Faelyn's Untitled Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Faelyn

Let us begin a tale. Gather your chairs around the fire lads and lasses... and let us speak about the legend of the Heroes of Dessen.

Here is the unmarked map I plan to use for our setting. The continent is called Mairena and I figure it is around half the size of Australia. That way it's large enough, but not too large so that travel because exhaustive. It is located on the northern hemisphere of the world with the northern regions being temperate, similar to perhaps the northern United States and southern Canada. The southern regions would be more tropical.

I haven't really planned much out at this point and really wanted to give the players the ability to direct the sort of game you all prefer. Would you like urban adventure, traditional adventuring group, wilderness exploration, a combination of some or all of those? What sort of races would you like to see? Would you prefer a new world that requires exploration and taming? An older and established world? Something in the middle? I have a couple different options brewing if you guys want me to throw some of those out and allow you to vote on them. I would really love to hear what you all want

We can also discuss any possible Houserules you all would like to see as well as any concerns you might have with 5E.

Okay, so after actually spending the time utilizing the distance key on the map... This is closer to the size of the United Kingdom. So, right now we are going to ignore the map key for distances. I'd like to have something a little bigger than the United Kingdom to play around in.

Checking in. and looking things over. I'll be starting my first research into the 5e mechanics on monday.

For now, GM, can you open gameplay for us to dot? That will make tracking this thread a lot easier.

Personally, I'm a big fan of wilderness exploration in mysterious lost lands full of ruins and stuff, with some kind of central base we return to fairly often.

Gameplay thread is open for dotting!

DH, you may want to check out www.dndbeyond.com . It is a great resource and has a fantastic character generator if you don't yet have any 5E resources yet. I would say it's similar to HeroLab, but the digital books are much cheaper there than the physical ones and its an official source so that's nice. Otherwise I can definitely assist you in character creation!

I can definitely make a wilderness exploration themed game work quite well. I have been looking at the map and already have a great idea for that option should we decide to go that route!

For stat creation, I'm thinking I'll allow everyone to roll if they want and then take the option of the standard point-buy if your rolling choice sticks you with just awful rolls. Likely 4d6, drop the lowest, reroll 1's, and then distribute as you see fit. I want folks to be able to enjoy their characters and I will not arbitrarily punish folks for any weaknesses!

All classes are available, including any of the stuff from Unearthed Arcana on the D&D website. Some things may be a little overpowered so I do reserve the right to tweak some of those things here and there, but I will allow the UA ranger over the original ranger should someone want to go that route. Also, I'm thinking I'll even allow the Bloodhunter class designed by Critical Role's Matthew Mercer.

For races, I want to see what the players would like before opening it up, but I'm more inclined to be open to all official races from D&D 5E sources. Some of the more monstrous races would really require some finessing on the players part, but if you can come up with a really good story, I could be convinced!

DH, I just found this website today! It would be a handy guide for extra content you may not have access to at the moment!

Now I remember why I was turned off from 5e when it first came out. Dragonborn. I loathe them as a PC race. Yes, I know how petty that is.

I guess it's time for me to get over it and try the system out for real.

If we're going to be doing wilderness survival, I think a human barbarian sounds like a fun, classic first character.

Well, we can always keep Dragonborn race off the table if you'd like. So far you're the only one that's checked in. I sent a PM to Drafton, but he hasn't replied or stopped in yet. So like I said, I'm interested in allowing my players to help shape this setting.

Do you have anyone that you think might be interested in a venture like this? If you think they are solid players and might be interested in something like this, feel free to shoot them an invite.

Ah yes, sorry about that. I'm very sneaky about how I check in these days. If you glanced at the Players or characters tab, you would have seen me in there.

As far as the game here is concerned, I also enjoy wilderness adventures. The dragonborn were an odd choice but I can't say I disliked them. I just probably won't play one.

The power scale of 5th edition always felt kind of off to me. The proficiency being your effective base attack bonus which never gets very high, and how little that raised over time and the skill system being limited. It has the "I am skilled at this" but I will never be amazing. Maybe that's just me being used to high fantasy characters but still.

