Community Based DND 3.5 Game - Looking for GM/Players

Started by RubySlippers, December 19, 2015, 01:42:31 PM

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RubySlippers

What about playing people in a large town or small city, who are not per se adventurers just above average citizens starting out living kind of normal fantasy realm lives they might be starting out as a fighter working for the city guard, a young scoundrel in the town guild, a young mage just out of their apprenticeship maybe working in the town, a young bard, new arrival to the city and other ideas. They might sand box in side adventures for example a few people taking work hunting down a band of goblins or something.

In short a laid back and fun game.

Lothoris


Cassandra LeMay

Two questions:

Q1 = Would you also be willing to consider a village setting, something with only a few hundred people, instead of the few thousand a large town or small city might have?

Q2 = Do you see this as a game where the PCs remain fairly low level, or is this something you imagine as characters working up their way through the (social and other) ranks?

I have a setting from an old D&D 3E game that I could offer, but it is fairly small in scope - a keep, a village, some outlying settlements, all in a frontier region. There's an inn, some craftsmen, a merchant or two, all set in a region that has room aplenty for small ruins, wandering monsters, or a hunting trip in the local forests. It wouldn't offer quite the same opportunities for urban adventures, but on the plus side it's easier to detail.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

Q1 Reply: Fine by me, in fact since they likely have a Lord or Lady overseeing the area in a kingdom it could open up some fun options to travel as far as 20 miles on some big trip to a town now and then.

Q2 Reply: They would be exceptional young people they might reach the lofty levels of 8 to 10 someday but it would be more focused on role-playing with time jumps being kind of normal for example a Ranger likely would have some way to make money like hunting and trapping, a druid might be a farmer or herdsman, a fighter likely would have some posting like work for the nearest Lord as a member of the security of the village, a cleric might be the local community cleric overseeing a tiny church, a wizard would be the one out but being scholarly might be the local hedge practitioner or something. If its on a trade path especially opens up options with the odd caravan perhaps seasonal being seen.

Muse

  I think this sounds fun too.  Don't have the time to run right now, but would love to p lay. 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

Cassandra LeMay

#5
Quote from: RubySlippers on December 22, 2015, 06:24:29 PM
Q1 Reply: Fine by me, in fact since they likely have a Lord or Lady overseeing the area in a kingdom it could open up some fun options to travel as far as 20 miles on some big trip to a town now and then.

Q2 Reply: They would be exceptional young people they might reach the lofty levels of 8 to 10 someday but it would be more focused on role-playing with time jumps being kind of normal for example a Ranger likely would have some way to make money like hunting and trapping, a druid might be a farmer or herdsman, a fighter likely would have some posting like work for the nearest Lord as a member of the security of the village, a cleric might be the local community cleric overseeing a tiny church, a wizard would be the one out but being scholarly might be the local hedge practitioner or something. If its on a trade path especially opens up options with the odd caravan perhaps seasonal being seen.
Sounds like something I could run, using most of the background I have already worked out from the olden days.

Here's an idea for a group: In medieval times landholdings of a noble/a family weren't always contiguous; through mariage, inheritance, gains and losses made through warfare and so on, a noble could end up with holdings spread all over the place. So lets say some noble family has a small holding in the frontier regions. It's just a small manor house and two or three farms, maybe a bit of forest too. One of the characters is a minor member of the family that owns that small holding and is sent to take control of it (and learn a bit about administration and being a ruler through some hands-on experience). That would be one of the PCs, while the resst of the PCs are this character's retainers/retinue. A wizard could fill the role of scribe and "admin assistant", a fighter could be the bodyguard of the noble, a ranger is sent along to act as forester or gameskeeper, and so on.

That way everyone would be a newcomer and have about the same knowledge of the setting, and people would have a small "base of operations" close to the main village.

Does that sound like an acceptable premise to you?

ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

I was planning on being a local minor exceptional young person with a class, maybe with some role she could be an assistant to the village cleric or a druidess living off the land doing sustainable activities on it or something like that. The village model might even work better most people don't have character classes or hopefully good natural abilities (depending on the fate of the dice on ability scores). So she might be expected to deal with things in addition to making some kind of honest or dishonest living. A Lord or something would be more someone she must deal with as a commoner whose above average but could lead to some official role an office or something later on. One she is clearly above the rabble attaining a high level like 4th very quickly in ability.

