In Search Of A GM TO Run Naughty PF/D&D game!

[Max]

Leaning towards a female human human fighter type.

I'm basic that way.  :)

But anyway, assuming Blinkins goes with a thief/rogue type.

[Blinkin]

Did you have a specific level, or range of levels in mind?

I'm probably going to play a normal, old school human, half elf at the outside. and going wwith a thief. Background and archetype yet to be determined.

Two small points that I need to mention. they are fairly easy to deal with though.

1. I've played 1 5e game for about a year and I'm in a tabletop game that's on hold for several weeks do to health issues. I know the system fairly well, but I want to ask everyone to correct me if I get something wrong.

2. I can't provide a visual image of the character. My screen reader doesn't even tell me that a pic is on the screen, so finding one is academic. In a similar vein, it's unlikely that I will be able to see the map. We can use a simple system of a clock for direction and distance from other things on the map. Example, "billy Bob is at your 3:00 and about 10 yards away." will tell me just about all that I need to know

So, it's not huge issues but things everyone needs to know.

[ElayneTrakand]

I'm leaning towards a female mark of making human artificer. Is everyone ok with Eberron content? 

[Lokus]

I'm leaning towards a female mark of making human artificer. Is everyone ok with Eberron content? 

I don't know if I'm ready for war-forged, but I have no problem with an artificer.

[Lokus]

Did you have a specific level, or range of levels in mind?

I'm probably going to play a normal, old school human, half elf at the outside. and going wwith a thief. Background and archetype yet to be determined.

Two small points that I need to mention. they are fairly easy to deal with though.

1. I've played 1 5e game for about a year and I'm in a tabletop game that's on hold for several weeks do to health issues. I know the system fairly well, but I want to ask everyone to correct me if I get something wrong.

2. I can't provide a visual image of the character. My screen reader doesn't even tell me that a pic is on the screen, so finding one is academic. In a similar vein, it's unlikely that I will be able to see the map. We can use a simple system of a clock for direction and distance from other things on the map. Example, "billy Bob is at your 3:00 and about 10 yards away." will tell me just about all that I need to know

So, it's not huge issues but things everyone needs to know.

1. No worries on rules points.

Let's start at 1st level.

We'll be using milestone (which result in leveling much faster than exp counting).

2. Text descriptions are perfectly fine. I may provide visual aides (and people are encourage to make a "face claim" -- either fantasy art or a photo as you desire) but a lot of the material will be in the "theater of the mind" style rather than through slavish devotion to battle-maps.

I still have a few hours of stuff I need to accomplish today, but I will get a short history (heavy with fantasy tropes) and a generic starting situation that the players can set their hooks into and provide feedback from.

[Lokus]

Dark Portents and Darker Magic

Welcome to the northern duchies, a bastion of civilization bound on all sides by wilderness and barbarism.

The Elves and Dwarves of the Compact agreed to allow the Eastern Empire to build a trade port at the mouth of the Sasserine River. Over seven centuries Port Sasserine has become a sprawling port city, and is the seat of the Grand Duchy Of Sasserine. Treaty by treaty human settlers extend north up the Sasserine River. The Duchy of Gelinat sits in the centre of the valley. The city Gelinat is located at a broad waterfall and is at the limit of large vessel navigation on the river, beyond that only small craft may pass.

Next is Holy Tiral, the silent city (which isn't actually that silent anymore). The Elves say the gods dwelled there once, and drafted the Holy Concordat, dividing both mortal and immortal realms between them.

Passing north to the shores of a great lake, the city of Vleris is the youngest of the four. Yet with metals and gems from the dwarves and rich furs and rare wood from the northern barbarians, Vleris is known for the skill of its artisans and a wealth that rivals Sasserine.

New Rhuth is a dwarven city, built along the shores of a mountain lake. Old Rhuth can still be seen, charrd stones melted like glass by the heat of the Dragon Rage.

The Elven city Tal Ellindor survived the Dragon Rage only through powerful and costly magics. Now the land in one day's march in any direction is still and lifeless, and the city itself is a shifting maze of illusions. The Queen of the High Elves, it is said, fell into a deep green dream when the dragons attacked, and there she remains slumbering for centuries in a city that exists half in the waking world and half in her dreams.