There are a few things I do appreciate; I like the rare magic system that means you don't just find a magic item and treat it like it's a gold commodity. I also enjoy the higher focus on bartering for items, it actually makes appraising items and being decent at merchant skills useful. The only potential downside to that I can see is that it runs up against the problem of "bean counting." Although maybe that wouldn't be so bad in a play-by-post game.

There's a great anime called HunterXHunter and a lot of the beginning of the show has a great deal of showing how wild and unique the world is. The large part of the exploration is more subtext and backstory than what the actual show deals with but it sparks the imagination with a great deal of unexplored areas.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts I have on the matter.

P.S. Don't mind what it says for this character's level and/or stats. I built him a long time ago for a game that never happened.

Just mentioned the game to a friend who's played 5e before. He's going to join.

I'll start plugging away at character building.

Hello! I am said friend that DH mentioned. First off, apologies if I make some rookie mistakes here and there, as I'm rusty on this style of gameplay (i.e. post and play). That said, I really like what I've read so far!

I really enjoy rewarding downtime in addition to rewarding combat. Locations to discover and explore in both wild and urban settings are things that I greatly enjoy. Older and established worlds with secrets to uncover, lore to learn, intrigue to get entangled in and tombs to plunder are all enjoyable facets of gameplay for me. Wilderness forays are also fine by me!

Also, concerning playable races, I don't really have an issue with any, either in the core set or in the expanded materials. If there's room for a given race in the lore of the world, then it's fine by me.

Ah! There's Drafton sorry I did not respond yesterday... it was a dooooozy. Long story short, our department chaplain did a ride-along with me and that diverted much of my attention, then I ended up getting a drunk driver 30 minutes before the end of my shift. I then ended up putting in 4 hours of overtime with my investigation and report writing. I was too dead by the end to even think straight.

Welcome, VociferousBeast! Any friend of DH is welcome here! I can definitely work with you on making sure you enjoy all those aspects.

Attryn, I thought the same thing when I first started looking over 5E, but the big thing to remember is that the DCs with 5E are much lower than in 3.5/PF so that helps to offset the massive numbers we are used to seeing. For example, a Hard task is only a DC of 20. So its much easier to keep track of things without having to continually consult the different skills to see what the DC would be for this application. That said, if we do find that we feel like skills are lacking I'm definitely up for increasing the number of skills to which the PCs have access or even boost the modifiers of skills if we determine that may be needed.

I'll probably be doing some asking around certain players from some other games that I'm a player in to see if anyone else might be interested. I'd like to keep the party size around 4-5 if possible, but we could probably push 6. I'd rather not go any higher than that at this time, since I'm still learning the rules as well.

So, it seems like you all might be interested in an exploration type game. I've got a few ideas that I'll toss around and see if any of them interest you all. One idea is that Mairena is an already established continent with kingdoms, but still areas that are ripe for exploration. Another is perhaps only a portion of the continent has been explored and 'tamed' so to speak and the party wants to venture out further into the unexplored territories. Or that Mairen is a newly discovered continent that has not been explored at all, the party would be part of an expedition to venture into this new world and seek out anything. With any of these choices it could very well be the area is empty of civilizations and is purely wilderness, or it could be the remnants of lost civilizations have been found, but no one is around to explain (think the Mayans). It could be a mixture of all of that.

If I were to cast my vote, I would say the first two options. An established continent with some deeper unexplored areas, or a half-settled continent with vast wilderness beyond sound like the most interesting for me. I have nothing against a fresh new world we're just discovering, I just think the first two at first glance seem more fun.

Also, question. Have you reached a final verdict regarding the Blood Hunter? I've been reading up on it, and I really like the Witcher-y feel it has.

I think I have to agree with Beast here, the first two options seem really good. Although I think Mairena as a half explored continent would be best.

Okay, seems like the general consensus would like the mixture. That works well with an idea I had in mind. On the map there is an isolated section towards the northwest, below the massive forest and two the west of the large mountain chain. I think that will be the developed area of Mairena. That gives a perfectly acceptable reason to have an area that's fairly well developed without exploring further out due to the natural barriers present. Plus its a nice mixture of wooded areas, mountainous terrain, and plains that would assist a budding civilization with areas for cultivating crops, a large body of water for fishing, etc.