I have some ideas for different characters and classes for them.

yesiroleplay

This sounds wonderful.  I'd be in for a bard-type if the idea gets off the ground

Cassandra LeMay

#8
Quote from: RubySlippers on December 24, 2015, 12:44:20 PM
I was planning on being a local minor exceptional young person with a class, maybe with some role she could be an assistant to the village cleric or a druidess living off the land doing sustainable activities on it or something like that. The village model might even work better most people don't have character classes or hopefully good natural abilities (depending on the fate of the dice on ability scores). So she might be expected to deal with things in addition to making some kind of honest or dishonest living. A Lord or something would be more someone she must deal with as a commoner whose above average but could lead to some official role an office or something later on. One she is clearly above the rabble attaining a high level like 4th very quickly in ability.

I have some ideas for different characters and classes for them.
There should be room for a young cleric or druid. In fact, I was planning on having a small shrine of Ehlonna at the edge of the village, but haven't created any NPCs or maps and such for it yet. That should fit that character concept and you can help create some details and maybe a few NPCs for it.

There is one thing we might need to figure out, before I go into some details of the setting I have in mind and we can see if that fits the game: How much emphasis should there be on "typical adventures" (exploring, fighting wandering monsters, etc.), and how much emphasis on "village simulation" (earning a living, hanging out in the local tavern, roleplaying through fairly mundane encounters with the villagers, etc.)? If I run this I'd like to know where to put the most effort, or at least the most of the initial prep work and details. You already mentioned people going about their work and advancing time a little now and then, to cover periods when people just do regular stuff, but do you see this as something to be just glossed over, or do you envision some sandbox elements for the game, instead of/in addition to GM-driven adventures?
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

Well there would be threats needing people able to handle it to protect the village, hell the closer to the wild and not enough friendly help like elven folk the more likely. Likely why the gods and goddesses placed so many special young people in the pipeline. Her role will be an herbalist and healer likely a decent one I hope her main source of extra income would be cultivating wild roots and herbs for sale to go to the more urban areas and wouldn't likely be rich more community supported. After all they surely would cloth, feed and help house her and she would get some money when they have some. And I might buy some animals splitting the profits from them from farmers to enrich her coffers and theirs. Things like that.


Cassandra LeMay

#10
Okay, I think we can make this work without me completely reinventing the background I already have and starting from scratch. How close to the village (or how far removed from it) your character is located might depend a bit on what other characters will be in the group. If half the group ends up being rangers and druids, and the other half bards and village guards (for example) things might get tricky, but that's a bridge we can cross when we reach it.

Guess it's time to take a look at the setting I could offer for this:

I'll provide a world and region map if we start this; for the moment it might be enough to say that the region is called the "Frontier Baronies". The area is about 250x150 miles, with about 15-20 small baronies dotted around the area, but each of them has only a few thousand people at most. To the east are the Wildlands, populated by barbarians and orc tribes, to the west is the kingdom of Lancrest, to which the baronies legally belong, as Lancrest claims the whole area. Only that Lancrest never had the manpower or resources to really develop the frontier, but for about 200 years now, titles and lands have been granted to rich or powerful individuals to develop parts of the frontier, to reinforce the Lancrestian claim to those lands and set up a buffer zone between Lancrest and the Wildlands. Over the years many settlements have been established, only to fail after a few years or decades, nothing left of them now but a few overgrown ruins in the forests that cover much of the region. Other settlements have lasted longer, but none of them has grown into more than a large town.

One of the settlements that survived for a good while was the small outpost of Goodsford, at one of the few crossings over the river Thane and a waystop along one of the few established trade routes in the Frontier Baronies. About 12, maybe 15 years ago, the king of Lancrest granted Goodsford and the surrounding lands to an adventuress who was looking for a place to build a home. (Granting lands in the Baronies to adventurers isn't all that rare. The theory goes that anyone who makes a career of fighting monsters might maybe not make a great ruler, but should at least be able to keep their lands reasonably safe.)

Over the years, Kirborg (as the Baroness called her new holdings) has grown into a small but prosperous village of about 600 adult inhabitants, thanks, in part, to generous contributions from the baroness's personal coffers. The whole barony covers about 20x20 miles, with half a dozen thorps and hamlets in addition to the main village. Together with a few outlying farms and assarts the whole population of the barony is perhaps somewhere around 1,200 to 1,400. Of the 400 square miles of the barony, only about 20-30 square miles are really settled, leaving much of the area to hills and forests. The settlements and main road are relatively safe, but travelers are advised not to stray from the beaten paths. Large groups of humanoids are rarely seen in the area, but the forests are home to many a dangerous creature and one can easily get lost in the forest.

This is how the village proper looks:

Within the town walls (earthworks and a palisade, actually) there are about 250 adults. The homes, farms, and shops within a stones throw from the wall add another 100. There are a bunch of farms close to the village (within an hour's walk) that add maybe 150-180 people, and the baroness's keep adds about 100 more people.



