Orc looking for adventure

[Gadrai]

Hello friends of Elliquiy!

I've long yearned for a rich, well-built fantasy (group) roleplay, where I can be part of a daring group of adventurers, that go off in search of glory.
Or not. Maybe they won't find glory at all, maybe they'll go through hell, who knows?
Fact of the matter is, I have an orc that I really want to write, and she's big, strong, mean (with a soft, warm core), who's ready to crack some skulls.
So, she needs a quest/mission/group and I need a roleplay, but I haven't had any luck finding group fantasy roleplays so far.

If you're in need of such a character, don't hesitate with shooting me a message here in the thread, or via PM's.

All the best,

Gadrai.

[Andronica]

Hopping in to echo the craving for a fantasy adventure group game for a while now! I have a tiefling (if D&D inspired freeform) or an elf I could contribute. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread!

[Gadrai]

I want to "like" or "heart" your reply, @Andronica, but I don't know how to, or if it's even possible here lol.
Anyway, I'm glad to know that I am not the only one searching!

[Andronica]

I wish we had that feature... maybe pending the next big update.

Coincidentally, I was going to make an interest check for a Critical Role/freeform D&D inspired small group adventure today! But then I saw your post and decided to throw in my lot instead of creating another thread for the same. ;)

[Gadrai]

Yes, haha. Maybe one day!

Hey, that sounds awesome. I hope  more people who are interested in the same see this thread then.

[HairyHeretic]

Evening folks. What kind of game are you looking for? I haven't played much D&D in quite a long time (Exalted is my fantasy setting of choice these days), but I usually have a variety of ideas floating around.

[Muse]

  Nice character pitch.  Did you say you wanted freeform? 

[Gadrai]

Evening folks. What kind of game are you looking for? I haven't played much D&D in quite a long time (Exalted is my fantasy setting of choice these days), but I usually have a variety of ideas floating around.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have never gotten into DnD. Well, embarrassed might not be the right word, but I've always wanted to get into it, but never really had the chance, so to me it's a bit imtimidating. So when it comes to that, I am definitely not very knowledgeable. I have, however, roleplayed countless fantasy settings outside of the DnD system and that is, initially, the sort of roleplay I am looking for. I would be down to try something that's more inspired by the DnD system, but I think that would require some hand-holding from the GM and my potential writing partners, haha.

In the past I've spent months creating worlds, full with maps, countries, races, gods, kingdoms, magic, etc., and launched a roleplay and it's been all grand. Sadly, I'm not a very good GM. I am a much better player, though and I love to contribute how I can!

  Nice character pitch.  Did you say you wanted freeform? 

Hey Muse!

What do you mean by freeform? :) O.O

EDIT: I looked it up, and yes that is what I am looking for. I don't mind trying out the DnD system, but I have no experience with it.

[HairyHeretic]

I have an idea for a game I can share, see what people think. Need more sleep first though :)

[HairyHeretic]

Ok, so here is a setting I was sort of playing around for a game. I've tweaked it a bit to make it more D&D like (originally it was aimed at being a freeform 7th Sea / Kushiels Dart crossover)

It started with the plague. Or ended with it, depending on how you look at things. Death stalked across the land, town after town, city after city, country after country. No one was spared. The rich fell alongside the poor, the wise by the foolish, the strong next to the weak. No one knows how many, all in all. It wasn't just one. It came sweeping like the waves on the tide. Five years. Ten. Twenty. Fifty? No one knows exactly how long it lasted. When you're struggling to keep the fires of civilization burning, some things fall by the wayside.

But we did. We survived. Well, our ancestors did. And over time, we regained our strength, regained some of what was lost, rebuild our homes and were able to look beyond the horizon once more. The world has changed greatly in the centuries since then.

The Seven Sisters, seven great shining cities fell silent one by one. Only Zerses of the Waves stood at the end, though the Dragonborn whose cities they were were much reduced in number. The Orc tribes that roamed the great plains, what was left of them, had fled their ancestral homelands in order to survive. It is said the Dwarven holdfasts of the High Passes sealed themselves shut to keep the plagues out, and one by one fell silent as well. Only Silverlode Cavern, at the entrance to the High Passes remains an active community, if one much threatened by the monsters of the High Passes that grew in number without the Dwarven Rangers to check them.

