The Heroes' Journey [D&D 5e] (Long-Term Character- and Story-Driven Campaign)

[White Wolf]

Disclaimer

This is the second attempt to get this game going. The first time, though everyone was ready, I was grounded by a perfect storm of my internet being out for an entire month in tandem with a family member becoming grievously ill. Now that things have calmed down I am able to re-commit to this game with the same dedication I would like of the players over a long-term period; if you are one of the players from the first iteration of the game reading this and still want to play, you'll get priority if there are more candidates than the six available slots.

THE GAME

I'm looking to set up a long-term 5th Ed Dungeons & Dragons campaign here on E for a dedicated group of SIX players. The premise for this game revolves around an idea I had for an early game scenario; the player characters will all be starting off in their home village, where they live together, having advanced in their chosen careers far enough to reach Level 1 in their respective classes. Being already locally renowned for their expertise in their respective fields, they're the natural residents the rest of the village turns to when there's trouble afoot. From these inauspicious beginnings, the group will grow in skill and renown, eventually ranging farther and farther afield or leaving their home far behind them as they wander off in search of adventure or their own personal ambitions.

My rationale for setting the party size at 6 is twofold. From a mechanical perspective, six players massively balloon the XP threshold for the party as a whole and allow there to be some very interesting encounters right off the bat. For the party itself, six players also allow for a wide array of class and character types, which'll make things more interesting. Long-term commitment to the game is a must - my hope would be that this will be a long term sandbox game, the story developing and unfolding in tandem with the characters' own experiences and desires. If a player can't post over a period of time for any reason, accommodations can of course always be made, but my hope would be that players looking to join this game share a desire to run it with a view to bringing their characters to the higher levels and beyond. Leveling up will be done through milestones, and be based on character development and other story-driven factors.

THE SETTING

The overall setting will be a standard D&D style fantasy world, modeled after feudal Europe and its contemporary neighbours. More specifically, the player characters will share a hometown, where they will be at game start working a job roughly fitting their class and background. This village will serve as a home base for as long as the party wants to stay there (or for as long as staying there is viable, depending on what happens in the wider game world).

The world and the village will be shaped in part by the characters' backstories and needs. If a player is a Cleric, for example, then the village will have a sizable chapel requiring multiple hands to run it. If a player is a High Elf, there will be a High Elf population in the village, etc. Through creating characters, backstories, extended families and friends etc., the players will shape the village and establish the setting. All classes and races from the 5e Player's Handbook and Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide are available, with the exception of Dragonborn (sorry, this is a personal peeve - I'm an unrepentant Dragonborn racist). Player races from Volo's Guide to Monsters will be limited to ONE out of the six; if two players want to play as a monstrous character, for instance, I'll make no bones about the fact that the better justification for WHY there is such a character in a sleepy little village will get the right. Sorry!

Players have a wide scope for designing backstories and character histories up to the point they reached "Level 1" in their respective class; as a result, the world is open to being molded by players' ideas for their characters. If their character has the Soldier background, as an example, then clearly there was a recent war that's been fought (largely up to the player to decide who they were a soldier for, and what happened). If a character has the Sailor background, then naturally the village must be situated along the coast or along a wide river.

The village the player characters will each call home is a small village, likely agricultural in nature but the precise details will emerge over the course of character creation. The realm is a feudal realm with a High Middle Ages level of technology and a vaguely European culture, tempered by the fantasy elements of Dungeons & Dragons. Thematically, it's a wide world and every conceivable manifestation of the Dungeons & Dragons menagerie is to be found in its farthest reaches; the immediate surroundings of the village will likely come around in character creation as well, or will be imparted to players in the OOC thread once the group has filled up.

CHARACTER CREATION

Players have access to every race, class and background outlined in the 5e Player's Handbook and Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, with the exception of Dragonborn. This game will use the 27-point buy method of allocating stats. As well as cooking up a character sheet, players should come up with a backstory for their character establishing their place in the village (if they are a half-elf, for instance, who were their parents, was their union accepted or was it taboo, etc), stating whether or not they have any living relatives still in the village with whom they can interact, and what their current occupation/role in the village is (this can be connected to their character background or class, be an amalgam of the two, or be neither). The backstory should also include any details on how they came to develop into their current class; for a fighter, this could be as simple as them having served in a war previously, or seen combat somewhere else. For a wizard, this could be the story of how they studied under a master or simply found a spellbook and simply taught themselves. A story as to how they reached their current level of expertise in their class, be it connected to their background or not, will help flesh out the history of the character and set the scene in the village (and beyond).

When creating a character sheet, roll THREE times on the Trinket list in the Player's Handbook chapter on equipment, rolling again on duplicates. Out of the three results, choose the one you're most interested in and can tie to an event in your character's past or provide an explanation for, and add that to their equipment list as well as a short passage in their backstory detailing how they came by the trinket or what it is.

LEGACY CHARACTERS

The aim of this game is to be a long-term, largely sandbox campaign driven by events in the world and by the needs, desires and ambitions of the player characters. As part of this, players will eventually have the opportunity to take "legacy" characters under their wing, i.e. characters in place to take over in the event of the permanent death or retirement of their original character. In this game these legacy characters will take two distinct forms - apprentices, and heirs.

