Sowing Seeds (3.5 D&D, story driven, lgbt friendly)

[SmilingFox]

"There's something rotten in Eirion."

It's a statement seldom heard within the glorious kingdom. Yet despite the bountiful harvest, the low rate of crime, and the overall economic boom of the previous years, one would find the urge to agree with it.

Something is wrong with the kingdom. An undercurrent of unease sweeps through every celebration, every announcement from the church, every friendly chat with the omnipresent city guard. Something is wrong, and no one knows what.

And so the people huddle in Lahearth, the royal city and bastion of light. They grow and prosper within the warming light of the city, while outside of their walls the apprehension only grows. In the small hours of the morning, people speak of old legends and heroes, remembering the glory days to stave off the creeping fog of doubt. "They may be gone," they say, clutching tightly to their mugs, "but they aren't forgotten."

A lesson even the Highpreistess Katherine, Lady of the Faith, echoes. A call goes out among the city for all capable hands. A mercenary job, they say, to venture forth and deal with problems the army has no time for. The pay is good, the prestige better, and the bards say an audience with the Lady of the Faith is worth any job beneath the sun.

------

And that's the basic premise. The players will all be adventurers looking for work, either new to Lahearth from the call, or cityborn looking for grand adventure beyond the walls. The game will be largely story driven, with combat coming up infrequently.

Mostly, I'm looking for people able to post at a consistent rate. I understand that things come up, but even a quick post every day or so can make all the difference.

Starting level will be 6, with a starting purse of 13,000g to spend on gear. Please no homebrew. I'll probably limit players to about 4, for ease of storytelling and posting. If there's anything I missed, I'll post it here as well. Hopefully this pulls a good bit of interest.

Edit: Actually, would you prefer starting at 6 or starting at level 1? I find level one has more chances to focus on story and character development, but it's up to you guys.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Interest!

[Rune]

Possibly interested.

[PhantomPistoleer]

And that's the basic premise. The players will all be adventurers looking for work, either new to Lahearth from the call, or cityborn looking for grand adventure beyond the walls. The game will be largely story driven, with combat coming up infrequently.

Mostly, I'm looking for people able to post at a consistent rate. I understand that things come up, but even a quick post every day or so can make all the difference.

Starting level will be 6, with a starting purse of 13,000g to spend on gear. Please no homebrew. I'll probably limit players to about 4, for ease of storytelling and posting. If there's anything I missed, I'll post it here as well. Hopefully this pulls a good bit of interest.

Edit: Actually, would you prefer starting at 6 or starting at level 1? I find level one has more chances to focus on story and character development, but it's up to you guys.

I prefer to start at LEVEL 6.

I have a few questions, though.

• How do you determine attributes?
• How do you determine hit points?
• What books are available?
• Do you have a preference as to party composition?
• Optimally, what are you looking from the characters?

[Rune]

A little more info on the plot/storylines would also be appreciated.

[SmilingFox]

Attributes will be 32 point buy.
Hp will be max first level, and average for each level after, rounded up. (So 3 for d4, 4 for d6, 5 for d8, 6 for d10, 7 for d12)
As far as books go, anything goes but homebrew.
I'd like the party comp to be pretty well balanced in terms of what you can do. A skill monkey, and someone that can heal would be preferable, though I'm willing to just supply the party with healing items if no one wants to play a healer.
As far as characters go, I'm looking more for interesting characters rather than 'powerful' characters. As I stated the story would focus mainly around roleplaying and plot, rather than combat.

The plot/storyline will be revealed as you go, but as far as the world goes...

Eirion as it exists at present date has only existed for just under two hundred years. Before that time it was a highly militarized kingdom, with a large standing army and near constant draft. The ruling body had expansionist goals, and as such the kingdom was frequently at war with its neighbors. Shortly after a long drawn out war with Barisea, a more primitive kingdom to the southwest, a new general was selected to lead the armies.

After a series of resounding victories, the troops returned home at the head of General Stephen Brighthelm. There, they staged a coup against the aristocratic caste, and placed the first Lady of the Faith in charge. As head of the church and devout cleric of Pelor, this change of power went over fairly well with the populace. Since then the kingdom of Eirion has largely demilitarized and enjoys good trade relationships with its neighboring countries, including the small kingdom of Valonde to the east.

Eirion is famous now for being the height of religion, and the forefront of magical discovery. They pride themselves on rational thinking and an ordered lifestyle. Due to the practices put in place by the Lady of the Faith over several generations, they've seen no plagues or famine in decades.

Barisea: A large sprawling kingdom mostly made up of roaming nomadic tribes. What few permanent settlements they have serve as hubs for trade and their ruling bodies. Almost everyone in the kingdom is a member of a clan, either by birth or by adoption. They possess the highest population of any kingdom and the strongest military, but getting the clans to agree on anything is like pulling teeth.

Valonde: A smaller kingdom bordering the eastern sea. Famous for its wealth, the merchant caste rules over almost everything and money talks. The epitome of culture, Valonde provides its neighboring countries with art and entertainment, as well as trade routes to the strange lands far to the east. Despite this, they have the smallest military, usually relying on mercenaries for manpower.