Where the sea seemed to offer sanctuary, some chose to take what ships they could and flee into its trackless depths. Their descendants returned as sailors without peer. The Seafolk much prefer wave and deck beneath feet, many content to live and die without setting foot on dry land again, but their ships will carry cargo and passengers wherever salt may be found. Beyond the horizon they also encountered the lands of the beastfolk, ruled over by the House of Minos, who gave them shelter and succour when their ancestors first took to the seas, forming a bond of blood and salt that lasts to this day.

Most cities these days have very mixed populations, representatives of all the sentient races, though humans, orcs and dragonborn tend to be among the more prevalent. Children born of parents of two different races are not uncommon, though some of the more hidebound members of society frown on them. Rarest of all are the forgeborn, sentient golems created by the Magus Crafter Eldhavin at the time of the fall. Regrettably none of his surviving notes indicate how he was able to imbue them with consciousness, as any created since have been simple servants, capable of following orders, but not independent thought.



Background:
Mysterious ruins are uncovered under a number of major cities, and in other scattered places, indicative of a civilization that is lost to history. Scholars speculated what it might have been, and why they were all buried beneath the earth, but no one knew for sure. The first couple was found within a month or so, and when word spread, other nobles sought more, and unfortunately found them.

At some point after that, the plague began to rise. Some blamed the opened ruins, or the artifacts taken from them. Some blamed angry spirits. Some called it a natural plague carried in from the East, or the South, by traders. In truth, no one really knows the origin. But it swept across every land, carried by those who were unaware of it, or tried later to flee it.

By the time it had run its course, years later, well over 80% the population was dead. Without enough hands to work the land, crops withered and starvation stalked in the wake of the plague, famine and further pestilences adding to the death toll.

Civilization seemed to fare better along the coasts, or at least fewer seemed to fall ill there. There were still losses, but not quite as many. Enough that towns and cities could actually survive.

Now:
Civilization is stronger along the coastlines of the different countries. With no one to work the land for perhaps two centuries, many towns and cities are ruined and overgrown, haunt to beasts, monsters, and (so it is rumored) feral things that were once people, lost to madness, and perhaps carriers still of the plagues that ravaged the world. Forests are overgrown, canals flooded farmland to swamp, and entrances to strange underground ruins dot the landscape.


This setting allows for a good variety of storytelling, exploration and (effectively) dungeon crawling to start, and then more depending on how things develop. Does this sound like something you'd enjoy playing around in?

[Andronica]

That sounds great! With the D&D leaning, what other races are you envisioning here? Elves, halflings etc?

[HairyHeretic]

Anything really. I didn't have the whole thing fleshed out, its in my WIP pile for a different genre after all, but world building can be a communal thing. Where do you see those other races coming into it?

[Andronica]

Collaborative world building is my cuppa! Are you looking to GM any/several parts of this story as it's your idea, or with that communal nature in mind would we be using this as a foundation and adding our own ideas to it?

To implement other races I could see a dark elf/drow community having survived the waves of plague due to living underground, as well as usually xenophobic elf tribes high in the mountains or elsewhere who may not have been so affected as highly populated cities, etc. However, I'm not sure yet on how a tiefling race comes into this. That, or an elf, are what I was hoping to play in a sprawling fantasy adventure / freeform D&D story so it will take some thinking if it would be feasible in your setting...

[Isengrad]

Teiflings are actually pretty easy to incorporate into any game depending on the lore you go with. All it takes is for someone along the ancestral path to have had dealings with Devils, that influence can then manifest anywhere down the familial line. Assimar could be introduced in a similar way, with them being decedents of those touched by the gods or regularly  cavorted with Celestials.(In fact taking a cue from Ardlings from One D&D playtest they could even be animal like in appearance, from ears and a tail to full on furry)

If we are going High Fantasy races to try and explain things there is always the City for Twilight for Elves, Half-Elves, Eleadrin. A city that only shows in the material plane at twilight, for an hour a day before it fades into the feywild once more. This is of course all using established D&D lore as base.

[Andronica]

Lovely ideas. I was thinking of a tiefling hexblade (weapon commentary abound) or maybe an aasimar celestial warlock depending on party needs. My go-to is usually some form of elf druid for variability. Eleadrin would be lots of fun with the seasonal influence on their appearance... many things to consider here! Ardlings are also new to me and immediately made me think of finding a way to use her, heh.

[Isengrad]

Ardlings are from the One D&D playtest, Humanoids with animal heads. You could fluff the cat girl as tabaxi.