An apprentice is a student a character takes under their wing of their own accord - a squire for a Fighter or Paladin character; an apprentice for a Wizard; an acolyte for a Cleric etc. etc. etc. They can recruit them themselves, and therefore have some say in the race that they may take on as an underling. For apprentices, any player race from the Player's Handbook (excluding Dragonborn), Volo's Guide to Monsters and the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is available, in theory (provided a player character can find a member of the race they want with the aptitude to become their students). Apprentices start on Level 1 and require their master's tutelage to advance; Apprentices will earn XP when accompanying their master on an adventure, in order to represent the expertise gained from fighting alongside an experienced leader, or can level up outside of combat through story-driven events or their master's attentions. Either way, the idea is that an apprentice is expected to level up a lot fast than an original character, as they are studying under the guidance of an experienced master.

An apprentice must be of a similar class to their master. The rules of this are fluid, and it basically boils down to what a player can justify, but for instance, while a Fighter may not be able to train a Wizard, a Wizard may be able to perform a ritual to bind a Warlock to an Archfiend, or recognise the latent potential in an undiscovered Sorcerer. Clerics could school warriors in becoming Paladins; Druids could teach Rangers their woodcraft; Monks could use their rigorous training to drill a Fighter; etc. I won't limit options by suggesting lists of what class can train what class of apprentice, but there's leeway in terms of what a player can explain away (and what their characters are capable of doing).

The other type of legacy character is an heir; literally, the child of a player character who stands to inherit their name, title or land (if applicable) after the character's death. Unlike an apprentice, an heir's class does not have to be tied to their parent's - their education can follow any path specified by the parent, after all. An heir's class can be anything from the Player's Handbook or Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (although, naturally, some class options will require a lot more to be done for the heir than, say, training a child in wizardry). Their race is, however, contingent upon the races of the two parents - an elf and a gnome cannot have a Tiefling child (unless somebody has some explaining to do...).

Heirs don't level up as comparatively quickly as apprentices; an heir completes their education in a chosen class when they reach adulthood (in the case of elves, this is significantly earlier than adulthood - elves, like humans, reach maturity around the age of 18 even though they are not considered adults by elven standards until 100). After that, they advance a level every year of their lives; it goes without saying that the safer investment for a continuity character is training an apprentice.

Player characters are not, however, limited to one or the other - they can have an heir and an apprentice at the same time, and in the event that their character dies while both their legacy characters are in play they can choose between them who to switch to.

!WANTED!
COMMITTED PLAYERS FOR A LONG-HAUL GAME!

As mentioned, the concept underpinning this whole game is that it's going to hopefully be very long term - should they want, the player characters should have the chance to see just about everything that D&D has to offer. If a player has to drop out of posting for a whole due to real life concerns, that's understandable and accommodations can be made. My hope would be that sign-ups do so with the knowledge that we're looking at this for the long-term, and will commit to regular posting in the long-term.

If you're interested in signing up, drop me a PM to let me know - if you have a character concept or a full-blown character sheet by then, by all means send it over, but for the first PM just a declaration of interest and vague character outline is all I'm looking for. The rest can come as we chat and work things out.

Once I've filled up my quota of six players I'll set up an OOC thread for everyone to introduce themselves and their characters, as well as discussing the setting that will have started to take shape through the character creation process and discuss any overlap that player characters may have with one another. PCs could end up being friends or family members, or work in the same establishment, or whatever. It's a small village, so some overlap is to be expected and, hopefully, will help to knit the group together as the game gets going.

Unless there is resistance to this one way or the other my instinct is to put the game under the NC: Exotic thread, for the sole purpose of keeping any and all options open as to what sexual encounters might take place. This is not, however, a sex-oriented game, and if every player chimes in saying they're happy with a completely sex-less game then it'll go in one of the other forums. This way, though, we're just keeping the options open for whatever may happen.

[White Wolf]

Updated & Bumped;

This game is once again active - Please drop me a PM if you are interested in signing up!

[Marie Reynolds]

Hmm this sounds interesting! I would like to jump in on this.

[White Wolf]

Updated Some Rules On Character Creation

[TheHangedOne]

I remember this! Sign me up.

[Countdown0]

I'm interested in this as well.

Would Unearthed Arcana material be allowed as well, or only feats/class-features from the core rule books?

[Guancyto]

Hm, I'm in.

The part about all the characters having grown up in the same village is a little restrictive though, would there be some leeway for children of travelling merchants/bards/agents of the Crown/that sort of thing who just happened to spend a lot of time in said village?

[Muse]

  I'd be interested. 

  Perhaps the village's midwife is also a druid and I would be her granddaughter/apprentice? 

[Tanken Sai]

Very interested if this game is still looking for an extra player.

[vastowen456]

Also extremely interested! I have a character I would love to play, though I'd have to adjust his backstory a bit. :)

[Caitlin]

For those who expressed an interest, unfortunately White Wolf took an unexpected and unnanounced leave of absence. None of us know what's going on and the game should be considered canceled.

[vastowen456]

For those who expressed an interest, unfortunately White Wolf took an unexpected and unnanounced leave of absence. None of us know what's going on and the game should be considered canceled.

Damn- that sucks. I hope they're okay.

Thanks for letting us know!