Now, the big question I have would be how do you guys want to do races? Would you like to see a large diversity? Or something smaller? My idea for this would be the civilization that has developed here were refugees from some sort of cataclysm either on another continent, or perhaps even a different world. They arrived in this area of Mairena and began branching out, building, and establishing a civilized area without moving outward too much. The mountain chain gives a nice barrier not only for defense, but also for exploration. I figure the time of the PCs would be somewhere in the area of a few hundred years after the arrival of the initial group. That way this area would be fairly stable and established with people beginning to wonder what is out past the horizons. Looking to expand outward! Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?

The idea of coming from a different world and having no background on where we are at all is interesting. That would let the characters and the players have the same learning curve.

Here's my loose proposal-

There's some kind of cataclysm coming on our Home Plane. It probably can't be stopped, but there's some time before it hits (the "killer asteroid" trope). One of the survival contingencies is to send small groups of explorers to other planes. It takes a lot of magical juice, so it's a one way trip. We have some kind of object that lets home scry on us, but they really can't do much to help us out (maybe occasional supply drops, but nothing we can really rely on).

Our job is to explore the area, find a suitable place to resettle, and build it up so we're ready for an influx of refugees from Home Plane.

I definitely like the idea of striking out for the unknown on display here. For my preference, though, I would like if we have the built up section already, as proposed by Faelyn, and we are reaching beyond that cradle to discover more of the world for the livelihood of our people, per DH's idea.

Also, in regard to races, I'm a fan of everything being on the table, but that can also be a LOT to account for. Maybe just the core races and the Aarakocra and Goliaths as playable races? That way the world doesn't go into cultural overload.

In response to a question poised by Beast earlier, yes, the Blood Hunter class is available to the players! Should someone decide to bring one over then I'll find a way to incorporate that theme into the game.

I think what I'll do in regard to the races, will really depend on how we proceed with the world building. Should we go down the road DH proposed, then I'll say everything is on the market without too much concern for making them all fit. If we go the route that I had proposed, I will likely allow players to choose any of the non monster races for play, but most of them are likely going to be a massive minority with only a few families here and there as opposed to a full on fledgling civilization working its way up that most of the Core races might be. Regarding the Aarakocra and Goliath races, I think perhaps those could be part of the native species to this area.

Hey folks! Happy to be joining you. I'm new to 5th but not PBP so I'm looking through the resources tomorrow to get an idea of how differnt this edition is. Really I love a good exploration but urban can be quite fun. Honestly, I would be happy to play anything and make it to fit. Been GMing so long I'm just excited to be on the other side of the screen.

While I like DH's idea of dropping us in from another plane, perhaps you could incorporate both. Refugees arriving in a place only recently established for similar reasons. Would the current settles welcome the new population or feel threatened by a potential new wave of colonists that might push them out of their homes?

I'll let you guys discuss a little more the setting among yourselves. We've got your players thus far, I'll see if I can find one more player for a nice even five. If any of you fine folks have someone in mind, let me know!

Hello and welcome, Eliza!
I definitely like the question you posed, regarding how current inhabitants of the world view this unbidden colonization. There's room for a lot of material there, and I think it could be fun if we go with Faelyn's idea of having the Goliaths and Tabaxi, two playable races, be native to the new world.

I'm also in favor of having a solid forward operating base up and running prior to game launch. That could be anything from a few rudimentary buildings shoved together with some form of defense present (a la Monster Hunter: World), to a fully realized colony complete with all the shops and services we would initially require. Either option still gives up plenty of room to adventure and explore to our heart's content.

I think that all those ideas sound fantastic! So, I think I will try to incorporate a little bit of all these ideas together. I do like having a few native races to this specific area that have had some interactions with the initial wave of settlers that have come to Mairena. I've got some great ideas on how to incorporate something a little different. I will say that there will definitely be an area of established civilization from an initial wave of refugees that arrived. This group will cover all the standard races in the Core rulebook (including some of the rarer races if any of you are interested in that choice). I think we will establish the Tabaxi, Goliath, and Aarakocra as being native races to this world. So should you want to be one of those races, you will have to be a native to this world (which is okay with me).