[HairyHeretic]

Collaborative world building is my cuppa! Are you looking to GM any/several parts of this story as it's your idea, or with that communal nature in mind would we be using this as a foundation and adding our own ideas to it?

Either or. We can kick ideas around as a group and see what ones mesh well and what ones don't.

To implement other races I could see a dark elf/drow community having survived the waves of plague due to living underground, as well as usually xenophobic elf tribes high in the mountains or elsewhere who may not have been so affected as highly populated cities, etc. However, I'm not sure yet on how a tiefling race comes into this. That, or an elf, are what I was hoping to play in a sprawling fantasy adventure / freeform D&D story so it will take some thinking if it would be feasible in your setting...

Well, if we're going from a standard fantasy base, Dwarves in the mountains, Elves in the forests. They may have withdrawn away from everyone else when the plagues started to bite, and stayed there ever since.

For a tiefling, as Isengrad said, that can pop up in bloodlines so they've always been around in small numbers. Optionally, when the wizards were trying to cure the plagues, they might have experimented heavily on (willing) people and created other races that way. Since that, the race has bred true, or interbred with other races, but taken the dominant characteristics of tieflings.

Teiflings are actually pretty easy to incorporate into any game depending on the lore you go with. All it takes is for someone along the ancestral path to have had dealings with Devils, that influence can then manifest anywhere down the familial line. Assimar could be introduced in a similar way, with them being decedents of those touched by the gods or regularly  cavorted with Celestials.(In fact taking a cue from Ardlings from One D&D playtest they could even be animal like in appearance, from ears and a tail to full on furry)

If we are going High Fantasy races to try and explain things there is always the City for Twilight for Elves, Half-Elves, Eleadrin. A city that only shows in the material plane at twilight, for an hour a day before it fades into the feywild once more. This is of course all using established D&D lore as base.

Also works.

Optionally they might have worked a major magic ritual and gone aquatic, heading to the sea down rivers and lakes and establishing colonies on the seafloor.

Lots of options

Lovely ideas. I was thinking of a tiefling hexblade (weapon commentary abound) or maybe an aasimar celestial warlock depending on party needs. My go-to is usually some form of elf druid for variability. Eleadrin would be lots of fun with the seasonal influence on their appearance... many things to consider here! Ardlings are also new to me and immediately made me think of finding a way to use her, heh.

Keep in mind, I'm well out of the loop for D&D so the nuances of hexblades and warlocks may well slip past me.

Ardlings are from the One D&D playtest, Humanoids with animal heads. You could fluff the cat girl as tabaxi.

The beast folk I mentioned in my intro would include the likes of Minotaurs, tabaxi and harengon, as well as any other animal inspired races

[Gadrai]

Oh man there is so much great stuff going on here! This is far more than I had anticipated. I'm glad to see that there are other people with inspiration and thoughts for this.

There are lots of races and words that I will need to Google though, lol. But I'm always down to learn about DnD and other fantasy realms. I'm totally game for something like this.

HairyHeretic it all sounds fantastic! Diving into this world would be a treat.

Andronica, I love elf druids, lol!!

[Andronica]

They're my favourite race/class combo! :)

[Gadrai]

They're my favourite race/class combo! :)

Have you played a lot of characters like that?

[Andronica]

I have. My start was in World of Warcraft actually and I've loved elf druids ever since. It's nearly always the role I opt for in a fantasy story.

Though an aasimar or tiefling would be a fun change of pace!

[Gadrai]

I used to play lots of druids in WoW as well! Such a cool and fun class.

Honestly, aasimar look absolutely, diabolically awesome. Actually so do tieflings. Shit, I can't choose.

[Envious]

*peeks in*

I have an interest in joining if this opens.

Troll mage was my fav, but being a tree was fun.

[Cold Heritage]

What about the religious side of things? You know, for the divine crowd. Do gods exist? Are we in a sort of Dragonlance situation post-Cataclysm and they've gone silent? Are divine empowered just sort of like wizards with religious trappings but no definitive proof of the existence of the deities they worship?

I had an idea to play as a cleric or paladin of sweet baby Pelor (or whomever the sun god of the setting happens to be, so long as they're good).

[Muse]

  If you decide to use an actual D&D, Pathfinder, or similar system please let me know.  5th edition is pretty approachable for newbies and seems to be heavily inspiring some of you already. 

  I'm not 100% adverse to freeform but I've already got a lot of irons in the fire and don't necessarily want to start another freeform.  (I might change my mind.  This is a great group...)