs would help drive the story and ingame events. Players would form factions, cults and their own stories which would add to the efu world and create interesting conflicts with almost no aid of the DMs' intervention. Of course I recognise the limitations between the two and my intention is not to replicate this in my D&D 5E effort. My intention is however to maybe create a similar concept between Adventure Leagues, EFU and Expeditions. I use mainly roll20 to DM my games just due to the ease of use for new players and is free in the most part for the players. I have never been a fan of the online systems that ask for 50 quid + to play! So I prefer to stick to this then any other system for now. I believe this should be actually easier then it may first seem considering how rich the D&D lore is and just how many books they have released over the years for each editon. What I request is to first: discuss this with any like minded DM/players who wish to pursue this idea with me or any thoughts they may have. If anything of use comes of this then great! A rough idea I have right now is either running a collaborative campaign between DMs and Players and they play it out similar to the idea of Adventure League Expeditions. My idea was one similar to EFU where DMs would take/ask/allocate areas of Faerun (Or maybe a created world between the DMs? Or other realms such as Eberron?) they would like their stories to take place and start unravelling it to the other places around it. Idea #1 seems the most plausible and easiest to achieve on my opinion however if others have a better idea let me know! I have left some useful resources below Adventure League Resources <a href="http://dndadventurersleague.org/faq/" rel="nofollow">http://dndadventurersleague.org/faq/</a> The main website and any FAQs <a href="http://dndadventurersleague.org/get-involved/" rel="nofollow">http://dndadventurersleague.org/get-involved/</a> get involved <a href="http://dndadventurersleague.org" rel="nofollow">http://dndadventurersleague.org</a> The adventure league website. <a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/sites/default/files/media/upload/articles/DnDAdvLgLogsheet.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://dnd.wizards.com/sites/default/files/media/upload/articles/DnDAdvLgLogsheet.pdf</a> The basic logsheet. <a href="https://db.tt/WhfTN9kG" rel="nofollow">https://db.tt/WhfTN9kG</a> Copy of a character sheet which includes the Adventure League logs <a href="http://media.wizards.com/downloads/dnd/ADVLeague_PlayerGuide_TODv1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://media.wizards.com/downloads/dnd/ADVLeague_PlayerGuide_TODv1.pdf</a> The guide to running a players league adventure. Faerun general information <a href="http://wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dd" rel="nofollow">http://wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dd</a> description of d&d General Faerun info. Online general resources <a href="http://community.wizards.com/forum/dungeon-master-help/threads/4126101" rel="nofollow">http://community.wizards.com/forum/dungeon-master-help/threads/4126101</a> Dungeon master inserts for all useful information to be infront of him. <a href="http://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4109696" rel="nofollow">http://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4109696</a> pre-made characters for other players to take or look at.

Thanks to Kenny T. For taking an interest! Working together has helped us come up with some interesting ideas and interesting methods of doing a task like this! :) I hope there are others with a similar mindset! Please PM me! I am all ears!

I had/have full intention on doing an "Obsidian Portal" of my homebrew world pretty close to what you are saying. I was going to try to aim to be a year long story with pre-dated major events. A few timeline rules, but essentially a fairly open sandbox campaign with the Adventurers League Factions, plus a few of my own from my homebrew world. (10-12 in total). My hombrew campaign is a reasonable sized world, etc, I thought it would fit pretty well. I'm guessing you aren't looking for someone else's homebrew world to run it in, but I just wanted to comment that there are others interested in this type of idea. As I really currently play and DM Adventurer's League games (LMoP DM, player at local store).

No that is pretty close to what I am saying infact! A homebrew world but is based off the Faerun continent per-say! This way DMs could create whatever content they wanted etc as well as different worlds. Maybe just other realms which exist in the same universe etc. What you describe is the kind of idea i'm aiming for. Year long campaigns. Maybe a bunch of short adventures that may happen here and there across a continent or all based on one city etc. It all however ties in together to a global plot! The reason why I want to include Adventure league plots is so it does not alienate any characters who wish to participate or don't want too. I always noticed a theme amongst groups that they rarely get past early levels due to plans and issues or time constraints. This way everyone can play! Everyone can be apart of it! Also thats great Bryan that you do such Bryan K. said: I'm guessing you aren't looking for someone else's homebrew world to run it in, but I just wanted to comment that there are others interested in this type of idea. As I really currently play and DM Adventurer's League games (LMoP DM, player at local store). Its great that you can DM and play at local stores! Its true a homebrew world isn't what i'm looking for in particular because (No offense intended or implied) it won't contain the rich lore already established in the Faerun continent. Nothing against homebrew worlds, I have made a few myself and run em and they have been a blast, but its better to keep it in my opinion a place everyone knows and can read up on easily. All the adventure league content can still take place in the world too aswell as non-official Adventure league stuff can take place their too! Maybe later Homebrew worlds could be used I dunno :) Thank you for your input though Bryan K.! It actually has had me inspired to use Obsidian Portal a bit more. Orginally I was looking at the tool recently developed by the Hero lab guys <a href="http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/</a> Realm Works. The idea is nice but its still outside my price range and I am waiting for more critical reviews of it.

