[LFP][D&D 5E][Polynesian Inspired Pirate Campaign in a Homebrew Open World][LGBT+ & PoC Friendly!]

It's the year 962 A.C, or After Cataclysm. The Empires of the continent of Aureus, whilst locked in their political squabbles, have turned their gaze to the south, outward into the vast Shimmering Sea. There, Queen Kahakalani III has opened the nation's borders to the once isolated islands of Pomakuahine, much to the surprise of the residents who live in this tropical paradise. Pirates, looking for easy pickings, dot the ocean, raiding anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. Now, in this time of unprecedented change in the nation's history, the tides of conflict have begun to stir once more, not only in Pomakuahine, but in Aureus as well.  Hey everyone! My name is Neil. I'm 21, and I'm the DM for this game. Our group is looking for 1 new player to fill a seat after one of our long time players had to unfortunately bow out. I'll try to keep this advertisement short and to the point, but of course, if you have any questions feel free to PM me! Things To Know Before Applying Times: Our game times are on Thursdays at 3:00 PM PDT, and typically last for 4 hours. While times could maybe change in the future, this is our set in stone meeting time for now. We also use Discord Voice Chat for our sessions, so please make sure you have a working microphone of some kind. Homebrew & U.A Material: When it comes to homebrew races and classes, it is sadly a no from me. However, I am more open to re-flavoring/tweaking existing subclasses, races, etc. Play-style: Our group plays with a serious & relaxed tone (in the sense that we are in character a lot), but with a good dose of comedy to shake things up. We have flexible sessions in which depending on what the players decide to do, there can be any mixture of RP, Combat, & Exploration. Typically though , our games are much more RP focused, with an emphasis on characters. My GM'ing Style: I am very much a "Theater" DM. Since I run an Open World campaign, I want to make sure that players always have free reign to go wherever they want and do whatever they want. Whilst the party is in a certain part of the world, that doesn't mean you are confined to it. In the same way, there are events which are happening outside of the players, and it's up to you guys if you want to follow it. I enjoy role-playing out NPC's and weaving interconnecting stories which intersect with backstories and goals.  Gender, Sexuality, Race, etc.: As someone who is black and gay, this game is a safe space for all minorities, in which you are not just tolerated but embraced and celebrated! If you have an issue with me mentioning any of that, or the title, this is not a game for you. Evil Characters: I have a strict "No Evil Characters" policy. Neutral is good, but please make sure you are actually being neutral. Current Party Make-up: A Favored-Soul Sorcerer, a Great Old One Warlock, and a Swashbuckler Rogue. While we are looking for the player and not the class, it would be nice to have a front-liner. The party is currently at Level 5. What We Would Like In A Player Ideally, we would like a player who is more RP-focused than combat, and we are not a fan of min-maxers (wanting a capable character is fine, but there is a line to be drawn). Also someone who has a desire to interact with the other PC's and actively engages with the world around them.  Questions!  Please fill out these questions with whatever length you deem appropriate (within reason)! After taking a few days to review the applications, I'll be sure to PM you, and ask if you are still interested! Thank you for your time, and have a nice day! What type of player would you say you are? Describe your ideal D&D session. Tell me about a successful or unsuccessful D&D group. What made it work or not work? If a fellow player thought you had done something offensive (regarding anything), how would you react and how would you prefer it be addressed? What was the coolest moment you had while playing D&D?

1. I am more of an RP based kind of player. Combat and loot grabbing can be enjoyable but the best part of DnD is the collaborative storytelling you engage in with the DM. 2. My ideal DnD session is one where the player characters feel involved. Combat is not always necessary to achieve but it a good tool none the less. 3. I am currently in a Curse of Strahd campaign and I feel it has been very successful because of how flexible the DM has been with our characters decisions. And the effort she went through learning the backstories and incorporating them into the world. And the players do their part of not over talking the DM and other players. Aswell as rarely illicit player v player situations and tend to work well together. And use character traits as a reason to keep character together rather than have them serve as a mechanism to further personal goals and tamper with party cohesion. 4. If I am ever caught doing something offensive I would rather be messaged about it personally or brought to the side later by the DM though. I understand if it something that needs to be corrected immediately. I do not have a history of being offensive but if it happens I am willing to learn from it. 5. The coolest moment I had in DnD was when me and a party were running attempting to escape from a Kraken. We all had the advantage of being on shore but the Kraken has an insane attack ranged and movement. So when everyone else was a safe distance. My character pulled a kamikaze and broke a staff of Magi over their leg and had a fifty fifty chance of surviving or being nuked by the magic item. And he ended up surviving. Granted this was while he was level three. Granted that was the coolest moment but I liked that session not because I killed a Kraken but because we were on a trip to check in on my characters father he had not seen in year and came to find out he was dead. The whole RP has such an emotional weight that made me cry, due to how well the dm had built the narrative on the fly.

