Adventure Ensues! (Inactive)

Game Master Jiggy

Hello gamers,

I'm recruiting for a new homebrew 5E campaign. It's going to be kind of "open-ended", with me starting us off with a plot hook and then crafting the campaign based on what happens and what the PCs decide to do. (That's not to say you'll never run into a dead end, just that I won't have pre-planned rails.)

Even the setting itself will be something we create together as we play. When it becomes relevant to encounter or hear about a given location, religion, creature, artifact, etc; I'll come up with something and that becomes canon.

So, that's the general idea. Here's the starting point:

Our initial "blank slate" will be a fairly generic pseudo-european medieval fantasy setting. The PCs will be starting in a mid-sized town. The campaign will open with one or more events happening, the PCs will respond, and the rest is up to us to create. :)

Character creation parameters:
No evil characters.
PHB only.
This stat array: 15/14/13/12/10/8
All PHB races are allowed (even drow), but be aware that some of the more exotic ones might draw attention.
No pets (animal companions, familiars, etc).
Feats are allowed (including the version of humans that gets one at 1st level, though the standard human is available too).
Your choice of standard gear or gold/purchase (for the latter, pretend all your d4's rolled 3's).
You can either take one of the standard backgrounds, or you can just come up with a pair of values and a flaw and pick some combination of four (total) relevant skills/tools/languages.
Characters will be starting at 1st level.

Gameplay notes:
I don't know the D&D pantheon. Combined with the "create as we go" style of this campaign, this means in-world religion will mostly be generic references to "the gods" until such time as greater specificity is needed. As such, clerics need not pick a deity; you can be a "concept cleric" who is passionate about some particular virtue/domain.
I don't have the MM. I also don't like the possibility of "[MONSTER] would be thematically appropriate here but is too weak/strong for this fight." Therefore, I will be pulling monster stats/abilities out of my arse. Hopefully the result is a renewed sense of exploration and the unknown. :)
Everyone should put a line containing their HP (current and max), AC, and saves into the "Classes" line of their character's profile. This makes it appear under your name in your gameplay posts, so I can see it during play without having to open your profile. Seriously, keep this up to date.

Other considerations:
I want a good pace of posting; at least once per day. I get that sometimes things come up, but if you don't think you can establish a "norm" of at least 1/day, then please don't ask for a spot. Even if it's just "Doofus nods in agreement and follows Buttface into the room," get in there and be a part of the momentum that you want to see. If you anticipate a lapse (due to travel, holidays, etc), please announce it in the discussion thread.

Keep rules discussions in the discussion thread rather than the gameplay thread.

Be a team player, be a part of the fun!

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I'm sure I probably missed something obvious. Feel free to ask questions!

Repeating a question from the earlier thread:

Are you completely against the idea of rolling 4d6, drop the lowest? We've found that stats in 5E dont have as much of an impact as they do in PF and I (for one) prefer rolling - especially given this kind of campaign, I'd like to roll in order and see what kind of character presents itself rather than to construct a PC from the ground up. (I'm never one to shie away from crappy stats, so I wont ask to reroll or anything, no matter the result).

If you are deadset against rolling, I'm still interested, but I wondered if you had a reason against or if it was possibly a holdover from PF (where stats are much more significant and hence disparity between PCs matters more).

Actually, nevermind. I figure I can roll stats and then assign the array (15 to the highest, 8 to the lowest) and get the same result. :)

Strength: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 4, 5) = 17=15
Dexterity: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 4, 3) = 16=13
Constitution: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 4, 5) = 14=13
Wisdom: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 6, 3) = 20=17
Intelligence: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 5, 2) = 14=12
Charisma: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 1, 1) = 4=3

So that becomes:

Strength - 14
Dexterity - 13
Constitution - 12
Wisdom - 15
Intelligence - 10
Charisma - 8

Probably a cleric or a ranger (you mention no animal companions, does that mean the beastmaster ranger archetype is out or do you mean just at the start of the game?) If I go cleric, I think I'll try a healing/buff focussed rather than a battle-y cleric.

I'll make a proper submission/application when I'm home and have access to the PH.

I'm working up a rogue. I'll be dipping into barbarian later. I would have appreciated starting with a level of both, but I'll scrape by somehow.

Looking to play a duel wielding warrior...probably human..will work him up asap!

Let me think about it. I will probably go with either a warlock or a wizard. How long do we have to generate the character?

If I go warlock his patron will be a great old one and given your bias against pets will go for either blade or tome. In fact I have a high elf warlock from a previous game that folded I could do over to fit this campaign.

If I go wizard I may go mountain dwarf for the armor and weapons proficencies. :-)

Cutlass here. I'll go with this guy. I just need to tweak him some. His background and language skills were set for a campaign in Golarion, so I'll need some feedback on what changes you might need there.

I present Nathadriel for consideration. Neutral Good wood elf cleric (life domain).
I imagine he worships a mainstream God of nature but is something of a wandering, mildly heretical believer - focussing on the nurturing aspects of nature.

