Welcome to my post ladies and gents! I'd like to start off by thanking you for checking out my post and hopefully you'll decide to join us for some fun, non serious gaming sessions during the weekends/weekdays. There's going to be "a lot" information here for you to read, so stick with me! This is a Roll20 campaign! I'm a DM with over 2000+ hours logged!(I thought I'd put this here just so there isn't any confusion, the links in the post are only there for reference for our house rulings and home brewed content.) Let's go ahead and get the basics out of the way. NEW GAME SCHEDULE: # of Sessions Played : 17 DAY: TIME (US Central): # OF PLAYERS: DM/GM: Wednesday 7:00-7:30 PM Start 8-10* (3 Reserved Slots) Ridrith Saturday 7:00-7:30 PM Start Unlimited* 14-16 Players Ridrith Friday 7:00-7:30 PM Start 6-8 Players Otharis TBD* *TBD (Next few weeks.) 5 (Recruiting now!) Chris Monday TBD* 5-6 (Recruiting Now!) RJ Weekly Games* (Monday-Thursday) 6:30-7:30 PM Start 8-10 (Multiple DMs) Weekly games may or may not happen on a regular basis, it's a matter if players are wanting to play at any given time and if I'm able to GM. I'm also open to doing 1 on 1 sessions with players who'd like to have a more personal experience but still be a part of the overall campaign. Now keep in mind that sessions like this would be rare, but we work with what we've got! What are we looking for?: Dungeon Masters old and new who'd like to participate in world building, you're welcome to run games in this setting and because of the vague nature of the timeline and the history you're basically free to do what you'd like. Keep in mind that there is a 'DM' guide in the works for this setting, a short document that details the DOs and Donts of Evslore. We're also looking for players who'd like to join us! New, old, returning, it doesn't matter to us. Come in and give us a shot maybe you'll enjoy yourself. Grab a beer some snacks and let's kill some monsters and explore the world. A small portion of the living campaign world. Right now the games are taking place on a number of islands that represent the 'Empire of Swords'. The Living Campaign: What is a living campaign? You could compare a living campaign world to today's MMORPGs, even when you're not logged in the world continues to move forward with or without you. Quests and storylines can be completed throughout the week and it's very much a drop-in and drop-out experience. We're going to be playing as often as we can and the storyline will move forward regardless of who's there and who isn't. We also have a number of 'metagame' resources located on our website we use to encourage our players to contribute to the world building and development of their characters. We use achievements that reward prestige points (experience), new abilities, crafting systems, property ownership and more. We also have a number of different DMs who are interested and currently looking into running games for the setting as well, this would give players a chance to run more than one character and play in different parts of the world to experience new things all while changing the world around them. Player choice is key to making this work. Your choices will matter and will have a lasting impact on the game world and the storyline as we move forward. What types of games do you run? D&D 5th Edition - Evslore is a semi-sandbox adventure set in the mishmash fantasy world of Evslore. Players will have more or less total freedom to visit most Evslore locations of their choosing be they cities, dungeons or points of interest on the map. From time to time there will be story events where players are guided to important quests or interesting dungeons where treasure, danger and puzzles await them. There will be a mixture of quests, guided stories and dungeon crawls in this campaign. Each and every session will be different - sometimes combat will be the focal point, while other times quests and RP heavy scenarios will be played out. Wednesday & Weekly Game Campaign: (Recommended players 6-8, will often have this many.) Wednesday is the slow burn game. Treacherous and difficult are pretty apt terms to describe this game. Wednesday follows many of the original AD&D sensibilities, creatures are dangerous and players can often find themselves fighting against almost insurmountable odds. Yet somehow they manage to find their way home almost every time. This game takes place on the fringes of civilization in the heart of the Empire of Swords. Visiting islands, derelict keeps and finding the hidden dangers of the world that lurk just under the nose of normal society. (Sandbox with major plot points and story.) Friday Evslore Campaign: (Recommended players 5-8, actively looking for players.) Friday is a game for those who love to deal with the 'strange', cults, magic, alien gods and visiting other planes are some of the major elements that make up this game. Difficulty varies but from time to time you may be faced with deadly situations in which you'll need to deal with in order to make it out alive. (Semi-Sandbox, directed story.) Saturday Evslore Campaign : (Recommended players 10-15 - varies weekly.) The Company of the Gray is the big, no holds barred game. It's chaos, generally in the best way possible. If you're not interested in joining and playing in a game that will generally have at least 10 players participating in large scale combat situations, I don't recommend you sign up for Saturday! Company of the Gray sees your character becoming a mercenary for the mercenary crew 'Company of the Gray', from here you will venture all throughout the Empire of Swords taking on contracts, choosing sides between warring nations and dealing with the realization that your closest allies can sometimes become your worst enemies. (Sandbox, directed story.) Character Creation Rules: CHARACTER CREATION RULES New Feat Options: NEW FEATS House Rules of Evslore: HOUSE RULES Custom Races (Races in the PHB are not allowed): Races of Evslore Alternate Experience Point System: Prestige Points You agree with the house rules that we're currently planning on using. You want a sandbox role-playing game where you choose a hex on the map and drop down ready to explore. The world doesn't adhere to 'levels'; you may very well be adventuring into territory where a powerful troll has made his home, just because you're level 1 doesn't mean he's going to scale to you so that he's a proper challenge. It's up to the players to decide when they want to run. You're okay with guns and sorcery and a little bit of arcane/steampunk in your games. You're okay with dying while playing the game. Combat is deadly. You're okay with new class archetypes and races, with a number of the original races removed/reskinned for the game. If you want to help us create the world while we play, the