My concern with Faerun over a Homebrew is that it would probably require a lot more reading for DMs such as myself that are relatively new. Isn't it a really large continent? The reason I went homebrew based off of Faerun to begin with was: 1. Control the size. 2. Be able to make up stuff and not get it "wrong". Oddly enough those are my only two reasons to not find like minded people right now to do it with.

On point 1. Yes it is a large Continent! However you are right about that worry for DMs to read. It is something I worried about too which is why I might consider focusing it only to the North-West Regions or South-West. So its less to read, easier to maintain. On point 2. This is where you raise a good point. It can restrict the ability of DMs to create stories. Honestly I had no considered such an issue. What I might consider is small places or non-famous cities etc are homebrew locations for DMs. I aim to start small and expand outwards really.

I'm pretty new to D&D and I'm still learning the rules, but if you needed someone to create maps, I'm very good with Photoshop and I'd do it free of charge. All you need to give me is the dimensions of what you want me to make. Good quality.

Even if we start in the North West where the current material is. I think there is a LOT of material for it. :) Good luck!

Haha true that. We'll see. Depends how much I want to stick to the current material/lore

Why not use a different setting? A published one, but one with less material already written for it. Go beyond the big ones. I think that would give the DMs some more flexibility. I think post-war Krynn would work well for such an endeavor, as it is much less developed (I'm talking without the whole "Age of Mortals" stuff). Just my opinion. I like this idea. It's one I've had before, but I've never managed to find any like-minded gamers. If you do go with the Realms, I wouldn't use half of the published stuff. It is way too much material.

Ray S. said: Why not use a different setting? A published one, but one with less material already written for it. Go beyond the big ones. I think that would give the DMs some more flexibility. I think post-war Krynn would work well for such an endeavor, as it is much less developed (I'm talking without the whole "Age of Mortals" stuff). Just my opinion. I like this idea. It's one I've had before, but I've never managed to find any like-minded gamers. If you do go with the Realms, I wouldn't use half of the published stuff. It is way too much material. Hmmm. The issue why I want to keep it Faerun setting is so Adventure league can run alongside it but you have made a fair point. Another setting wouldn't hurt to have to start with I think. I might just have the Faerun Continent used but the use of the material for the places are optional. People are free to make up whatever they want is there. That way any adventure league stuff running there can still be used and DMs won't be overwhelmed. Your right though. The amount of material I have seen I wouldn't use either. The intention was not mean't to be "You must know all of this and RP it to the core" At most I would just use the background info from the Faerun wiki if you get what I mean. It will always be a homebrew world where people can make up w/e they want but it just allows for AL. Thank you for taking a read though!

<a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-i" rel="nofollow">http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-i</a>... This is pretty much the most I would expect any DM to know :) Everything else would be made up beyond that point if desired.

I can see that working well.

That doesn't seem like it is very much information.

IMO, that is a good thing. Too much info can be intimidating to new players and DMs alike.

Yeap I think all this input has me decided and will write up a short rules blurb on how to run it. The information in there is just to give a base to the current areas. Its as much as I would want DMs to feel is needed. If they felt they wanted more. They are happy to use as much of the legit lore as they want. <a href="https://the-adventurers-league-of-faerun.obsidianp" rel="nofollow">https://the-adventurers-league-of-faerun.obsidianp</a>...

Sounds cool. When will this be starting up?

Probably 2 weeks roughly after my holiday :)

Can't check out the portal until I'm home. Do you have any overall story line or time line? Or is it just an indefinite ongoing world? Do you have any ideas for factions gaining power / influence? Do they get stronger "soldiers", money, items, political favor? Do you have DM guidelines per level? Such as restrictions on magical item rarity per tier? Are you following the tier restrictions? Are you going to actively track the logsheets of all characters, and have characters maintain an up to date character sheet / log sheets in a repository? Are you planning on using the base Actoba character sheet? Are you restricting it to roll 20? Are you restricting it to one roll 20 campaign?