The Feylands: Far to the north, beyond the borders of every kingdom, lies an untamed wilderness. Beyond the beaten path nothing makes sense, and no sane man ventures in without risking life and limb. The lands are owned by the fey, as much as wild lands like that can be owned, and their rules and laws change seemingly at random. While the fey sometimes send diplomats to the south, none but the boldest of adventurers venture north.

[TheLoneHero]

Bookmarked,  I might be interested.

[Rook Seidhr]

Potentially interested. Important questions:

• How will you handle combat and other rulesy situations that can bog down a play-by-post?
• Is there a minimum expected word count per post?
• Is there a maximum expected post count per week?

[SmilingFox]

Combat, unfortunately, tends to bog down play by post no matter what in my experience. The best I can do is try to steer the plot away from things like 'Kick in door, beat up monsters, loot, repeat' scenarios and possibly lower the Hp of some of the enemies when combat does come up. Ideally, any fights that do crop up should end in two or three turns instead of being a slog fest.

I won't really impose a minimum, but one or two paragraphs at least is preferred. The reason I don't have a limit is I don't want people being forced to either remain silent or get all flowery if they just have a simple question to ask.

As for maximum? The only thing I want to avoid is one person stealing the show. So long as people are posting I'm willing to move the plot along to keep up.

[Chulanowa]

I'm interested!

Always and forever interested in 3.5 / pathfinder  ;D

[kckolbe]

Interested as well, and willing to play a healer.  Actually thinking of going Mystic Theurge, even if it is a weak class.  May go with Warmage for the other half, and be all heals or damage.  Any interest in that?

[Rook Seidhr]

If I play I'll probably be a human bard skillmonkey with human paragon levels. (Far from an optimized build but whatever, this game isn't about that according to what you've said.)

[kckolbe]

That works pretty well, Riveda.  You can handle the skill/utility stuff while I handle the brunt of the healing and do a little damage.  My first level of Theurge won't be until level 8, but oh well.  I think it's a fun combination of classes.

[Inerrant Lust]

I am interested, though I don't know what kind of character I would play. I've been wanting to play a male lately... and my usual preference is for a skill monkey type character, but we already have someone proposing one as such.. Perhaps an intelligent fighter or barbarian, because I enjoy playing those types of characters.

[Rook Seidhr]

I could play something else, Inerrant. It's just what leapt to mind.

[Rune]

I am toying with the idea of a male fighter type. Probably a human fighter/paladin or fighter/monk. I need to find my 3.5 books as lately I've only been playing pathfinder and 5th edition.

[Rook Seidhr]

For a game that isn't going to be heavy on combat, I'm not sure what I want to play other than a skillmonkey. A blaster certainly isn't appropriate.

Maybe I should step back and think about this a bit.

[Bibliophilia]

I would definitely be interested.  -throws my hat in the ring.-  I love plot-driven, character-centric games, and you so rarely find that with D&D.

[kckolbe]

Definitely agree, Bibliophilia. 

[Inerrant Lust]

There's no need to change on my account, Riveda. But yeah, in a mostly non-combat game... I can't imagine your usual party roles will be all too useful.

Hmmm.

[Chulanowa]

Two fast questions...

1) Will there actually be any sort of combat? Like, 60% of the clases in 3.5 are all about whacking things with other things, and the remaining 40% are about helping those guys whack things. Like, would a fighter be relegated to being a charisma-dumping dope in this game, or would it have some shining moments of its own?

2) Long shot but... is there any chance of doing some mix-and-match from Pathfinder?

[kckolbe]

He said it would be infrequent, not non-existent.

[Inerrant Lust]

The way I usually do it on PbP is that combat is relegated to critical plot advancing confrontations. Sure it slows down occasionally, and recurring villians are difficult to do without having them rendering the PC's victories hollow.. In that way, the skillmonkeys and such might carry the party through most of the story and the big and tough fighty-types have their moment to shine during those climactic moments where things can only be solved by busting skulls. ;)

[Rook Seidhr]

Sketching out a proposal for a factotum. That way I can have my cake, eat it, and play around with wacky mechanics that I don't understand :D

[SmilingFox]

There will still be combat at critical moments, but for the most part any non-major fights will have enemies relegated to 'mook' status. Essentially, one or two hits would bring them down without issue.

Major fights will crop up once in a while, and while I do expect them to slow down posting a little bit, I'll try to at least make the fights more interesting than 'It takes a full attack' every round.

As mentioned, skill monkeys can be fun to play in this sort of game. Otherwise, charisma based classes still have their moments to shine as far as plot is concerned. I'm not going to be a dick though, most conversations aren't going to require charisma rolls, so anyone can interact with npcs freely. Major moments of diplomacy and bluffing would still require rolls though.

I don't know if it's worth mentioning, but there will be a few NPCs cropping up that will be using Tome of Battle. I know some people have mixed feelings about that book, but I rather enjoy it.