[D&D5e] Play-By-Post 101 – Newbies Wanted! [CLOSED]

[clonkertink]

Play-By-Post 101: The Delian Tomb -CLOSED!

What is PBP 101?

Play-by-Post 101 is my attempt to help new players take their first steps into Play-by-Post roleplaying. It is a short-term, low-commitment game, the forum equivalent of a single-session. I'm aiming for a few key demographics with this game: 1) People new to Elliquiy, 2) People with relatively short posting histories on the site, and 3) People new to system-style roleplay roughly in that order.


What's the Adventure?

I will be running The Delian Tomb, by Matt Colville. It's the most bare-bones 1st level D&D adventure you can get. (Okay, it's not as simple as "The Orc and The Pie" by Monte Cook, but it's pretty simple). You'll sally forth, slay some monsters, rescue a Damsel/Dandy/Beloved Pet in Distress, and maybe find some treasure along the way. And then the adventure will end. Which is actually an accomplishment in Play-By-Post gaming!

What do I need to do?

You're gonna need a 1st level character for D&D 5e, a name for your character, and a very brief backstory/description. Your characters will be starting in the Laden Mule, the local Inn in the town of Elsin Keep. The only big requirement is that your character is willing to go into an old, monster-infested crypt to save someone. Possibly in exchange for gold.

Don't know how to roll up a 5e character? That's fine! Grab one of the pregens here, and then slap your own name and backstory on the mechanics given.

What shouldn't I do?

Don't overthink your character! This adventure is as simple as it gets, so there's just not going to be any time to find your long-lost sister, or discover who you were before you got amnesia, or kill the man who killed your father. Save that for an actual campaign. Just give us some simple, broad strokes, so we get a sense of your character's personality.

Will there be smut?

I'm open to the possibility. My thought is that if your character is looking to hook up, that can be done in a little post-adventure epilogue. If you succeed on the adventure, you'll be hailed as heroes, and I'm sure someone suited to your character's particular tastes could be found in the celebration. Regardless, I'd like to keep this game upbeat and safe, so I'm going to classify this game as Light: Exotic.

If you have any strong opinions on the matter, feel free to list one of the following options in your character pitch:
No, I'm not looking to write any smut in this RP.
Yes, I'd be interested in in my character having sex with an NPC. - feel free to list any NPC preferences here.
Yes, I'd be interested in my character having sex, possibly with another PC.
Some other possibility I may have missed.

You are, of course, free to revise your answer to this question at any time during the game. None of these choices will have any bearing on whether you're accepted or not. It just gives me a general gauge of people's interest, and lets me have some ideas of what to prepare for the post-adventure bits. If we have a party of people all open to hooking up with other PCs, I might just sit back and let you guys write the epilogue yourselves. If people aren't interested in a big bunch of hookups post-adventure, that also sets a different tone for the ending.

And, if this gets a lot of interest, to the point where I need to run multiple groups, I might group pro-smut players into one group and no-smut players into another.

It goes without saying, but do respect other players' boundaries on this matter. I'd hate to see anyone driven off because they felt uncomfortable.



When's the deadline?

I'll be leaving this recruitment thread open until Wednesday, June 19th. Then I'll sift through the applications and see if i need to run one or more groups.


This looks really cool but I'm kinda shy, or don't know if I'll be a good fit.

Then you're probably the kind of person I want to reach out! I'd strongly encourage you to submit a character. If you're feeling especially nervous, though, I'd be happy to chat with you via PM about any reservations you might have.

[Pipaluk]

This looks super fun and I'd love to join. BUT...

A few things:

[liI'm not super new to 5e (actually quite experienced)][/li]

• I think I know which adventure you're running (if it's from his DM101 videos).

That said, if there's room, I'd still love to play along with you all! I think I can play my character as though s/he doesn't know what may or may not be coming up. I'd likely go with a variant human bard and go with a more support based role.

[clonkertink]

Hey Pipaluk, thanks for the interest!

I don't see any problem with either of those things. There's really only one really spoilable bit in the adventure, so as long as you don't go ahead and solve that mystery yourself, I don't see a problem. Plus, I think it's probably a good idea to have one or two experienced D&D players on board to help newbies with rules questions if I'm AFK.

This is more about reaching out to new members and maybe long-standing wallflowers. If more active members want to join, that's cool. I'll just try to find ways to blend them in with the newbies.

[Pipaluk]

Sounds great! I'll draw up a character. What's the best way to do that on this site? Shall I roll it up on dicecloud and link you to it?

[clonkertink]

Sure, I can do dicecloud. I'm not gonna be too picky about Character Sheet format for this one. First level characters are simple enough to track. So, I'll accept dice cloud, mythweavers, a link to the official pregen, a picture of a piece of looseleaf with basic character details scrawled down... Whatever works best.

[Pipaluk]

Name: Cinthia Thorn
Race: Human
Class: Bard
Background: Noble of Elsin Keep

Cinthia is well liked by her people. She spends her time and money helping the people in the villages and towns. While her family doesn't approve of the company she keeps, she's determined to prove that she can honor her family name and win her people's hearts at the same time. She believes the people will respect kindness and good works as much as they'll respect power and fear. It is this attitude that has her visiting the Laden Mule often enough and meeting new friends and listening to the stories of the passing through adventurers.

