Hello!
I am looking to recruit a group for an upcoming Forgotten Realms campaign.
Although I will be the lead storyteller, I hope for players that will all
contribute with engagement, inquisitiveness and immersion, and thus help write
our story, together. Although I will make fairly faithful use of the published
setting, the adventure material I have written so far is all my own, and I hope
that in time, it will be yours, as well. As for me I go by Pat
(preferred pronouns: they/them), a somewhat older gamer living in the Great
Lakes area of the USA with my spouse of some 20 years and our cats. My
background is in academia, and I love telling stories that have a
well-researched backdrop. I started gaming almost exactly 30 years ago with the
Moldvay red box, in Mystara. I've enjoyed a lot of settings since, and I hope
to be able to create good memories together with you all. As for you
With some
luck, we'll find a group where we are not just respectful of one another, but
embracing of the things we have in common as much as the things that make us
all unique. This means that even assumed intolerance of LGBT+ folks is
thoroughly unwelcome, and likewise cultural, racial or religious discrimination
is heartily invited to stay well away. In this group, we are all equal - never
the same, but any one of us is as worthy as the next. I am hoping
for people who are not just eager to join up for our weekly game night (real
life intrusions aside, of course), but that are interested in keeping in touch
over Discord (using text) in the meantime. Please don't apply if you expect
that you'll be "happy to be there" on game time, but are
incommunicado otherwise. I want players that eagerly look forward to it, and
that are expressive enough to contribute. Due to prior
experiences, I aim for people who are all mature, comfortable with expressing
themselves in English (even if it is not your native language), and have a
stable home-base they have a measure of control over. Students living in dorms
or people that are liable to be called away by parents are thus not a good
match, for example. A special
call-out: couples are very welcome, of course, but children are unlikely to
work out well, even if they are accompanied by their parents. I prefer a PG13
style of communication, but there still may be matters (such as politics,
certain types of social interaction, and so forth) that wouldn't work well if
not everyone is at least familiar with how the world at large operates. A lot
of that comes with age and exposure, and it's not reasonable to expect for a
gaming group to catch someone up on such things.
When and where
We'll be playing over Roll20 (which I use as a backdrop of pictures far more
frequently than for any battlemaps). We'll also make use of Discord for voice.
No webcams will be used, and we won't be streaming things. Regarding
time: Either Tuesday or Wednesday from 3pm-7pm EST. I will consider shifting
this to the evening (8pm-midnight) if that works best for the group as a whole,
but my priority is to recruit people who can make the earlier timeframe. I
realize that this is a severe drawback to people based in the Americas - but
the latter is likewise a drawback to people based in Europe.
Since I am based in Ohio, we will use my local daylight savings time
adjustments, although that will only become in issue once more in spring.
I expect to take a few weeks to find the right group. This will not be a first-come, first-served
affair! I hope to talk with every promising candidate in person, and that takes
time. Chances are, that we'll start the second or third week of December as a
result. Characters In short -
we'll find out later! I am not at all interested in character pitches yet, and
once the group has been hopefully formed of people that get along based on
personalities, we can sort persona out. It is, however, probably fair to say
that I enjoy characters with a healthy backstory. Although it doesn't have to
be a 2,000 word essay, a few paragraphs is my fair hope. Please don't think of
it as "homework" (even if I can sound a little didactic at times, I
have heard), but as a chance of giving your character a good chance at a world
outlook, once they get involved with the stories out there. Having said
that: overly-exotic characters have a disadvantage, in that the world is mostly
filled with humans, and people react best to those of their own kind. Whether
that is a good thing or not, it's a reality we have to keep in mind. Even if
you are comfortable with that hindrance, I am still going to stick fairly close
to published material for the timeline when it comes to available races.
I'm
encouraging homebrew backgrounds, but homebrew classes aren't going to be
allowed, and I may restrict certain sub-classes and concepts from official
books as being unsuitable to the setting. Specifically, no psionics or dragonkin will be present, and no flying races, either
- even if some exist within the setting.
The Pitch in Miniature
It's the late 13th century, according to the Dale Reckoning (that's a little
earlier than the "old grey box" set of the AD&D era), and things
are looking like they might get messy in Impiltur. Although an affluent
country, straddling the borders between the Bloodstone Lands, the
Unapproachable East and the Heartlands has it's obvious drawbacks - although
the greater danger may well come from within. In times such as these, loyalty one
can trust is hard to come by, but still, some people hope to do just that.
And thus it is that you, and a mixed group of assorted other folk, respond to
the note on the announcement board, from Commander Margaret Winscombe of the
Ilmwatch garrison. If you are interested
Please send me a private message! I'll do my best to get back to everyone, and
I'll endeavour to get in touch over Discord with the people that seem like a
promising match. Please be patient, though - prior experience has shown that
I'll likely receive dozens of replies, and it takes time to handle that.