timeline and historical events of this setting are left intentionally vague. I'm looking for the players to help take part in this settings creation as we play. If you're okay with using VOICE chat and Teamspeak 3. You're an adult who is okay with crude language being used at the gaming table and a little bit of OOC banter while we play. You're looking for a fun, non serious gaming experience where the rule of cool is king. You're looking for traditional 5E combat with a twist, it's a little more cinematic and free flowing. Do you want to try to swing across a chandelier onto an ogre's back? Make a check. You play as the heroes, you're a cut above the rest. That doesn't mean you won't end up dead. You enjoy old school sensibilities, traps that are truly dead, difficult encounters. Death is likely. If you feel that role-playing your character, exploring the world, figuring out mysteries and seeking out lost treasures and knowledge is a better way to advance your character than simply through fight after fight. Alternate Experience point system that rewards tactical prowess and completing goals as a group. Meta-Game and I'm not talking about using knowledge outside of game to further your goals within. I'm talking about features like 'Inspiration' that has no other point for being in game other than because it's a fun mechanic and a way to reward the players for playing their characters well. We've went a step further and have created a number of achievements, land ownership, and a few other systems that you're welcome to take part in but it's totally fine if you don't. If you've actually read through this, make sure we know it. If you post in the topic type: "Ducky" along with your info/question. You're looking for a 100% genuine 5e experience set in the Forgotten Realms. You're a rules lawyer or you read through the monster manual while we play. "That goblin shouldn't have a bow!" You're looking for a hardcore role-play experience where everybody is in character 80-100% of the time with little OOC banter. You can't use voice or you aren't willing to use voice. Typing is FINE, but only if you're able to speak as well. You're not okay with most of the in character roleplay going on in text/chat and voice being used to communicate with the DM. You hate curse words. Seriously. If you're easily offended, please don't play! We don't want to hurt you feelings. If your purpose for playing Dungeons and Dragons revolves entirely around tactical combat or you enjoy grid based combat. If you don't like the idea of being able to shoot a goblin in the face with a flintlock pistol. If you're playing a character who is evil or more interested in their own goals than that of the parties, it's okay to be the renegade outsider but not if it means your goal is back-stab or kill the party in the process. Civilization -- at least in the chronicled history of those races now a part of it -- begins with the elves. Allegedly the first race in Evslore, when primitive and incapable humans first arrived the Firstborn were already well-established, and these long-lived, seasoned and experienced beings did what came naturally upon interacting with them: they enslaved them. A full era -- the exact length of which has been lost to time, coming before it was chronicled in any truly meaningful or concrete sense -- was spent in servitude and chains, but mankind is naturally inquisitive, swift to adapt, and it learned. Humans learned from the elves, either from observing over years upon years, or finding knowledge shared openly by those who began to see the humans as another intelligent race, meant for greater things than use as a stock of slaves. Mankind learned, and it learned to want more for itself than was being given. It learned of that which was denied to it, and worse, it learned to be angry. When the humans finally turned and revolted, by that point elven society was so firmly enmeshed with reliance upon humans in their daily lives that it fell apart in the uprising -- and that was before the violence truly set in. Virtually every elven settlement -- intertwined with humans, all -- was razed to the ground. Without, at the time, the longer lifespans of elves and the luxury of taking time to mull over the past transgressions of others, the humans put all the flesh they could find to the blade and everything else to the torch. Though this was Ages past, the Firstborn never truly recovered, and what muddled, impure blood is now left of them lives in the shadow of humanity and the other humanoid races, eking out a miserable half-existence in slums and ghettos. After their victory over the elves, humans -- still fresh from their wounds and remembering their would-be endless slavery -- turned their gaze upon the next set of perceived oppressors: the gods. They called out to the rest of the mortal races of Evslore, and urged them to rise up and shake free of the shackles they saw upon them and all others. Tired of being used as pawns and unwilling to move from servants of one kind to servants of another, they forged alliances, rallied the other races, and slew the Walking Gods. It has been a hundred and a quarter more years since then, and magic has started to slowly unravel, becoming chaotic and breaking down to become outright dangerous in some areas of the world -- and in other regions, it's completely uncontrollable. The human nation that once stood strong and united has slowly fractured through the Ages, though at least the Imperial Throne has always stood steadfast, maintaining control via economic power even within the crumbling empires and nations to force their reliance upon the throne to survive. More immediately and recently, Ankhi was destroyed in a magical mishap, with cultists underneath the city believing that they had obtained the divine spark from a dead god and attempted to resurrect their fallen pleasure goddess -- with disastrously destructive results for the city. Roughly two, as many as three million lives were lost in the blink of an eye, and now the Empire of Swords is sending soldiers into the sands of Assai in order to restore order and investigate. -------------------------------------- All of that above? That's current information known mostly within in the nations that it involves, that's just a single set piece in the world of Evslore. Players may never even interact or take part in any of the events that transpire between these two nations but it's an option if you want it to be. If you're a new or returning player or just interested in trying out tabletop role-playing games for the first time you're welcome to join us! It's easy to feel overwhelmed but we've got plenty of folks who are willing to sit down and help you through character creation and we'll answer any questions you have. Thanks for reading! Join our community!