The village population is split into several groups along historical and religious lines. There are the old villagers who were here when the place was still called Goodford, the new settlers who arrived in two waves (the first wave about 10-12 years ago, the second about 5 years ago), and the followers of the baroness, most of whom arrived when she did, but tended to keep themselves a bit aparts from the villagers initially. Along religious lines you have followers of Pelor (who has a small chapel in the center of the village that goes back to the early days of settlement), followers of Ehlonna (many of the farmers, but also some village folk), and followers of the Norse gods (a religion the baroness brought with her). (A few people worship other gods, but not in an organized fashion with adepts or clerics leading any church services.)

And that's about it for the moment. If we decide this is a setting suited for roleplaying together I'll add a few more maps and some NPC descriptions, but it should be enough to get a good idea what I have in mind.

I know the presence of a high-level NPC like the baroness can look like a problem, but I don't think it has to be. I can find more than enough reasons why she would leave small problems to the PCs or just won't be around. And the different religions are bound to lead some people to look for help from followers and priests of their own religion, instead of trusting someone who might be more powerful but worships some strange foreign gods.

So, what's the verdict? Is this something we can build on?
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

Sounds good to me, not sure which wooded areas are safe and ones not safe on the map I'm assuming the ones not big nearer the village are safe like the one surrounded by the river to the East. There must be some woodsman and homesteaders in some of those spots. Its to appealing to ignore the riches of the forest honey from bees, roots and herbs, wood (carefully harvested), natural foods and game (rabbit furs and the like taken if the rabbit is used for meat would be fine by her).

Any elven folk and gnomes living in the forests?

Cassandra LeMay

This close to the village and keep, the forests would be pretty safe. The ones shown on the map are basically the areas where the vegetation would impede movement or make finding your way more difficult.

As for using the forest, yes, there's a number of ways to make some use of the woodlands, but I think not many people would really make a living of it. Most people will be farmers and herders, with little time to go into the forest. Except maybe for pannage. Driving pigs into the forest to feed on acorns would be fairly common for those who keep pigs and it might also be a good time to look for edible mushrooms will the pigs feed. And lets not forget charcoal burning. There might be one or two charcoal burners in the area.

To give you a better idea of the settled/safe areas vs. "wild" parts:


That's the barony. The grey areas are the cultivated/farmland areas. The grey area around Kirborg is pretty much what the previous map covers. The settled areas can be considered safe, the rest not so much. You will find a few woodsmen here and there, but not too many, and those there are will have their dwellings somewhat close to the roads.

I figure the population is racially mixed with humans as the dominant species (maybe 80-85%). You won't find any thorps or hamlets that are exclusively elven or gnomish, but there might be a few among the forest people living in the region. Why do you ask? Just curious or do you intend to play an elf or gnome?
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

#13
If she's a druidess living in the forest would be not much of an issue as a homesteader, its a good subgroup of farmer, being better at making a living on the land your on and well the forest would be good land. Its just she will balance ways to make money as in coin and barter for her services as a druidess to the community she likely will heal and tend the sick not likely expecting coin a certain amount of similar value would be fine. Like a farmer might give her cured meat and some canned (jarred) food for such work or labor for her. Mostly she just wants to live decently and serve her deity doing so not get rich.

Oh and no ,well, maybe a partial elf human maybe her mother is half-elven and her father human so might have grandparents around if elven.

PhantomPistoleer

I really enjoyed looking at your maps, Cassandra.  They're badass.
Always seeking 5E games.
O/O

Cassandra LeMay

#15
Alrighto, lets give this a shot and see if we can run something together.

Ruby, we can have your character located somewhere at the edge of the village map, but I wouldn't place her farther out. Anything farther away from the village would mean just going into town, doing a little business, and walking back home again might take you most of a day and farmers or homesteaders can only rarely afford to lose a whole day of work. (The Elohnna shrine will be at the T-intersection east of the village, the two buildings near the river. Maybe your character can have her home nearby, east or northeast of the shrine in the woods?)

Everyone else, can I have some character concepts, so I can start thinking about ways of getting the group into adventures?

Muse, Lothoris - you still interested, now that the setting is taking shape?

yesiroleplay, when you say "bard-type", do you mean the actual Bard character class, or more broadly a character who may have some ranks in the perform skill, but doesn't necessarily have levels as Bard?

@All: I don't think Monks really fit the setting so I am ruling them out. Paladins might be a bit of a problem too; I am not completely ruling them out right now, but it might take a good bit of convincing for me to okay a Paladin as a PC for this game.


