Ravenloft - The Curse of Strahd

Hey! My name is Natt, and I am a GM looking to run the Curse of Strahd for D&D 5th Edition for 5 players. I've been running two homebrew games on Roll20 over the past year, based in a custom world I wrote for Pathfinder, that I converted to 5th Edition. I’ve been running and playing in dungeons and dragons games for over 10 years, and have around a thousand hours from running games on roll 20, and it’s great fun. This will be my first time running one of Wizards of the Coast's pre-written campaigns, but if all goes to plan, I'm keen on continuing the trend with other 5th Edition pre-written campaigns.

Note: I'd like to run this campaign for people who have never played Curse of Strahd in the past, or the original Ravenloft. So, applicants who have never played the campaign before will take priority over those with past experience. This doesnt mean if you’ve played it you can’t apply, but lets spread the love.

The game would run on Tuesdays, at 7pm GMT and would last for 4-5 hours each. Unfortunately, this date can't be changed, but the time is a little flexible, and I'd be willing to start latter to accommodate people returning from work etc. if necessary.
Depending on when people would like to start (and how soon I can get everything set up), the game would start ideally on Tuesday 22nd March.
We would be starting off with the prequel, Death House, which is level 1-3. Then, the plan would be to move onto Curse of Strahd, which take the characters from level 3-10.
After that, the game would end, meaning this will not be an ongoing game, but rather it will have a finite ending after the Curse of Strahd storyline is complete. I hope to run future games after this, however, so do keep in touch.

What I'd like from players:

New Players
I'm happy to take on people who have never played D&D before, but I'd rather not have to explain the rules from scratch, so if you are a new player, I'd like for you to have at least read through the rules to a basic understanding. The game is set in the Forgotten Realms, however familiarity with the Forgotten Realms isn't required because gameplay will see us spend very little time in the realms. Please don't get put off if you're a new player however. Basic rules are available online, and i can probably make time to help you fill in your first character :D

Communication
We won't be using video, so do not fret about webcams or your greasy hair – or my greasy hair, for that matter – however, we will be using voice communications through the software 'Discord', which is free, and has push-to-talk for convenience.

Tone
This is a fantasy horror game with a strong gothic tone. Those looking for a light-hearted dungeon crawl, or adventure-based scenarios will be thoroughly disappointed. I'd like to keep tensions running high, and not be interrupted repeatedly with jokes or immersion-breaking commentary. I'm not asking everyone to be a sour-puss, but once the game starts, I'd like us to stay in character, and experience the world to its full potential.

Commitment
Players will need to get invested in their character, other characters, and the setting and story. I understand that life is unpredictable, but if you are aware that you will be unable to make multiple sessions, or think you might struggle to make almost all the sessions, this will cause major inconvenience for the other players, and it's not fair on everyone to be frequently cancelled on.

Respect
I want players who will respect each other at our (virtual) table. If you're going to be racist, sexist, or if you plan to discriminate against the other players, please don't apply. If your character is difficult, or a bigot, that's one thing – it's roleplaying, and that's fine, but if you are going to antagonise other players, that's not fine.

Roleplaying
I'd like for my players to focus on the story, and their characters' interactions rather than dungeon crawling, kicking down the door, and making off with the NPCs' hard earned shoes, furniture, window shutters, and everything else not nailed down. Due to the nature of pre-written games, the story content is already there, but I'd like people who get invested in their character, and the other characters, and are into character-driven roleplay, as opposed to mechanical rollplay.

If this sounds like you, drop an application below. Describe your play style, let me know about your preferred starting time, tell a little bit about yourself, and the sort of class you'd be interested in playing, maybe a brief personality of your character. Your character should be high fantasy typical of D&D, but don't fret too much; we can discuss that more during the character creation period before the game begins.

The permitted source books are the 5th Edition Player's Handbook, and the Swordcoast Adventure Guide, and the extra optional background found Here(http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/CoS_Character_Options.pdf)

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to reading your application!

Natt

Edit: i'll leave it until thursday night, then go over applications and get invites sent out for friday. I'll be available over the weekend if we have any new players that need a hand with character sheets.