D&D 5e - Classic Adventure - Interest Check

[Phaia]

When I am good I am very good but when I am bad I am even better!! 

[tobisquestion]

Three characters submitted so far, all seem pretty good. I've done a small update to the top post to outline what we've got already. That shouldn't put people off submitting the character they want to play, but it might be useful in case anyone's looking for an empty niche to fill!

Edit: Apologies for being quiet tonight, I was out late with a friend. I'll catch up on all of this properly tomorrow, but which time hopefully we'll have some more characters submitted.

[Brittlby]

I’ll get the finalized sheet to you tonight!

[Cold Heritage]

Since all the cool kids are rolling, I'm going to roll too!

At 2018-08-07 23:07:15, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 4d6k3 Result: 16
At 2018-08-07 23:07:13, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 4d6k3 Result: 13
At 2018-08-07 23:06:58, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 4d6k3 Result: 16
At 2018-08-07 23:06:56, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 4d6k3 Result: 11
At 2018-08-07 23:06:52, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 4d6k3 Result: 15
At 2018-08-07 23:06:32, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 4d6k3 Result: 14

At 2018-08-08 00:02:05, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 1d100 Result: 52 <- Trinket roll
At 2018-08-08 00:25:17, Cold Heritage (uid: 6343) rolls: 2d4 Result: 3 <- starting gold

Looks like I didn't do too bad, assuming that I did it all correctly!

I sent tobisquestion a character submission for a human barbarian picking the path of the zealot with the dead background who uses a greatsword and I guess that's what he'll specialize in. He is on a MISSION from GOD to RIP and TEAR.

[Snake]

Give him green plate armor and call him Doomguy

[Cold Heritage]

Oh shoot! I sort of went ahead assuming that we would be largely Good-leaning do'wells who go around doing Good deeds. I don't remember seeing anyone say that they were going to be Evil, but did anyone conceive of themselves being Evil? Despite my glib declaration of ripping and tearing above, I'm more of the mind to try and be a Good guy.

I mean I'm not married to it if everyone else wants to be lower case 'b' blackguards, but what's the general consensus?

[Snake]

No, no. You misunderstood, Doomguy from doom 2016 gives demons PTSD.  heh

[Cold Heritage]

Right.

But I had in my mind we're all Good leaning folks, so my pitch to tobisquestion has this part where I say my character follows this code: “Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil.”

It doesn't work if everyone else decides to be murderhobos who'd kill someone for a slice of cheese when they're all lactose intolerant and don't even like cheese.

[Brittlby]

My girl spends most of her free time and money on orphans! We should be good!

[Snake]

Odd. My char was an orphan cuz events

[Chulanowa]

My Druid's of an almost saccharine sort of goodness, and isn't an orphan per se... isn't abandoned per se, either... More like rumspringa, as seen through the eyes of a tribal society full of people who live multiple centuries.

[tobisquestion]

A D&D Doomguy...that'd be something to behold!

It's true I haven't specified what sort of alignments the characters ought to be, but the story will make a hella lot more sense if the majority of you are mostly good or neutral leaning. The overall plot involves a threat to the entire world which would be reason enough for even an evil character to want to get along and help, but it'll be a little bit down the way that all comes to light. It needs to make sense that all of you would jump on board up to that point!

So yeah, if you could at least not all be chaotic murderous psychopaths, that'd be great. :)

I could also, frankly, do without the type of magic user who gets bored with diplomatic discussions and decides to just burn the building to the ground. For some reason, I seem to attract those sorts of players..? Not only does it make for a rather dull story, it also denies the smarts-over-brawn type characters their time to shine.

But onto more positive things - I've had five characters submitted and they all look pretty good to me. Unless anyone needs to drop out suddenly, I'll probably close for submissions tonight.

I'll update the opening post now with the general archetypes I seem to have so you can all think a bit more about what role you want to take in the group.

[Snake]

Hopefully it won't be a total sausage party either.  :p my char is about 25 or so but I still haven't picked gender yet. But it's unimportant I suppose just flip a coin.

[tobisquestion]

So far we have 3 females and one male, plus whatever you choose as gender.