Hello Neil, Thank you for posting such a clear, evocative description of not only your game, but the perspective that you all play it with! It makes it easy to empathize with the projected story, and likewise a comfortable determination whether we, as prospective players, might make a good fit. Hopefully, I would be. [I apologize in advance for the very long post, but your questions deserve a thorough reply.] As for me, I'm in my late 40s, living in the Great Lakes (USA) region with my spouse of almost 20 years and our cats. My background is in academia - anthropology to be precise - so I have an effervescent joy at coming up with background stories that not only reflect character traits I want to engage with, but also elements in the campaign (as far as that is known to me) that seem enjoyable complements to the story at hand. Character development, for me, always leans far more on an evolving psychology and world outlook than on levels or (numerical) values.  To get into your questions in a bit more detail. I'm definitely a "roleplay over rollplay" type, and to me combat really only holds appeal if it drives the story. I'm storyteller for a game myself (on Sundays), and there's many sessions without initiative being rolled, as people go about their business (and the campaign) gathering information to the puzzles at hand, getting to know people involved in whatever the mystery du jour is, and assorted slice of life, if they feel like it. Having said that, combat can really complement things, and especially form a good pressure-relief or climax. I prefer character to character engagement, but immersion can be found in combat, and as long as people are inclined to describe their actions in an evocative manner, I do not mind it. Having said it, I tend to prefer solutions that minimize violence as a conflict resolution, and prefer game sessions that are devoted to other story elements than combat grind. It would be hard to define an ideal game session, since one of the best elements of roleplay is that we get to share it with each other, and that each of us brings elements to the table that are eye openers to one another. By and large, though, I love the kind of sessions that are the slow culmination of the drip drip of story hints, and where a reveal makes you all reflect upon your actions and your (moral) outlook. Mystery will always be at the heart of story telling for me, and the best moments are those where I can share it, both as a player and as the character through whose senses I am engaging with it. As for a past group that gives a bit of perspective on me and gaming... I think I will go back to my college days. This must have been in the '90/'91 year, and we were playing (old) World of Darkness, Werewolf in particular. It was before I had really discovered who I was, but for some reason I had decided to play a burly but rather introverted gay volunteer firefighter. I know, in hindsight that's very obvious, but I was rather young at the time, and subconsciously trying to figure stuff out through RP. I *knew* that one of the fellow players was gay, since he was a friend, and it seemed interesting to try and see the world through his eyes, or so I reasoned. The GM, to his endless credit, saw far more clearly than I what I was trying to do, and although he was as straight / cis as they come, was a wise man and gently allowed me to walk that path, and offered me the chances to take a look at my heart, without making it a drama about sexuality at all. It's from him that I learned the importance of putting identity foremost in roleplay, both as a storyteller and as a player. In the end, that character died, and it was done well, and that was closure I needed, too. Although plenty of heart-ache followed, that campaign was cathartic. Many years later, I have settled on a more nuanced vision of myself, and although I am, of course, still learning, realizing that first step will always stay with me.  I'm going to assume that the affront felt by fellow players that I might have caused was strictly out of character, even though the cause may have been in character - for the sake of discussion. It's important to me that I exactly do not cause these things, so having been the originator of such, I'd feel pretty bad, once I become aware of it. Chances are, that my first step would be to review (to myself) what actually happened, and whether I support my own actions in hindsight. It's possible that the actions that caused their felt affront are entirely innocuous, or even wholesome, to me, and that will likely colour my own perspective. Regardless of that, I would probably send them a private message (over Discord, for instance) that I have come to realize that I may have been the cause of grief, and that I apologize for that. Then, I will try and engage with them to discover whether this was indeed an accidental conflation of themes that did not sit well with either party, or whether either side has actual believes that are structurally incompatible. If the latter, I will suggest for both parties to talk in private with the storyteller, and have them make their own determination on whether injustice had taken place, and how to proceed from there.  It's to be avoided, if possible, but sometimes you do end up with incompatible groups. Earlier this year, both myself and a female player left a group, after it came to light that she had been dealing with harassment by a fellow player, and that the GM was disinclined to do anything about it. I noticed it, from reading between the lines (as a volunteer councilor at my Alma Mater, I am somewhat trained in keeping my heart and mind open for such things), and took to talking with the victim, then represented her case to the GM, when she was unable to state her case - strictly with her permission. Eventually, we drew our conclusions, but acting in good faith (including assuming no ill intent, of course) and honest dialogue (while respecting confidence) is quite important to me. For the coolest moment while playing D&D I'm going back to a 2nd edition Forgotten Realms character. Samyamu was a scion of a family that was trying to regain their honour in exile, and raised in part by an old retainer that was a monk of their native country. [We were playing with some Oriental Adventures material.] As a result, although a Fighter by trade, Samyamu had a dislike of fighting in armour (a significant problem for a martial character in 2nd edition!) and developed a distinct, scholarly bend, without neglecting his responsibilities as a duelist or diplomat. In due course, the campaign wound itself to the native land of his ancestors, and he received a pardon for the sins of the past. With it, returned to him was an old ancestral sword that had been granted to a forebear as a token of office in the service to the Emperor (at the time). It was only barely magical, but the fact that it represented, to him and to me as a player, the culmination of about two years of chasing a dream made it worth far more than other treasure or tokens of esteem. I still regret I lost the poem I had Samyamu write on the occasion. Well, I hope that wasn't too much of an epistle. If the occasion warrants it, I can wax a little exuberantly, and you were asking some poignant questions. Hopefully, I have managed to represent my outlook well enough to warrant getting to know the current group, and we can then go from there. Regards, Pat