Now, before I get too much further into developing out my ideas I have a big question for each of you as it will definitely impact how things progress for your characters. I need each of you to answer this before we go further with development. Also, please let me know which race and class you are hoping to use. Do you want your character to be one of the native species? One of the established refugees? Or one of the newly arrived to Mairena?

I'm planing on being a Human Barbarian. I'll be one of the newly-arrived.

I'm definitely considering playing a Light foot Halfling Sorcerer with wildblooded magic. He would be one of the new arrivals as well.

Looking at rolling up a druid, undecided on race yet.

When you guys are ready to do your stats, if you plan on rolling it's 4d6, reroll 1's, and drop the lowest. Please do so here in the thread and a reminder that if your rolls are absolute junk I will allow you to use the standard point buy options. Also, I will not punish players that might have a low stats, but I would like to see attributes roleplayed accordingly (high and low alike!).

DH, variant humans are allowed (just in case that wasn't clear already) if you want to go that route.

Okay, so we have a human barbarian and a Halfing sorcerer (both to be part of the newly arrived group). And a possibly a druid with an unknown race or origin.

Hiya, Faelyn asked me to swing by and take a look.

I like exploration games just fine - the usual conceit of D&D being that you're exploring the ruins of a fallen precursor civilization, after all - but one hang-up that I have is when I feel like we just don't have any resources necessary to do anything. For instance, I'm in a Kingmaker game on the boards where the DM has reworked a bunch of the encounters and we have gotten almost no treasure. This means we can't actually get on the usual PF treadmill of improving our gear and facing new challenges. It's really caused things to stall out. Or a different Eberron game, around level 9 we stalled out because we ran out of money and had no way to get more; we tried to find an adventure to get some money, wound up accidentally breaking into a deep dwarf lair and everyone was captured and enslaved. Game over, no fun.

Fortunately 5e is much less gear-dependent; in theory you can play at high levels without ever getting a magic item. But the sense of "I'm going to starve to death and there is nothing I can do to get resources to survive" isn't a very fun one. (At the very least give the players an idea of something they can do!)

ANYway...
Likely to roll some kind of local who travels, maybe a ranger, maybe a rogue, really very fuzzy for the moment.

Hey, Jesse! Welcome.

For my part, Faelyn, I'm rolling up a Stout Halfling Blood Hunter. I'm undecided at the moment whether he's new to Mairena, or if he's lived here for a little while.

13 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 17

Please disregard the top three re-rolls , for they are silly mistakes that I did not count, and deleting the lines was messing with my other re-rolls.

A clarification, please, Faelyn: Are we perpetually re-rolling 1s until we get something new or are we just doing it once? I've played with both methods before, so I want to be certain of the rules here.

EDIT: This is Beast's character.

Okay so here we are:

13, 17, 16, 14, 14, 15
(Well that was a solid boost with the re-roll of 1's.)

Yeah, I'll allow rerolling of 1's until you get something better. Especially in your case, Merrin, since you really got hosed on those rolls with numerous 1's over and over again. Also, if you are not happy with the results of your die rolls you can do the point-buy method for stats if you prefer. Also, do you have an idea of which Order you would like your Bloodhunter to be a part?

Wow Attryn, those are definitely go high rolls! I should take you to Vegas sometime lol.

Welcome, Jesse! Thank you for pointing out your concerns. I will definitely make sure we don't run into those pitfalls. Also, this won't be purely wilderness exploration. I've got some surprises in store for you all! Once I have an idea of which group your characters are going to be a part of, I'm going to get with those groups individually with more information on backgrounds and the like. I hope you all like the little tweaks I'm going to throw in there!

Heh, yeah. Last time I went to Vegas I actually did pretty well for myself too.

Stat 1: 12
Stat 2: 15
Stat 3: 13
Stat 4: 6
Stat 5: 10
Stat 6: 10

I think I'll go with point buy. How many points are we working with?

