As the topic suggests, I am DMing a 4th edition campaign that has been ongoing for the past year and a half. We've had players come and players go in that time so now we are looking for a few more again. Although I admit to using premade modules, often it is just a baseline to work with. Just because you may have played the module I'm running, doesn't mean it will be the exact same game as written. We use skype for voice chat and roll20 for everything else. The game usually runs from roughly 7 pm EST to 11 pm give or take an hour. The setting is loosely based in the Nentir Vale (aka generic fantasy setting) but I won't restrict you to that regarding your origins (see details in character creation layout). As far as the current party goes, it consists of a human fighter/paladin, a dragonborn blackguard, a goliath warden, a tiefling psion, a hengiyokai fox rogue/assassin, and a few combat npcs to fill out the ranks. Obviously the group is very melee heavy at this point but if you write up an interesting character, I can use the npcs to balance out any shortcomings in group layout. Finally, this will not be first come, first served. I plan to close applications by halloween (10/31) and make my final choices over the weekend. House Rules New Players will be starting at Level 13 with the standard loot rules (one free level 14, level 13 and level 12 item and 13,000 gold) and using a 22 point buy for initial stats. Roleplay Bonus: If you take the time and effort to describe what your character is doing whenever you have to roll dice (this includes inside combat or outside of combat), you may earn a bonus to that dice roll. In most cases, it will be a +2 bonus but if you truly impress it can go to a +5 bonus. Simply saying "Thrug the Barbarian uses Melee Basic Attack" will not earn you any bonus. A better example would be "Thrug holds his axe low to the ground and he swings up trying to slice past his foe's defenses." Roleplay bonuses stack with any other bonuses you receive. Critical Failure: Crit Fails are very much in effect. They swing both ways for the heroes and the enemies. If you roll a natural 1, I will as you to call out Odd or Even then I will roll a 1d100 dice. If you get it right, then you only messed up with whatever you were doing. If you get it wrong, something else happens as well such as your weapon suddenly flying out of your hands and across the battlefield. Feats: All characters receive Improved Defenses and one Expertise feat of their choice for free. These two feats will not count towards their total feats. Alignment: NO EVIL CHARACTERS! This is the one and only hard line in the sand for me. Even our blackguard is more anti-hero than evil. Good or neutral characters only. This is more or less a hero game and I shouldn't have to pull out a cattle prod to make your character do the right thing every once in awhile. Background and Theme bonuses are allowed however I stress that they should match the backstory of your character. If you choose the background bonus of merchant, your character's past should mention that they were a merchant at some point. Themes are hard to mesh so I'll give a lot of more leeway with them just so long as I don't have to make Grand Canyon sized logic jumps to see how they connect with your character's storyline. Be Flexable: Sometimes a player may come up with a good idea that doesn't entirely work within the ruleset. If it is interesting enough, I might just try to find a work around. Sometimes, I find or come up with a variant rule that might work for an arc I have in mind. For example, in a tournament arc we finished awhile ago, I added Crowd Bonus to the situational modifiers. It was important to cater to the crowd at times and not ignore them. Character Creation Layout Name: (This should be self-explanatory) Gender: (male or female. Even warforged are modeled after humanoid figures) Age: (10 year old natural born characters need not apply) Race::(Human, Elf, Dragonborn, etc) Base Class: Paragon Path: (You are level 13, you are more than a mere wet behind the ears adventurer) Alignment: (Evil characters will be annihilated upon entry) Physical Appearance: (Describe what your character looks like) Personality: (What is your character like as a person? Do they have dreams or goals? How do they get along with others? What do they like or dislike?) Background: (This will be the meat of your application. Here is a hint: I LOVE NOVELS. There is never such a thing as too long with me. As I mentioned previously, the setting is loosely based in the Nentir Vale but I have no qualms about players coming up with their own hometowns and eventually ending up in the area that the main campaign takes place. Tell me about where they were born. Did they have any family, friends, mentors in their life? How was their childhood? Teenage years? Adulthood? Why did they choose to become the Class type that they are? Why do they use the weapons that they own? Since they are not new adventurers, what have they done in the past to gain this worldly experience/knowledge? Ultimately, the background should end with your character arriving (or if you prefer living in) the port town of Moonstair. The past month a mass army of trolls have been assaulting the town restricting all land travel. The leader of the trolls, Skalmad, calls himself the Troll King and claims to be immortal. This rumor has spread quickly since he has appeared on the battlefield and died only to come back during the next raid attempt. Currently, there are still two paths into Moonstair that the trolls haven't blocked off, passage by boat and passage by a magic portal that connects Moonstair to the Eladrin City of Celudilon. The town does have its own army to defend it but morale has reached an all-time low. During the month long attacks, the general had been assassinated. His second in command was killed in a skirmish. Third in command tried to launch an assault on the troll's headquarters with a group of seasoned adventurers only for one survivor to return to Moonstair telling everyone that the mission was a failure. Fourth in command fled from Moonstair altogether. The mayor of Moonstair, a half-elven woman named Kelana Dhoram, is trying her best to keep order. However, it is no secret that she is an economic and political leader but no fighter. She assures the people that aid is coming but many are starting to lose hope.) If you have any questions or want some of the plotpoints in Moonstair explained in more detail, let me know.
