Howdy! My name, as you can obviously see, is Ken, and I find myself looking for a player outlet for 5E. I am, and have been, DMing D&D games on here for the past year in 2 separate campaigns. The first lasted 6 months until it was decided that the game was simply not working. There were basically 3 different groups within the campaign; the insane freeform roleplayers, the structured roleplayers, and the "I only wanna murder hobo things" group who wants, and frankly needed, to be railroaded. In the end, after much discussion and attempts to resolve the issues, it was decided that the group has irreconcilable differences in play style and 'wants' from a game, and it was ended. From that, a couple players were given offers to host a game on Mondays, and that game has been going solidly for 4-5 months or so with a mostly new group of players. However, after DMing for months, and joining a few campaigns that often died by the 3rd session, I find myself once again dipping my toe into 5E, and find myself looking for a game that runs at 8pm PST or later Wednesdays or Fridays. I have about 5 character concepts I have created over the past year, ranging from power game-y, to frankly weak, but flavorful. Some Tidbits about myself: 1. Stats: I personally enjoy a rolled stat game as I have always found it gives you a more... unique character with pronounced flaws and strengths. 2. Roleplaying: I myself am a very vocal player who will often put (sometimes nonsensical) amount of points allocated to Charisma, and, although I do enjoy sword swinging, I also love having at least some options for RP every session (though the occasional deep dungeon crawl is acceptable as well). What can I say, I love to ham it up, voices and all. Also expect class features to be used... unconventionally. An example: Previous campaign I was a high elf who took booming blade as a paladin; and the party had all failed their survival checks for food supplies. As such, my character walked into the oasis we were near, checked for fish, drew a dagger, and booming bladed himself while fully submerged in order to generate an underwater sonic boom. There's nothing like dynamite fishing with magic. 3. Creative freedom: Sometimes a situation cannot be resolved without combat, but it shouldn't be all the time. I am a player who loves to use environmental situations with fights; although I will make sure that it makes logical sense. An example: In a previous campaign, we had entered into a crypt filled with some sort of green bile on the ground between us and the enemy caster. My character, a highly athletic knight, decided he was unwilling to wade through it, and thus ran, leapt, grabbed onto the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and used that to vault across the room landing on the enemies platform (while somehow bullshitting his way through the rolls to be able to do so). I will often do stupid, heroic seeming actions if that is in the characters...uh...character. They don't all work, and sometimes they backfire cataclysmically, but the freedom to do so, with a reasonable chance for success is important to me as a player. 4. Content: I don't really have any restrictions on game content or PG-rating; with the only topics I find awkward being sex and rape in D&D. Main reasons being that they are almost never handled well, or appropriately. In general, I guess I am looking for a more mature game, without constant innuendo's or cracking out of character jokes; I like to be able to get into the game, which requires some focus on the storytelling during the game itself. 5. Splat: In general, I fully understand why some DM's are utterly unfriendly towards some splatbook content. Things like the Aarakoa, Monk of Long Death, psionics, etc are not well balanced; and WOTC's track record is hilariously all over the place. (I mean, look at ranger...) However, in my opinion sometimes the fantasy the splatbook offers is really important for character creation, and I enjoy being able to work with the DM during and after character creation to find a way to balance said content to be able to apply it. A good example, one of my characters is a spastic birdman who talks vaguely like a parrot. In game, the ability to represent that impossible outside of the Aarakoa; however, aarakoa's with permanent flying are frankly broken (Speaking from experience); so perhaps using the minor features and stat line of an aarakoa, removing flying, and slotting in some other appropriate bonuses to balance the race would be an option. That's the kind of open-mindedness I look for in a DM. I like having the ability to tell the story I want to tell within the DM's framework, but as a player, dm's who flatly say "no, this is disallowed" without trying to work with the player to find a compromise annoy me and frankly, I have little interest in those kinds of games. So, for those of you who have made it all the way through: thank you. If you, or anyone you know may be an appropriate match, I would very much like to find a game to play in and to stretch my creative roleplaying muscles.