Customizing Ability Scores

At your Dungeon Master’s option, you can use this variant for determining your ability scores. The method described here allows you to build a character with a set of ability scores you choose individually.

You have 27 points to spend on your ability scores. The cost of each score is shown on the Ability Score Point Cost table. For example, a score of 14 costs 7 points. Using this method, 15 is the highest ability score you can end up with, before applying racial increases. You can’t have a score lower than 8.

This method of determining ability scores enables you to create a set of three high numbers and three low ones (15, 15, 15, 8, 8, 8), a set of numbers that are above average and nearly equal (13, 13, 13, 12, 12, 12), or any set of numbers between those extremes.
Ability Score Point Cost

Score/Cost
8/0

9/1

10/2

11/3

12/4

13/5

14/7

15/9

Depending on how other folks roll, I may increase the point buy a little bit to keep things a bit more balanced.

Alright, to keep things interesting and exciting for the different groups of characters (depending on which beginning 'area' you choose for your PC), I ask that you only read the spoilers if it pertains to the beginning 'area' you choose for your PC.

So tell me a bit about your setting's gods.

I've got plenty of ideas that I've got floating around in my head and would like to hear what you all think. We could go with the traditional D&D pantheon, I could make up a pantheon of deities or even a single deity, or we could go with a sort of shamanistic-type spiritual kind of thing. Whatever sounds most interesting to you guys.

Leaning toward an elf or eladrin favored soul right now.

Still hammering out details, Leaning towards an Aarakocra Druid. We lacking any particular role atm? Thinking a ranger might be better though.

Going to do a quick list to make sure I've got all the details accurate thus far for PCs.

DH - Human Barbarian (Refugee)
Eliza - Possibly an Aarakocra Druid (Native)
Jesse - Elf/Eladrin Favored Soul (Unk origin yet)
Attryn - Halfling Sorcerer (Unk origin yet)
Merrin - Halfling Blood Hunter (Unk origin yet)

Please let me know if I have anything wrong! Once you all have worked out the primary stuff I'll start working with you individually on the more minor details of your PCs. Oh, also, please let me know which subclass you plan on taking for your specific class. I would like to work those into the narrative somehow!

As far as party balance goes, you needn't worry too much about it. If need be there are always NPCs that can accompany you on your journey.

Okay, just noticed that Attryn already advised he would be a Refugee from his home plane as well! So, we have two for sure on their origins, one probable if Eliza decides to stick with the Aarokroca and two undeclared so far.

If regards to the deities, if the players do not have a preference I think we will go with a shamanistic-spirit style kind of thing. The original world was a monotheistic world with Mekanel being the deity worshiped by the masses. All domains were essentially appropriate as their powers would come from the domain as opposed to the deity itself. I kind of like the idea of doing something a little different with this new world with the whole idea of Gaea as regards to the Neopaganism beliefs held in our world; the idea of the spiritual essence of the world. What do you all think about that idea?

If not, I've got a very basic list of 9 deities that cover the nine alignments and I can work in the domains as best I can from there.

Hey, there! An update: still figuring out the finer points of my character. I'm currently torn on keeping my rolls vs. taking point buy, so I'm still thinking that through.
As for an Order of Hunter, Faelyn, I was leaning toward the Ghostslayers.

No worries, Beast. Also, good to know on the Order, thank you.

Hey all, even if you don't have any preference on the deity situation, when you have a moment if you wouldn't mind chiming in one way or another just so I can start working that into the setting?

Personally, I don't have much of a preference on the gods or shamanistic nature.

shamanistic-spirit style kind of thing would be very neat especially with the background I'm working on for my druid.

Heres my druid. I still have to input his stats but its something to work with.

I can vibe with some sort of pantheon presence. I can see Merrin holding to some sort of force for peace and comfort.

Backed off favored soul as we already have a sorcerer and a healer, now looking at maybe a tanking role as our front line is just the barb in the current line-up. (I don't know how well a blood hunter works in front line combat.) Changes, changes!