History

500 Years Ago The definitive event in the Sasserine Valley, occurring just as humans were starting to spread north, was the Dragon Rage. Triggered by the "success" of an Elven hero's quest, Lugonn of the Shining Spear destroyed a number of dragon eggs of Yssloeth the Red while she lay sleeping. Yssloeth's grief and anger were terrible, and she summoned all of her many children, and their children, and it is said that one could not see the stars for dragon wings. Yet eventually the dragon host departed, and the ashes of their rage fertilized new growth. Many scattered ruins cover the valley, all places lost in the Dragon Rage.

200 Years Ago Lugonn returned from exile far to the north. There, in frozen cities lost to the ages, he discovered the secrets of Unlife, and became its servant. For fifty years the dead walked in Sasserine Valley as Lugonn sought his revenge. At the gates of Holy Tiral his last host was defeated and his lieutenants bound and entombed. Lugonn himself had managed to escape.

50 Years Ago With glaciers pushing south every year the barbaric tribes north of Vleris invaded the valley. Although there were many pitched battles in the end it was trade concessions that stopped the war and saw the northern horde settle the north shores of Lake Vleris.

10 Years Ago The Grand Duchy underwent a three year dynastic struggle, as the ailing Grand Duke left no heir, but three strong candidates for heir presumptive.

This Year A bright green comet was spotted in the skies as Winter passes to Spring. Priests and soothsayers urge calm but some say it wakes ghosts and restless spirits, others claim it is the soul of Lugonn himself, back for revenge. There is a growing sense that these are the final years before the valley is lost to the forces of darkness. But this land of lonely towers, ruined castles, and forgotten tombs is a ripe fruit for those with the courage and skill to seize it. Fortunes can be made, legends founded, and perhaps the darkness can be turned back along the way.

Politics

The human government is formed around one Grand Duchy (Sasserine), two duchies (Gelinat and Vleris) and a bishopric (Holy Tiral). In theory fealty is owed to the Eastern Empire. Powerful merchant houses pay steep sums for a seat on privy councils.

The practice of indebted servitude has migrated from the Southern Confederacy. Only enacted by a Duke's magistrate, the servitude can be for one to five years or for life. But it is a punishment reserved for unpaid debts or minor crimes and requires a trial.

Agriculture and Technology

Most of the trappings of standard fantasy are present. Work-wheels and block and tackle are common, clock-work mechanisms exists but are rare and not commonly understood.

Several grains are farmed along the rivers, grapes, olives, and pitted fruit trees are plentiful. Chickens, geese, sheep and goats are plentiful, cattle are kept more for beasts of burden than food. Horses are generally a mark of wealth, donkeys and mules are common in most villages though.

[knightsdestiny]

I'll be upfront also, I'm in the same boat as Blinkin. Images and the like aren't helpful. Give me distances and directionals and a good description of the terrain and I'll be good.


Now.. 5e.. uh.. yeah. lol I've next to no experience with this system. Is there a good online source of races and classes that can be chosen from? A character creation guide?

Looks like we're lacking caster power, so chances are I'll do something with the magics.

[Max]

A couple of places that might help. 

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

http://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html

And, as a side note, on something unrelated to this game, something I thought I'd pass along, for anyone in interested in Pathfinder...

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/pathfinder-comics-cache-books?hmb_source=navbar&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=tile_index_9

[Tavarokk]

What's the premise like? As in, where are we meeting each other and why are we banding together?

[knightsdestiny]

Thanks for the links. I thought there was a celestial patron the warlock could choose.


Pathfinder is what I'm used to playing.

[Lokus]

Thanks for the links. I thought there was a celestial patron the warlock could choose.

There is one, in Xanathar's.

Quick details:

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/warlock:celestial

What's the premise like? As in, where are we meeting each other and why are we banding together?

Let me turn that around.

What quest did you all just try to do, and how did it go wrong? (Please try to avoid pointing the finger at another PC, here. This is a collaborative story effort).

[Tavarokk]

What quest did you all just try to do, and how did it go wrong? (Please try to avoid pointing the finger at another PC, here. This is a collaborative story effort).

Um. We're lvl 1 though. Have only just finished qualifying for the class and took the first step to adventure and away from a normal life that'd involve years of routine work and hopefully reaching past lvl 5 before old age.

I imagine a lvl 1 barbarian would've just finished her rites of adulthood at the tribes' lands near lake Vleris and was keeping her ear to the ground for any opportunities to earn glory.

Go to Vleris to hire on as mercenary, I suppose, if the tribes' territory is currently peaceful and food is abundant.