Quote from: PhantomPistoleer on December 25, 2015, 03:44:21 PM
I really enjoyed looking at your maps, Cassandra.  They're badass.
Thanks.  :-) The village map is probably one of the best I ever did.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

She has the shrine in the village, she can go to it for the odd demand of her duties, she likely will make the rounds visiting the faithful at their farms over expecting them to come to her.

Her home will be though someplace forest based mostly a claim hopefully approved by the Baroness, she will likely be moving around until she gets more settled carrying her personal effects. Its not like she needs much nice warm clothes she can move in likely supple leathers, some weapons, healer's tools and medicinal roots and herbs and such. I'm thinking she will be working on her forest in her spare time planting roots and herbs to start of value, choosing a spot for her homestead, setting aside money and more vital barter for when she wants to get her cabin built and other things done and build up its food stocks for the first winter. I'm not sure which one yet she might try gold mining and panning down the road if a forest with hilly area might be good for it.

Oh I'd like to take the UA Variant Druid she will lose armor and shield proficiencies but gain monk armor bonuses when unencumbered, fast movement and some ranger abilities in return sort of a fast and lightly burdened druid who can fight a bit better against chosen enemies and can track. I still get an animal companion and lots of cool abilities of a Druid just would be more martial.

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: RubySlippers on December 26, 2015, 06:32:59 AM
Oh I'd like to take the UA Variant Druid she will lose armor and shield proficiencies but gain monk armor bonuses when unencumbered, fast movement and some ranger abilities in return sort of a fast and lightly burdened druid who can fight a bit better against chosen enemies and can track. I still get an animal companion and lots of cool abilities of a Druid just would be more martial.
I'd rather wait and see who else will end up wanting what character class, before I decide if I allow the UA variants. I can see why you like that version, but it does duplicate some Ranger abilities and I want to see if someone will play a ranger or not, before deciding if such a "duplication" of class abilities in the group will be good or not.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

#18
Well its not exactly a Ranger equivalent the Ranger outshines that in combat and frankly I find the Wild Shape ability more trouble than its worth and never liked it, hell if it was me the UA variant would be the standard Druid in the core rules. But its a natural bias.

I don't hate the basic Druid, but for me its not a working one its much more a mystic like a Merlin.

Chulanowa


Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Chulanowa on December 27, 2015, 02:40:35 AM
What sort of race setup are you looking at?
For the party? Not sure, to be honest. Probably not more than one character from each of the non-human races, so only one elf, one dwarf, etc. in the group. But lets see who is in, and who wants to play what. Anything specific on your mind you might want to play here?

For that area of the game world? Lets say 75% Human, 7-8% Elves and Dwarves each, the remaining 10% split about evenly between Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Muse

This is the variant Ruby is asking for. 

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid

i'm quite fond of it--of course, I always am partial to unarmored characters.  :) 

Do you still need a young heir to show up? 

My ideas are basicly: 
A.  The heir, a bookish young man, learend but not as martialy inclined as his father would like, who aspires to learn magic. 
B.  A young cleric of pelor. 
C.  A ranger, son of a game warden in service to the house (human) and an elven sorceress.  He has a hint of fae blood.   
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

RubySlippers

Well her Armor Class is the same with or without armor, maybe a bit better with some feats. She'll be good in a fight while still having the druid flavor and not being a Ranger in overall strong points. I just vision her version being the painted half-naked or all naked commoner in a fight with a raging big dog or wolf fighting by her side and strange powers and abilities. And when not likes being comfortable.

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Muse on December 27, 2015, 01:39:37 PM
Do you still need a young heir to show up? 

My ideas are basicly: 
A.  The heir, a bookish young man, learend but not as martialy inclined as his father would like, who aspires to learn magic. 
B.  A young cleric of pelor. 
C.  A ranger, son of a game warden in service to the house (human) and an elven sorceress.  He has a hint of fae blood.
Well "need" is perhaps too strong a word, but I still think it might be a good idea, especially if one or two other players can be found to also go with that idea. Having some shared background for 2 or 3 characters would certainly be convenient. And the location I have in mind for the manor is the group of three buildings northeast of the village, just south of that one stream, at the edge of the forest (with three small farmhouses nearby that would belong to the manor property). That would place anyone living there near the Ehlonna shrine (the buildings at the T-intersection on the eastern road), i.e. somewhat close to where Ruby's druid might be based. So maybe even if we don't end up using the heir concept, perhaps your character could work at said manor (idea C could work pretty well for that).
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

RubySlippers

I like the Druid for the setting regardless of its version, she would with the UA version work well with a Ranger and the Militia (they likely have one) and be more down to Earth to deal with farmers and the faithful. But the basic Druid isn't offensive I just find its one main ability kind of silly for all druids, I think as a variant it would have been better but that's me I didn't design the game.  ;D