I used the acolyte background but switched survival instead of insight - given his wood elf background and devotion to a nature God. I also chose dwarven and "fey" as languages. Not sure if the latter exists (or should perhaps be more specific).

Hmmm...

I think I'll play a Fighter, a Human with the Polearm Master feat. I'll write up her backstory now.

Popping in to address a couple of questions:

Recruitment will be open through at least the end of the week. I'll select a party on (probably) Sunday afternoon, or else extend recruitment if I'm not satisfied yet. But you all have at least that long.

The setting is not Golarion, so any proper nouns or languages specific to Golarion are out.

Language options are those listed in the PHB. (I don't remember if there's a "Fey" language; I think that just might be Sylvan.)

Feel free to ask more questions.

Trinkets? :)

Trinkets? :)

I'll hand out trinkets to the final party.

I think this game badly needs a sorcerer.

@Snake Charmer, I was thinking the same thing!

Layali Amani - female tiefling (noble) sorceress

fooey

We can be devilish twin sisters? :D

Everyone please double-check that you're only including class features that you have at 1st level. Thanks!

Bump.

Hey Jiggy!

This is Garnult from the Woodhaven game. I'd actually like to play a 5E game mostly to learn the mechanics, they seem very streamlined and easy to use. I'll try and post something here in a few days.

Is there a limit to the number of people participating?

Is there a limit to the number of people participating?

I intend to select a final party of about 4-5 players from among those who have posted a finished character in this thread.

Vic is ready for consideration.

Contemplating creating a Monk or Bard (my two favorite classes) is there a particular slot that needs to be filled.

Both are Half-Elves.

The monk would be the last in line for a throne or barony or something and got into trouble when he was younger and spent years in the Himalayan equivilant seeking the all elusive spiritual enlightenment. Kinda of a Batman/Arrow character but less planny and virtually no gadgets. Hermit background.

The bard would be a lore bard with the charlatan background. She would work the inside jobs for a secretive organization. Gathering intel, stealing, and assassination jobs. Kind of a Catwoman/Black Widow character.

I'd prefer not to make an alias until I am in a game.

I think I have Treggor all sorted. I'm sure I've made at least a couple of errors though, if you want to look it over.

I decided to go with purchasing Adran's equipment with the cash allowance for starting characters. I also made his background generic instead of Golarion specific. Let me know if there's any more information you want or anything you want changed.

I've updated Treggor a bit to fix some errors. This ended up resulting in a race change from human to dwarf, most notably.

This is GM Niles' character. I've decided to play against type and make a gnomish fighter with the Folk Hero background.

This is my very first 5E character so please look it over for glaring errors/omissions.

I'll work on a short backstory later.

I'm submitting my half-orc fighter who has been serving on Legitimate Independent Merchant Vessels (smugglers), I need to flesh out his backstory but the crunch is done.

We can be devilish twin sisters? :D

That IS devilish....

Alilya Amani is in the pipe... and I'm a-smokin'

I haven't really looked at 5e before; is there any free source to look at the rules besides the "Basic" pdf download?

Not to my knowledge. I have an awesome game store nearby so I can go check out their books any time. But the PHB is only available for purchase, and only in physical format, to my knowledge.

There is also the free player's companion for Elemental Evil which has some new races, classes and spells in it for your general rules reference.

The Basic PDF covers the basics though :) It'd be sort of like getting the Beginner's Box Player's Guide for free (without stunning artwork though).

EDIT to avoid confusion.

There is also the free player's companion for Elemental Evil which has some new races, classes and spells in it.

PHB only.

Bit of data, because I'm a nerd: here's the breakdown of characters submitted so far.
.
.
.
.
.
Barbarians: 0
Bards: 1
Clerics: 1
Druids: 0
Fighters: 2
Monks: 1
Paladins: 0
Rangers: 0
Rogues: 2
Sorcerers: 1
Warlocks: 1
Wizards: 0

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Dwarves: 1
Elves: 3
Halflings: 0
Humans: 0
Gnomes: 1
Half-orcs: 1
Half-elves: 2
Tieflings: 1
Dragonborn: 0

Leifa. Elf Monk.

Good submissions thus far. I do not envy the selection process, GM Jiggy.

OMG ELVES
OMG MELEE

Kinda feelin' like a human wizard or something would go a long way...

I didn't see much for the wizard spell list beyond blasting. Is there more in the full PHB?

It looks like there are 11 1st level spells on the Wizard's spell list in the PDF and 30 1st level spells on the Wizard's spell list in the PHB.

Do you want flaws/bonds/ideals, etc. spelled out now, or can that wait until we get a feel for the character?

Also, I substituted a shortbow for the usual longbow that rangers start with, since longbows are Heavy weapons.

This looks great Jiggy, good luck!

Are we near selection time?

He's out of town for a bit, so I'd give it a day or two.

Selection will be no earlier than Sunday afternoon, in all likelihood.

Alright, here's the final party:

Nathadriel, elf cleric
Layali Amani, tiefling sorceress
Gordon Lightfoot, halfling ranger
Leifa, elf monk

Thanks to everyone who submitted a character! Those who are in, look for an opening Gameplay post soon. :)