Interest Check; Solo Kingmaker Tristalt / AiME Supercampaign

Hello friendos!

As some of you may remember, I am ElegantlyWasted (alias GM Wasted). I was pretty active on the boards several years back but a couple of occurrences of cancer led to my long absence. I'm fully in remission, and looking to get into some gaming again (and have a new office job which gives me plenty of time to sneak to the boards >.>).

I'm considering running one of two games. I could run both but I'm a busy bee and I don't want to get burned out, especially being so newly back to the RP boards.

I'm considering one of two games.

One would be a solo Kingmaker Tristalt game. Yes, you read that right! Tristalt! Like Gestalt, but MORE!

There's a lot to like in Kingmaker, but I feel like it suffers from being a bit of a pure hex crawl, and I've seen many a group sort of flounder when it came to exploring the more interpersonal bits of a group of adventurers suddenly running a kingdom. What I would want would be to take one person, give them a cast of NPC's to work with, and explore their personal story, delve into what it's like for them to be, all of a sudden, a lord... maybe even a king or queen.

It would be somewhat similar to the Kingmaker video game by Owlcat in that regard. As far as adventuring went, you would have a companion or two and combats would be a bit smaller, a bit more intense, a bit more personal. I'd expect you to build your character well, to be able to handle most challenges that came your way. And I'd expect you to be a damn fine writer and roleplayer, because it's just going to be you and me, and I would want this to be a quality character exploration between the two of us.

The other option I'm considering is Adventures in Middle-Earth, the LOTR-themed 5E game. I love LOTR, and AiME is, I think, a pretty good system for translating that world into a d20 skin. I'd be using elements from existing campaigns to tie them into a 1-20 supercampaign, much of which will be homebrewed content. Be forewarned, that would get extremely nerdy... I am a big Tolkienphile and my knowledge of the lore of the setting is as vast as the waters of Ulmo. It would be a campaign focused on a group of sort of "middle heroes". The time period is set between The Hobbit and LOTR and I don't have a ton of interest in changing the established LOTR story, so we, as players and the Loremaster, would know that it was not possible to completely defeat the Shadow. But it would be possible to determine the fate of lands not directly involved in LOTR. It would be possible to delay the return of the Shadow until it can finally be defeated. It would be possible to travel to lost lands and defeat threats that would have laid low the Fellowship before it even began.

So yeah. Those are the two campaigns I'm thinking of running. The Kingmaker game would only have one player.

The AiME game would have four to six.

Any takers?

Glad you're back and doing better!

Also, dotting for Kingmaker, but not for AiME.

I'm something of a LOTR-nerd, myself. Besides the trilogy and The Hobbit, the only other book I've read is The Silmarillion, but, man, did I love all the lore in that.

I don't think I'd make the cut for a solo game, but you've got my interest in AiME.

Keante- The Silmarillion would be a huge influence on the game. Think a group of heroes on the fringes of civilization charged with facing ancient, dark powers so that the civilized world can sleep soundly at night. It would probably also delve more heavily into Tolkien’s themes on necromancy.

AiME introduces some mechanics and classes not in base 5e, right? I'll need to get that book.

It's been a while since I've looked at my 5e stuff at all.

That is correct. I have purchased all the PDF’s and could supply if necessary

LotR is pretty magic-lite (at least in terms of flashy displays of magic) compared to the types of powers exhibited by spellcasters in Pathfinder and D&D. Does that hold true for AiME, or are you still going to have normal D&D 5e spellcasting?

AiME has custom classes for the game that replace the standard set. They keep in line with the low-magic setting and I would be aiming to keep that aesthetic.

I always like solo games, so I'd be interested in the Kingmaker game.

2-1 so far

I'd be interested in Adventures in Middle-Earth, as I am also a huge fan of LotR. However I am completely new to play-by-post and fairly new to roleplaying in general, so I completely understand if you'd rather not deal with a newbie.

STFU NOOOOOOOOOOOOOB

I am kidding of course. Welcome, new player! It's a wonderful world you're getting into :)

PBP is a pretty great world, for sure. It’s a crazy one, but it’s welcoming. It’s also a bottomless pit and I probably spend way too much time on here.

That said, Kingmaker sounds interesting. I’m not much of a fan of 5e nor very familiar with the system, so dot for Kingmaker. My first PBP ever was actually a massive KM game that never really got underway, so I’d love to revisit one of my first characters (though with likely some serious changes- I've learned a lot since those days).

5E has it's ups and downs as far as I'm concerned. It's definitely better for a new player, I think. A lot less math intensive, which even as an experienced player I like live; it speeds up play quite a bit. And I think AiME in particular does a very good job of capturing the feel of LOTR.