Woah. You got alot of questions there! Lets see if I can answer them all. Do you have any overall story line or time line? Or is it just an indefinite ongoing world? Nope not yet since to do something like that I would need to run it very differently and probably in co-operation with DMs about a pre-defined story. It will most likely just start out as an on-going world for now with maybe some major plots which run here and there to re-define the ongoing world. This seems the more simpler approach and easier for newer DMs to jump into. Do you have any ideas for factions gaining power / influence? Do they get stronger "soldiers", money, items, political favor? So far I don't have much of a guideline coming from the adventurers league about the current official player factions. Honestly I am not too sure on how to run it just yet. I may simply run it as "missions" given by the faction in pursuit of things which then bring in benefits for the players who are apart of that faction. Mostly by taking inspiration from the Pathfinder Campaign rulebook where they had mechanics to deal with running a faction/city etc. The problem with this is how to deal with Player vs Player action which might or might not come up in this. However I plan to deal with this I would actually like to see the factions develop into something more then what they are. Being simply a player outlet for free goodies is a bit boring in my opinion so there will most likely be something to improve standings and favor etc. Do you have DM guidelines per level? Are you following the tier restrictions? Yes, I would stick to the current guideline set out by the Adventurers League. Levels are limited to the tiers they are in such as 1-4 is T1, 5-10 is T2, 11-15 etc etc. This keeps the Role-play fairly balanced and the levels more or less in range of each other. If however a player wants to make some special appearance amongst lower levels in a home-made story by a DM I would not restrict them. For example a level 10 player wishes to lead a group of lower levels that he has paid etc to help him is okay by me. Obviously role-play wise he will devestate some mobs etc but there can always be "surprises" along the way if you know what I mean. :) Restrictions on magical item rarity per tier? No custom magic items without good consideration since there is no guide lines out on such a thing. Without the DM guide its impossible to know where we "draw" the line in the sand with when an item is too over-powered. Honestly this turns more into a DM debate thing and is subject to a joint decision. Are you going to actively track the logsheets of all characters, and have characters maintain an up to date character sheet / log sheets in a repository? Are you planning on using the base Actoba character sheet? Yes I would keep track of the character sheets / logsheets of all characters when I can. I expect players to maintain their character sheets on the Obsidian Portal page once I have set up some sort of log-sheet format for them to follow. So far I have not had any outside players bring in a higher-level character into my games but I will require players to update their characters information. Simply put: If its not on your sheet on the site you don't have it. In regard to character sheets I will indeed use Actoba's Character sheet in Roll20. There are three methods I would use for tracking. I would ask players to either A. Keep a copy of it in a PDF somewhere. B. Ask a GM to extract the Roll20 character and import it into another game / Make the player a GM so he can export it out. C. The DM can keep a hold of the sheet and simply pass it out to a requesting DM / Player if required. On this topic, I expect a player not to try and cheat anyways. I will not keep a detailed eye on who has what etc since I assume anyone who is joining the table has the intention to simply have honest fun. I see no reason to fudge stats, skills etc. Anyone who is doing so will just be removed instantly. No debate about such a thing. I have kicked people out of my games for such a thing. I don't tolerate people who treat role-playing games as a deep competitive sport. Are you restricting it to roll 20? Are you restricting it to one roll 20 campaign? No I am not restricting it to Roll20. Simply put I am running this alongside Adventure League Material + adding homebrew material as an optional choice. No I am not restricting it to one roll20 campaign but I keep my games in one roll20 campaign due to the limitations of transferring character sheets/API scripts over and over. GMs of course are not restricted to my campaign, they are welcome to run it anyway they want. Think thats everything! I hope you don't mind if I keep this for a FAQ at some point? :)

On going world without a timeline / reset can cause players who join later to not have any role in the world shaping. So you will restrict it to Adventure League format characters that all start at level 1, no auto-leveling, etc? Whoever plays the most gains the most? It has some pros and cons with the ongoing approach.

Level 1 for now seems fair till there isa justifiable number of people at higher tiers. if something like that occured I would allow auto level entry to higher tiers but only starting from the bottom of it. So level 5 of tier 2, 11 of tier 3 etc

That all seems fair.

Too bad we differ on the world, and the timeline. However once you start giving away auto levels, eventually everyone will be max and you'll probably be tempted for a world resetting event, etc.

Why not slow down XP progression? That would delay such an event, at least.

Depends. We will see. Its usually 12 hours roughly to a level. Thats alot of time and ill decide whether or not auto-leveling would be even needed. The issue is that it depends on the ratio of DMs to Players. How many low tier vs middle tiers etc and how much demand their is for each one.