[Ampere]

My gal is neutral, probably erring toward the more goodlier side (honest) 

[Chulanowa]

Hopefully it won't be a total sausage party either.  :p my char is about 25 or so but I still haven't picked gender yet. But it's unimportant I suppose just flip a coin.

Sausage parties, in E D&D games? Where HAVE you been playing? 

[tobisquestion]

All but one of you will have now had a bit of insider back story. I'm just waiting for an answer from one player before I provide something to them too.

Keep this back story to yourselves, and simply apply what you know if and when it becomes relevant to the story. Everything I've said DOES connect with something you'll encounter as we go along, but its importance and impact obviously depends on what path you choose as a group.

This adventure will be VERY open! Which is gonna be hard for me as I'm going to end up writing a lot of stuff which may never get used because you tricksy players find other ways of overcoming things.

I've had interest from one more player, would anyone have an issue with starting as a group of 6? I think 5 is an optimal number but it can't hurt to future-proof against the probable risk of someone having to drop out early on...

[SilkenVenom]

I'm going to have to withdraw my earlier stated interest. Sorry, all. 

Good luck and much fun to everyone!

[greenknight]

Sorry, I seem to have missed the lede on PM'ing a character sheet. I'll have one tonight (CST+3).

[tobisquestion]

It seems like five is the usual number for a D&D group, and I already have that. I've had a sixth person interested and with greenknight that would make seven.

Im going to make a decision later whether to accept one or two more. A lot of it will depend on whether they are 'extreme' characters... Like I'd say our revenant barbarian is a fairly extreme character because... Well, he came back from the dead. Which is awesome, but five characters like that wouldn't make a realistic group.

Right now it's quite well balanced, so whether I allow another two will depend on whether they fit in to the group. Just letting you know before you spend too much time writing a character!

[Snake]

Then I'll go with a male character to balance stuff out

[tobisquestion]

OK guys, it seems to me we're pretty much ready to go. Gotta mention that Friday and Saturday night, I'm gonna be away (I got married last week and we're having the party for family this weekend) so I might not get on much.

I'm gonna give people the chance to submit more characters and see if it's practical for us to have more than five. If anyone's submitted a character and not heard from me, that's the reason.

I'm gonna throw up (when I get a chance) some more house rules and a few guides on how I'm going to work the mechanics for this game. But provided everyone checks in over the next few days and confirms they're ready to go, I'll be looking to kick off an IC thread on Sunday.

I've put a map of Tollensport in the first thread here so you can get a feel and start thinking about where your character will start out in the city and what they are likely to be doing.. I will eventually update this map with actual location markers. Very briefly, the main locations to explore there are:

1) A popular tavern called "The Whiskered Squid", which is on the edge of the marketplace. An obvious place to start if you didn't have anything else in mind!
2) The Temple of Calm, across the river from the market, which is dedicated to a plethora of gods.
3) The North Docks, which also double as a seafront market selling exotic wares from across the water.
4) The Governor's manor in the "Administration" district, although he's not in the habit of receiving visitors
5) The "gate" districts are regular living quarters. Generally speaking, the closer to the wall you go, the more squalid conditions become. A good place to lay low and observe.
6) The stables - horses for sale and hire, a good place for gossip about people coming and going by land
7) The South Docks, outside of the city walls. More functional than the North Docks. Home to the Wivensbrent navy quartermaster. Some military ships are moored here.
8) Every type of craftsmen you can imagine has a shop in Tollmouth. There is not, however, much in the way of magic. The closest thing is "Mediocrates' Emporium of the Arcane.
9) Aemogen's farm - Livestock and milk
10) Reford's Farm - The small brown complex in the very north-east of the map. Most agriculture and grain.
11) Merchanthouse - Next to the market, the Merchant Maestor is in charge of the import and export of large quantities of goods. Here's the place to go to organise large-scale transactions or get a sense of what's on the market.

[Brittlby]

Congratulations! Ready when you are! Don’t make your new spouse mad! Lol

[Cold Heritage]

Do we get more gold for starting higher than level 1? I'm not sure.

[Chulanowa]

Not really; 5E isn't like 3.5 or pathfinder, with character progression being heavily item-dependent. 5E worries more about what the character does than what htey have. THat said, a magical item or two handed out by hte generous DM is always appreciated