But for more generic fantasy games and for more customization, I definitely prefer PF.

Yeah, I think that hits the nail on the head there.

My general complaint with 5e is that I don't feel like there are enough player options or customisation. You make so few decisions about your class/character.

And for something "lighter" and less math focused than Pathfinder, I'm more inclined to use a system that's intended to be more narratively-focused, like a PBTA game such as Dungeon World or Apocalypse World.

I just don't honestly see the gap that D&D 5e is meant to slot into.

Frankly I feel like it's meant to A- bring us back a bit from the disastrous attempt at making a tabletop that played like an MMO that was 4e, and appeal to the new "hip nerdy tabletop crowd" without having a super steep learning curve.

And as far as that goes, I think it does a good job. But I agree, I actually do really love most PbtA games and like a narrative heavy style.

Eh, I get what it's going for, it's just not what I look for. Anyway, sorry to get us going on an edition skirmish-tangent. How long will you be checking for interest before deciding, just curious?

You know what they say, the more, the merrier. Not a super nerd of LOTR, but would definitely like to see a dedicated and well-treated game dealing with it. Consider my dot granted if you take that route.

I'll probably leave this up a week.

I am pretty busy and just now getting back into online PbP so I don't want to go overboard. And it'll give people a chance to dot in as well.

While I like the LotR saga, never really had any interest in exploring the world beyond what Tolkien wrote himself. I can make a decent character, but my guys are pure amateur hour when compared to those he made... wouldn't really feel comfy walking around that world.

TL; DR: Dot for Kingmaker. ;)

I'd like to dot for Kingmaker :) I think it would be fun to make a tristalt character (although I would not really enjoy starting something like that at measly level 1, for the record) and it would be fun to pit myself against others for only one spot.

I enjoy Tristalt games a lot - and have a lot of ideas for characters that I could make. XD I'm also used to the system, having run and played in several games with those rules.

I'm not a huge fan of non Pathfinder systems for my fantasy. This is a dot for kingmaker which I've always wanted to play but never worked out, not that I'm likely to make the cut. There can be only one!

Dot for kingmaker, I’m looking to DM it eventually and would like to play it once.

Dot for kingmaker. The field looks pretty full on it.

I guess the solo game seems to draw a lot of interest. I'll pass on that, have a good gaming guys!

Trigesalt is the path of enlightenment.

New to the boards. But a tristalt sounds interesting. Also. Kingmaker. So dotting for that. Tough crowd. Well. A newbie can hope

*pokes head in*

How’s it going?

Dotting for interest in AiME. I've recently started looking at games in a more low magic setting and the idea intrigues me. I'm relatively Tolkien-aware but by no means an expert.

*steeples fingers*

I might do both. Both would be very slow paced though, probably only one post every other day.

If I decide to do a game. That’s still up in the air, honestly.

Yeah, I... wouldn't be into a solo game at only 3 posts a week. That'll take, like, a year to get even four pages done.

Tristalt Kingmaker would be awesome. I need to give the video game a try. :)

leinathan- that's a bit of a typo. I meant to say I'd probably only be posting every other day.

It wouldn't be limited to one per day, I'd just have to segment my time properly.

Would you be likely to start these soon? Or is this a 'sometime in the future' game?

Yeah, a post every other day is 3 posts a week. 3 posts a week from your player as well makes it 6 posts a week.

That makes 8 weeks to finish a single page. Even a conservative estimate means it'll probably take 5,000 posts to finish the campaign. That's like, 16 years.

Yeah, a post every other day is 3 posts a week. 3 posts a week from your player as well makes it 6 posts a week.

That makes 8 weeks to finish a single page. Even a conservative estimate means it'll probably take 5,000 posts to finish the campaign. That's like, 16 years.

Pretty sure he is talking minimums. Since when does anyone really do the minimum when they are enjoying something? And, conversely, how often do higher "required" posting rates fall by the wayside when folks aren't having fun?

I guess what I am saying is that if this is a turn off for you perhaps you are looking at it wrong. You should look at that as more of a guideline than a hard rule, especially given life has a way of slowing post rates from time to time. I would say that minimum is pretty generous for those periods, especially given it would just be the two of you.

All that being said, if you really can't come to terms with it I would recommend not applying if/when that recruitment goes live. Good luck in your future endeavors, etc. etc.

Me, I intend to apply. 15-16 years of entertainment sounds like just my kind of game. ;)

I gotta say, you've got a pretty good attitude.

If you end up running the Kingmaker campaign I'd apply. I have some fun ideas for that, but don't feel like I'd know enough about LOTR to be able to submit a good character.