Character Sheet: https://dicecloud.com/character/QwxeQohqJfoTGWyw4/Cinthia-Thorn

[Kit]

Heya clonkertink !

First off I would love to know the origin of that name  And secondly not to boast or anything but I think I'm a perfect fit for this DVD adventure :
-It's my first week as an official E member
-I think I have less than 20 posts on the site
-I don't even now what system-style role-playing is
-Also never did Did but watched enough D&D animated stories and crappie guides to understand

I would reaaally love to do this as a first experience on this forum. I'll think of a cliche character and post it afterwards.

[Kit]

Sorry for the previous errors. My phone really has a hard time accepting the acronym D&D.
Other than that here he is !

Name: Tim Hiauell
Race: Human
Class:Rogue
Background: Son of a famous butcher/inventor of the mechanical ham slicer.

Born in a misty village encroached between a lake and an enormous mountain range, Tim was a good student at the village school, his fascination for precision mechanics led him to take an interest in locks at an early age... Not having a particular passion for ham, it quickly and secretly becomes the enigma of the village, the "ghost", shamelessly looting the most unexpected products from the inhabitants, just for fun.
Cut to a few years later and there he is, an abnormally rich adolescent kid, more cultivated than most people in his village and growing bored of petty thievery. The combination of the villagers suspicion of him and his boredom pushed him to go out and explore/rob the world.

D&D sheet:
ddb.ac/characters/13033196/ICC5uY

[clonkertink]

Heya clonkertink !

First off I would love to know the origin of that name  And secondly not to boast or anything but I think I'm a perfect fit for this DVD adventure :
-It's my first week as an official E member
-I think I have less than 20 posts on the site
-I don't even now what system-style role-playing is
-Also never did Did but watched enough D&D animated stories and crappie guides to understand

I would reaaally love to do this as a first experience on this forum. I'll think of a cliche character and post it afterwards.

Hey Kit! Welcome aboard.

My name was just a series of syllables that I liked the sound of. Plus, they kinda sound like wonky gears turning, which is probably an apt description of my creative process.

System-style roleplaying broadly refers to games that use a roleplaying game ruleset, like D&D or Shadowrun or the like. This is in contrast to freeform roleplaying, where the players simply agree on how events should unfold and write the story accordingly. So, when you see sub forums like "NC: Exotic - Freeform" vs "NC: Exotic - System" that's the distinction they're making.

Your character pitch looks fun. I don't think wizards has a human rogue amongst their pregenerated characters, so if you're feeling ambitious you could try rolling up a character using the Basic Rules. If this were a fully-fledged campaign, I'd say use the point-buy method to generate your ability scores, but for something simple like this, you could just use the Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8). If you look at the entry for Rogues, it'll give you some general pointers on how to make an effective character.

I tend to use Myth-Weavers to host my character sheets. I've used dicecloud in the past, but the interface took a while for me to understand, personally. If you have discord, there's a bot called Avrae that can also help you generate a character on dicecloud automatically, though it often still requires a little fill-in-the-blanks to get it up and running.

Let me know if you get overwhelmed, and I can give you some more specific advice. Love the pitch though! A mechanical ham slicer now exists in my setting!

[clonkertink]

@Pipaluk: It occurs to me that I didn't respond to your character post! Sorry about that. Cinthia looks great!

And while this adventure's going to be a little too short to actually dig into backstory, I simply must know what this scandalous secret is, that's referenced in her flaw. Feel free to PM it to me if you'd rather keep it hush hush.

[Amalthea]

I'm not your target market for this game but I wanted to drop by and wish you guys some happy DnD times.

Also clonkertink if you run another game in the future, open to anyone, this probably won't be the last you see of me

[clonkertink]

Thanks for the kind words, Madam Striga! Given the interest I've seen, I'm definitely considering running a more general one-shot adventure at some point. I've got a real wacky setting in my collection that would be perfect for this sort of thing.

Your interest has been noted. I'll let you know if/when I get a recruitment thread out for such a game.

[Pipaluk]

For the sake of the one shot, I didn't have anything significant in mind for her scandalous secret. I actually just had in mind that the scandalous secret was that she hung out with commoners and wanted to be an adventure. While not outright scandalous and not super secretive, it'd likely ruin her family's reputation among other noble families.

We could change it, and I'm open to suggestions; but I didn't think too much on it considering the nature of the one shot. One other that comes to mind, which doesn't make much sense for a one-shot is that through some adventure she went on, she found proof that her family isn't actually the noble family that their lineage claims to be. If others found out, they'd lose their status; or something like that.

[clonkertink]

Fair enough! Mingling with the common folk is fairly scandalous in its own right.

[GeekGirl88]

I have been recruited! I am working up my character now. Will edit when I've figured it out.

EDIT: It's turned into a human woman who is a fighter.

[Doomglazer]

Also interested, going to cook up a Human Paladin for some big swings with my Longsword. I never played any D&D5e but always wanted to play. And this seems a nice starting point.
Yes, I'd be interested in my character having sex, possibly with another PC.