[Lokus]

Um. We're lvl 1 though. Have only just finished qualifying for the class and took the first step to adventure and away from a normal life that'd involve years of routine work and hopefully reaching past lvl 5 before old age.

Not every adventure results in a level gain -- especially if it wasn't successful.

A non-exhaustive list of possibilities:

Searching for a bandit camp but finding it abandoned.

Or -- clearing out the bandit camp to find that you had been employed by a rival bandit gang that refused to pay the promised rewards.

Guarding a merchant on a trip but the merchant dying.

Or -- the merchant staged his death to escape debts and wanted you as witnesses/patsies to take the fall.

It doesn't have to be earth-shaking, and it doesn't have to involve betrayal. But having the players come up with a reason why they're gathered, a little drunk, a little bruised in the region of their egos, looking for a chance to prove themselves, get paid, and gather a whole bucket of glory isn't non-compatible with being first level.

[Tavarokk]

Hmm. Where are the rest of you guys from? I imagine I can drift down to any of the other big four easily enough, so we could cross paths in one of those.

[Blinkin]

We could take the oldie but goodie of "There we were, enjoying the atmosphere of a lovely little dive. The food was aweful, the ale even worse and the barmaids all carried clubs for beating sense into the heads of drunk, horny men. As you sit down on a bench, something... squishy seeps out from under you, staining your fancy muskrat skin pants. As you look up to the heavens to ask the goddess of infinitely adoring dimples how could you end up in this sewer. I mean, what else could you ask for in the front room of a whore house? Then, suddenly, someone knocks over your bad ale that you paid for with your last few coppers; the foamy bitter flowing across the uneven table to wet your best beaded beaver vest and ruining a priceless sash that was a gift from the Queen of flibberbicquitville! (Nevermind that the afore mentioned kingdom has never been heard of before, or that it's ruled by a senate of crotchty old men with silly looking wigs and talks funny.) In a sudden fit of rage, you stand up only to get tripped by the cause of the ruckus; a cute little thief; her midnight blue hair flying behind her as she tosses the evidence into your lap before she disappears out the door with the tavern customers (Including one half naked young man with some lady of the night's chemise in his hands) hot on her heels. In astonishment, you soon see the little thief slipping through a window in the corner. "Sorry Sweetie, but I have to retrieve my ill-gotten gain... here's a gold piece for your troubles. (and your PC meets my PC) With a mischievous grin, she turns and sashays off with a tinkling laugh behind her)

See ow easy that was? lol

And, without further adu, or really much of anything, I present Dasha Eversoel

First, I know that they're first level, but that doesn't mean that life before that had to consist of sitting at home and twiddling one's thumbs; Dasha is a bundle of energy that HAD to keep herself occupied.

Although Dasha has always been a little free with both her affections and the definition of property, by no means can it be said that Dasha isn’t trustworthy and honest; well, honest may be a little strong, but you work with the words that you have. Dasha has often boasted that she has plenty of morals and principles; she’s never killed anyone who didn’t have it coming, she’s never raped and she’s never pillaged! Nor could it be said that she has ever stabbed a friend in the back, literally or otherwise.

A product of her early childhood; from the moment that she came into the world, on the verge of homelessness and starvation in the city of Vleris, her life couldn’t of been called easy by the meanist
Cur on the streets, never mind those who were living it along side of her.

One of the most valuable lessons that a young Dasha had to learn and understand is that no matter how hard you try, there are only two things that you could rely upon in this life; yourself and those who you can manipulate to give you what you wanted. Then, of course, there were that rare friend who would happily help you to get rid of the body in the middle of the night, figuratively speaking, of course.

Sometimes, life was more than hard for the slender girl with the big blue eyes under all of that midnight hair. It didn’t take her long to figure out that there were people who would happily cut your throat for a copper, or do worse than kill you. The question that had always sat heavily on her mind was ,who was whom at that critical moment. With the valuable life lesson under her belt, Doshah quickly learned, and learned well how to be nearly as bad as the meanest people on the streets… All just to keep her skin in one piece; more or less, that is to say. In the end,all it had taught her was her own belief in herself; that you got what you could in life by doing things that may not be exactly legal, but if people are foolish enough to believe a lie, then they get what they deserve.

By the time that Dasha was 14, she had already blossomed out into a striking, if not conventional beauty and had been working for the local thieves guild for several months. Mainly working as a straight man, errr, girl, for a number of small cons about town; her youth and innocent features (Not to mention her perky boobs) that she quickly learn to use to her advantage. These cons ranged from bait and switch to trading false documents for the sell of entire crop ventures for actual gold coins. After fleecing one family of a significant amount of coin and later seeing the same family on the verge of starvation, Dasha stopped working the con jobs for the guild and swore to herself that she would never put someone into a situation like she had endured as a child!

