Hey folks. I used to DM 2 campaigns and play in 2 other games every week for a few years. Had a lot of fun playing and DMing for a long time. Late last year, my little girl became ill and I quit all my games suddenly so I could spend all of my time taking care of her and doing everything I could for her. Less than a month later, I lost her... I've been heartbroken and struggling with depression ever since. It's been 6 months now since her passing and i'm beginning to finally feel like maybe it is ok to try to have a little fun instead of just hating myself and life in general. I kind of want to play D&D again since it used to be a big passion of mine and I haven't touched it in half a year. I don't feel up to DMing or anything like that right now, but I think i'd like to just play a little and maybe enjoy doing something creative or fun and see where it goes. I spent the past couple of days just staring at the PHB thinking about what class or race I wanted to be and couldn't really seem to get excited about any of them. That has been one of my problems, I guess a side effect of the constant crippling sadness I feel all the time, nothing just really seems to appeal to me anymore. I finally remembered back to a pathfinder campaign I played many years ago where I was an awakened animal, and for some reason that kind of got the juices flowing a little bit and I started thinking about and imagining scenarios for it. Unlike pathfinder, 5e doesn't really have anything in the way of official rules for awakened animal characters so I guess i'd have to talk with a DM and work out some details. But i'm very well versed in the rules, having played 5e since it's release. I have many years experience with roleplaying. My ideal game has a good mix of both combat and social situations, a game where you can solve problems in unconventional ways with creative thinking or maybe find ways out of combat encounters with trickery or circumstance. I'm just not a huge fan of the heavy handed forced "on the rails" approach where nothing you do really matters and you end up going to the same places and doing the same things regardless of any choices you make. I like a game similar to how I used to DM, where the story is shaped by the players' actions instead of being on a script and the characters and world adapt and evolve naturally and realistically based on what you do or don't do within it. My ideal group of players are folks who stay in character probably around 75-90% of the time with only occasional out of character jokes and table talk (primarily at humorous situations or rolling very well or very poorly in certain circumstances). I am a floater in the medical field so I work in doctor's offices, hospitals, nursing homes, or clinical laboratories depending on where i'm needed but typically work monday through friday first shift time frame. If anyone is interested in any of that, just send me a message and we can chat.
