Welcome to the game, y'all! I feel like I was very fortunate with your responses. I have players who are new to D&D entirely, players who are new to this edition of D&D, players who are old hands at D&D but new to Roll20, young players, older players, domestic and foreign players, ladies and gentlemen, and all of you seem to be coming to the table with the right attitude. I like it a lot. :) Let me introduce myself, first: my name is Chuck. I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. I'm 36 years old, have been playing D&D (and other tabletop RPGs) on and off for....ehhhh, about two decades now. In that time, I've GMed a couple of homebrew campaigns to completion, and eventually I'd like to bring y'all into a campaign setting of my own, but that's down the line. Let's see if we mesh first. My goal in this campaign, first and foremost, is that everyone has fun. I want you guys to try crazy things, feats of action-movie acrobatics, and off-the-wall ideas in addition to sound character and tactical decisions. I'm a big believer in the "yes, and?" school of DMing. Telling any of you an outright "no" will be exceedingly rare. Don't be afraid to try new things; we'll figure out a way to make them work. That being said, if I feel like your action is an attempt to game the system rather than an attempt to do something awesome, I reserve the right to smack you down in creative (and terrible) ways. You have been warned. ;) Beyond the game and mechanics, everyone has fun. This table (such as it is) is a safe space for all my players. There's going to be a lot of banter and fun, but if anyone makes anyone else feel uncomfortable or impedes their good time (myself included!), I expect you to tell that person and, if the behavior continues, tell me. I recognize that not everyone will always get along and things that happen in game may hurt feelings on occasion, but if I get the feeling that one of my players is purposefully harassing or griefing another, they will be booted from my table quickly, firmly, and not asked to return. All of us (myself included!) are a team in this, and our responsibility to each other and the game are to make sure that everyone has a good time. That's all the generalities covered; let's get down to brass tacks! Our first session is going to be mostly party-forming. I want you guys to figure out a way that you all know each other -- are you an adventuring company? Does your character have ties to another PC (sibling, lover, friend, colleague, etc)? I've come to really loathe the "you all meet in an inn and pull a posting off the adventurer bulletin board" start to adventures, so I rely on my players to contribute some sticky ( sticky: n. story and characterization that gives in-game reasons for the group to be and stay together) at the start of a game. Judging from what you all posted in the ad, I think we have a pretty good coverage of the roles of a party; just tell everyone what you really want to play, and we'll work it out from there. Mechanically, I only have the 5E base books (PHB, DMG, MM), so I'd prefer we keep our races and classes confined to those outlined in the Player's Handbook. I am a huge fan of the Backgrounds system, but I encourage creativity in my players whenever possible, so feel free to go wild with Backgrounds, Flaws, Ideals, Traits, etc! As I said, I reserve the right to veto characters that I feel are trying to game the system, but I've gotten pretty permissive in my old age; if you have a cool idea that you want to bring to life in our world, I want to help you make it happen as close to your vision as I can. That's about it to start! Let's get rolling: post your character ideas in the game thread, and feel free to introduce yourself as much as you're comfortable with. I'm quite happy to have each of you aboard and look forward to crafting a great experience for all of us!