Within a year though, Dasha was doing her own cons, taking the occasional odd job and doing fairly well for herself when tragedy struck her; A noble from Port Salis had realized that he had been conned by her boyfriend, not by her, which is an important fact here. For a measly 30 gold pieces at that! The con had been the purchase of a “potion of fortune,” that had been garrenteed to give him a full day of good luck and make all of his decisions great ones.

Dasha hadn’t even been involved, but the noble had tracked her boyfriend down; in an attempt to save his own life, her boyfriend  had given the noble the name of Dasha. Her boyfriend died anyway, but had also doomed Dashah’s family. In retribution for the embarrassment of the noble’s fool heartiness,  except for Dasha, who had been out at the time, the thugs of the noble had mistaken her younger sister for her; the death of her sister had been especially brutal and Dasha vowed to exct her own revenge for the death of an innocent little girl.

With the skills that she had already learned, Dasha created a false identity for herself and immediately disappeared into the crowds of artisans; her goal never far from her mind.

Dashah, under her new guise of Natashah Riskmonte, Baroness of Riskmont,has become obsessed with ganing money to fund her pursuit of her revenge; taking on any job or task, regardless of the risk, to make more and plan for the night that she would plunge a dagger into the eye of a certain noble. She may even have a bit of a death wish with the risks that she takes.

[knightsdestiny]

Ah hahahaha...


"Or -- clearing out the bandit camp to find that you had been employed by a rival bandit gang that refused to pay the promised rewards."; this sounds strangely like a Shadowrun sort of thing. lol


Anyway, after much research and deliberation, if it's ok, I think I'll swing an Asimar Warlock with a celestial patron.

[Lokus]

Anyway, after much research and deliberation, if it's ok, I think I'll swing an Asimar Warlock with a celestial patron.

That works. We can define your patron a bit more as we go. Do you already have ideas for their identity/nature?

And, without further adu, or really much of anything, I present Dasha Eversoel... ...She may even have a bit of a death wish with the risks that she takes.

Welcome to the gang/party/team/club... ...Natashah.

Do the rest of the party know you as Natashah, or are they aware you're Dashah? You can wait until their characters are up before you answer that (and it doesn't have to be an all or nothing answer, some might, some won't, as you decide).

[Max]

BTW, I do have a physical copy of the 5E Player's Handbook.  But would like to get a PDF because it is easier for me to read and doesn't take u any space.  Anybody know where I can buy a copy?

[Lokus]

BTW, I do have a physical copy of the 5E Player's Handbook.  But would like to get a PDF because it is easier for me to read and doesn't take u any space.  Anybody know where I can buy a copy?

It's a bit of a tricky question -- I don't think there are 5e core rules pdfs for sale (there certainly aren't on DrivethruRPG or DM's Guild, the two most popular legal pdf sites.

DNDBeyond allows you to buy the material from the rule books -- and it isn't a requirement for my game at all, but it is an pretty decent character sheet administration program.

[knightsdestiny]

Ideas for the patron? I hadn't thought particularly deep into it, but maybe a good start might be that it has something to do with her Asimar blood, she caught some particular being's attention that may be for reasons that she mostly doesn't know about (yet). This could even be tied into why/how she comes to join this group. I'm open to plotting. And I'm down for character ties if anyone wants them.

[Blinkin]

You know, I make that offer every time I've played in a group game here and only one person took me up on it in more than 7 years.

But, I am, as always open to developing connections between characters or even planning future events for that matter.

So... drop me a PM or respond here. :)

[Max]

Am thinking about a peasant girl that maybe signed on as a caravan guard and is now in the big city.

But what do we have so far?  Human female fighter here.

[Blinkin]

Human female thief.

[Lokus]

Am thinking about a peasant girl that maybe signed on as a caravan guard and is now in the big city.

But what do we have so far?  Human female fighter here.

Am thinking about a peasant girl that maybe signed on as a caravan guard and is now in the big city.

But what do we have so far?  Human female fighter here.

I'm not making their choices for them, but I believe Tavarokk indicated human female Barbarian, and knightsdestiny chose female Aasimar Celestial Warlock.

[Lokus]

We've gone kind of quiet here.

Does anyone need any assistance with character creation?