Hello! My name is Eli and I'm currently running a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition in a setting of my own design. Setting wise its rather high-fantasy compared to something like Game of Thrones, but probably slightly lower then The Witcher (except in certain areas.) The campaign I'm running currently takes place in the settings equivalent to the underdark. A massive underground lake so large that entire nations grow there unmolested by the outside world. The party are made up of people either born in this place, or trapped here due to the curse which permeates it, causing those who stay in the caverns for too long to be cursed to be ripped asunder by sunlight and eventually driven insane. Eldritch horror and abyssal abominations are (somewhat) common in this campaign, and my situations that can be found will have larger horror overtones. Many encounters (both combat, and out of) will likely be beyond the scope of the party unless they think quickly and creatively. The game is rather sandbox-y, but the 'main' goal which will end the campaign once completed (if completed) is finding a cure for the curse which afflicts the population of The Below. Though, I don't railroad and essentially let the players seek out their own goals as they see fit while still reasonably keeping party cohesion. Exploration will be a very large part of this campaign, aswell as determining how the players want to interact with many varied conflicting cultures that they will likely be unfamiliar to. This is not to say that skills delving into lore such as History and Nature will be useless in this campaign. Roleplay is a requirement, and I expect players to play semi-robustly and go out of their way to be in-character regardless of whether or not its the optimal route from a 'gameplay' standpoint. Its an tabletop R PG. Not a tabletop RP G , if that makes sense. The lore of the whole world of my setting is pretty well laid out, and I essentially go by the process of letting players write up a rough draft backstory for their chars and then letting me pick over it, and then point out things that could be edited to better suit lore or be tied into something pre-existing in the setting. I implement all character backgrounds in many different manners throughout the campaigns I run, usually in the form of the past coming back to haunt the characters, though I appreciate and reward players who attempt to let their characters grow without my input. Currently, we have a party of 4 and the sessions are usually run on tues/wednesdays weekly at 5PM-9PM CST. You can contact me here on roll20 or on discord at DapperMage#2327 if you are interested!