Ah, everything about this game sounds so great but sadly I cannot play at that time. Will there be any chance of it being changed in future?

Thank you everyone for applying so far! The thread is still open for awhile longer so if you want to apply, be sure to post! And sorry Mr. Smee, for the foreseeable future it will be on Thursdays at 3 PDT.

Assuming this thread is still open, I wanted to post! I'm Wren, a 20 y/o nonbinary lesbian who's been playing 5E for the last 2 years! What type of player would you say you are?     I would say I'm a pretty involved player. I really adore immersing myself in the world during roleplay, and find roleplay to be just So much fun? Which isnt to say that I don't like the combat system, because I'm actually a big fan, but roleplay is definitely the big draw for me to DnD. I'm also an illustrator, so when we aren't playing a lot of what I draw for fun tends to be campaign-related (the players in my other currently-running game can attest to that lol). Overall I think I'm a player who really gets into the psyche of their character and loves to fall in love with a story! Describe your ideal D&D session.     My Ideal DnD Session is definitely a comfortable balance of relaxed fun and serious storytelling. I love a "serious" story in terms of like... the actions of players having realistic consequences, but I'm not a huge fan of things that are super overly-heavy all the time. I'm definitely someone who will type a joke into the chat about something happening over voice chat in the game or quickly photoshop a meme to be campaign relevant, and I really appreciate it when a group is able to toe that line between lighthearted and genuinely emotionally compelling. Tell me about a successful or unsuccessful D&D group. What made it work or not work?     The last game that I was in was, I consider, a fairly unsuccessful group. We were a fairly ragtag group of strangers who had met online, and I think that expectations weren't set up from the start. Our DM actively Hated combat and had a way that she really wanted the story to go, so it just felt like railroaded mediocre roleplay most of the time. I still made a couple of friends and had some fun, but overall I wouldn't call it the best campaign I've joined. If a fellow player thought you had done something offensive (regarding anything), how would you react and how would you prefer it be addressed?     I would prefer to be PMed about it! Everyone fucks up sometimes, and if I fuck up I would really appreciate being spoken to about it instead of letting an uncomfortable wall grow between me and another player. And I would definitely be mindful about taking more care in the future. What was the coolest moment you had while playing D&D?     The coolest moment I've had while playing DnD is like.... So Small, but it stands out in my memory as a little thing that makes me really happy! It was in my other currently running campaign, where I was playing an air genasi bard named Ohleiah. It was the beginning of the campaign and two of the other players were newbies to DnD, and didn't really have any idea what an air genasi was/could do. We had just defeated a handful of myconid in the basement of this really cute lesbian couple and their baby, but fungus was still growing absolutely everywhere, so we stayed to help them clean up a bit. The barbarian and fighter got to work on the rotted walls and floor, and I had Ohleiah cast levitate so she could take care of the fungus growing onto the ceiling. So she slowly raised off the ground and casually floated with her legs crossed while the others stared and silently freaked out.     Of course there are moments in battle and where Ohleiah sweet-talked her way into people's hearts and out of trouble that make me really excited, but it was that tiny character moment that I look back on most fondly! It was just one of the first things the other pcs learned about Ohleiah, and that whole battle really felt like the beginning of the friendly relationship that started between the pcs! Anyways, thanks for posting/for your consideration!! And have a great day!!

Thank you everyone for applying! We are closing this thread and are deciding currently. Thank you all for your time, we really do appreciate you taking the time out of your day to apply!

That is too bad. Although, I will keep my eyes on any future game plans you might offer later. Have fun with this one!