Name: Doomglazer
Race: Human
Class: Paladin
Background: Wandering Warrior of the Light

After the Last War Doomglazer strolled the lands wandering around aimlessly. He was just a young man when he was recruited to fight for the human race. He didn't have any combat experience but they needed every boy and man that could wield a sword. When the big battle started he was quickly knocked unconscious, he was hit from behind and he never knew who did it. After a while, he slowly woke up. The battlefield was covered in blood and bodies of friends and foes. He stood and it wasn't a beautiful sight.
The humans won but at what cost.
From that day forward he roamed the lands without a real direction or purpose. Then one day he arrived at a small town called Elsin Keep. Like any good traveller, he heads to the first inn he saw called the Laden Mule.

Character Sheet: https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Doomglazer/characters/13001133

[GeekGirl88]

Name: Aldara Hightower
Class: Fighter
Race: Human
Background: Soldier

Aldara Hightower is a soldier. But not just any soldier: she's a captain. Originally from the village of Cannet (10 miles north of Elsin Keep), she is the daughter of from a farming family. However, she was never happy in that life. Her village is seemingly always a step away from being destroyed. Law enforcement is scarce out here. There is always some threat of bandits or monsters ready to wipe her people out. And the whole village just let it happen. They'd just appease the new threat. "we'll rebuild" was the mayor's reply. Fighting back and resisting was never an option. She didn't see why. Her opinion made her very unpopular among the village leadership and her family. It scared them, frankly. When she was old enough, she left to join the military. One day, she'd see that villages like this were protected properly. That was over 15 years ago now. Her mother says that she's aged for more than just physically, but in her soul. Well, of course. It was the Last War. No one lives through a war unscathed. 30 years old with a soul of 50. Aldara is on her way back to the capital to report for duty after being allowed to go home for the Celebration of Reflection, a very important day in Torm's calendar. She checked into the Laden Mule last night.

(Hope you don't mind I borrowed your Last War idea, Doomglazer!)

[clonkertink]

Oh man. Doomglazer. GeekGirl. You guys somehow stumbled upon the inciting incident in the campaign setting I've been working on for my Elliquiy games.

BOOM. I just moved this adventure back in time a Century! Despair, for the King Artur Greymantle is dead, the Grim Regent sits the Throne of Crownhall attended by the watchful dead, and the Noble Houses lick their wounds after a long and futile struggle for the remaining scraps of the land of Carrowyn!

Will any of this actually have any bearing on the adventure? Probably not. But it might affect the set dressing a bit. Whoo, I'm all jazzed up no!

Oh, and welcome aboard, folks!

[Heinakori]

This is something I've been waiting for ages! I'm a total noob when it comes to D&D, so this is an opportunity I wouldn’t want to miss.

I'd love to roll in as a cleric!

[clonkertink]

Hello, Heinakor!

If you're looking to just jump in, you can find pregenerated characters here. The pregens have a dwarf cleric and a human cleric. They typically come with a little bit of prewritten backstory, but you're free to write some of your own fluff.

I might recommend that right now, seeing as I'm planning to close up recruitment tomorrow. Rolling up a character from scratch isn't too difficult, but it usually takes a while the first time.

[Heinakori]

Ooh, that's a great tip, and I'll do just that. I'll try to go and create a sheat before tomorrow!

[clonkertink]

Alright, I'm gonna close recruitment up here.

Heinakori, if you can get me something before the end of the day, I should be able to squeeze you in.

As for the rest o' y'all! There should be a PM waiting in your inbox.

[Heinakori]

Name: Peilr Sorehands
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric
Background: A gem-cutter turned to faith (for the coin!)

Although Peilr Sorehands started out as an artisan, he heard the voice of the dwarven deities in the stones he carved and metals he shaped. His acts of artistry became acts of reverence, causing him to desire to exemplify the inner nature of his people. He thus joined the clergy, and his pure dwarven desires allowed him to connect to the divine.
For Peilr "holy" is just another word for "quite costly". Now he roams through the lands searching for more gems to cut, coins to mint, and treasure to discreetly add in the service of his lords through the callous skin of his palms.
He checked in the Laden Mule two nights ago.

Sheet: https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1937900

[selfexiled]

I’m not sure how many more you want in the crew, but I could throw in a man for your trials. Not very familiar with 5e. I’m a big fan of 3.5e.

Name: Durien ’Ghost’ Mortigan
Race: Human
Class: duelist

Bio: Named ghost more for his appearance than anything else, Durien is tall and thin even compared to the average tall and thin human. With pale skin that never seems to tan. It’s difficult to know his true hair color as it is always slicked and greased back. But he has fine taste and seems to always be the best dressed in the room (armor included). Of course the real question is where does he get all the money? Well he smells a lot like animals and is always looking over his shoulder lately. Yet he is also seen buying rather odd potions from the alchemist from time to time.

Ok not that long and maybe more vague than needed.

[clonkertink]

Hey selfexiled. Unfortunately you missed the deadline by a just a hair. Thanks for your interest though. I figure if this goes well, I might do more little one-shots like this in the future and you'd be more than welcome to toss your hat into the ring then.