Counting Worms

Game Master Delver’s Delight

I’m DD! At the very core, I’m a woman with a deep passion for learning, community, and play.

I have always had an insatiable appetite for knowledge. I could speak well even as a toddler, and at the age of 2 my mom taught me to read at my own request. By the time I was in 1st grade, I was reading at a college level. I still read dozens of books each year, mostly relating to politics, agriculture, and repair manuals.

When I was 14, I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition. Maybe it’s because it was my first exposure, or it just connected with me in a way that it didn’t for many, but I adored it. I still have a soft spot for it in my heart. I was working under the table for an industrial electrician at the time repairing old gate mechanisms, and I saved up money to buy the box set of the three core books and started running it for my siblings and friends. I carried the hobby from 4e to 5e, then to Shadowrun and Stars Without Number, and now I’m here having just finished the PF2 core rulebook and Gamemastery Guide.

When I was 17, in my first year of college, I was studying soil biology. I was fascinated by the world just beneath my feet. My professor was talking about soil erosion one day, and it helped me find purpose outside of learning. I finished school with an associate’s degree in science, and had no desire to keep studying when there were big problems in the world that we already knew how to fix. I now help organize community gardens in my city, offer free Restorative Agriculture 5-year plans to local farmers, and volunteer at local community organizations. I don’t and don’t want to make money doing what I do, and I’m blessed to have a living wage at the coolest restaurant in town.

I live in a rented house with two of my friends, in a neighborhood that’s getting greener all the time. I am partnered with two wonderful people who share my love of community, learning, and unusual haircuts. I love to sing, try lots of different teas, fix up old machines, and cook delicious food! I listen to lots of podcasts, folk melodeath, and those “Lo-Fi to X to” playlists. I have two ferrets named Adora and Estellise, a gigantic stuffed sloth named Matana, and a red motorcycle I call Shani. My laugh is so loud that I can make my walls shake. I’m kind of afraid of cats.

I think that pretty much sums me up!

You were in Willowbridge, a small village in the Fangwood Forest in Lastwall, when the Whispering Tyrant escaped Gallowspire. The village is remote, disconnected from the troubles of the larger world. At least, it was. You thought the creatures lurking about the woods at night were a strange pack of dogs, and didn’t think much of it. The howling was unsettling, but nothing to be overly worried about. The foresters and hunters would deal with it. But then howling stopped one night, replaced with new sounds. The creaking of the old Willow Bridge. Then the snap of the wood bridge broke under the weight of bodies. The shuffling of feet, the coughing and groaning. Then the screaming. You woke to carnage. Evil had come to Willowbridge, and an army of the dead with it. Your life, your livelihood, your friends and family, torn apart with teeth and claws. Somehow, you got away from the horde, and ran into the woods. You found a few other survivors, and now you need to figure out what’s going on and where you’re going to go.

A survival horror sandbox adventure! It’s the Summer of 4719, the Whispering Tyrant is back, and he’s attacking Lastwall. As the countryside fills with the living dead, your group will have to find a way to run, fight, craft, parley, and otherwise survive this apocalypse.

Rip and tear! All the best beats from undead fiction, made special by our cooperative story telling. Most undead aren’t actually that intimidating on their own, but beware the horde. Combat is going to be an option often, but not always the safest way through. I hate TPKs, but I’m not against PC death. Be prepared to lose characters, but also be aware that I will curate situations where you can survive if you play smart.

Jolly Cooperation! Work together to survive, and lead others to safety. I’m looking for four players to go on this adventure.

We’ll be using Roll20 for tactical maps when needed and a Google Sheet for party assets.

Posting Schedule:
I will post once or twice a day, except on Mondays when I might check posts but won’t post anything. Usually once in the morning and once in the evening EST.

I expect you to post at least once every 24 hrs, but please feel free to take a break on Monday with me! If you don’t post and the story can move forward, we will push ahead and look forward to your post the next day. If we’re in combat, and it’s your turn, your PC will be put on delay. If you miss multiple posts and I can’t get ahold of you, I will decide what your PC does until we hit a point in the story where your PC can leave the party.

Players will get my discord, so you can message me directly. If you have something important to talk about or need to take some time away.

To be considered for this game, I want a character submission from you. You don’t have to have your character sheet all sorted out before we play, but I want to know who your character is. What did they do before this horrible night? Did they have family in Willowbridge? Do they have family somewhere else? How are they feeling? What are they like? What makes them want to stick with other people?

I’d also like to know a little bit about you! As much or as little as you like.

I'm in my mid 40's and grew up as an Air Force brat. I moved around a lot during my childhood due to the military and have lived in several States plus Japan and England. Use to know enough Japanese to be able to hold a conversation but that old saying, 'use it or lose it' kicks in and since I didn't have a use for Japanese as a child when I left Japan in 1986, I forgotten most of what I learned.

I started roleplaying with the original DND system when I was six. My neighbor use to babysit me and her husband introduced me to DND. From there I have played every edition of DND (2E being my favorite). In high school, my best friend, introduced me to other rpgs. Primarily Shadowrun, Rifts, Macross/Robotech, and Star Trek.

I play all of my current games over the internet. Most of them are PbP here on the Piazo's forum but I still have contact with my high school best friend and he runs a Shadowrun game every Saturday using Discord/Roll20.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Well, I‘m 48, father of three, and working as a Nurse at an emergency station. German by birth, I grew up in a working class family who all were avid readers, so a lot of my youth consisted of reading any book I could get my hands on. Which probably explains my love for history (because my dad used to read history books all the time) and especially fantasy starting with Grimms’ Fairy tales that my mother used to read to us every evening as bedtime stories.
Like my dad, I wanted to become a nurse early on, but when I had a severe back injury with 18, everyone advised me against it, so I started studying instead. It took me quite a while to admit that life of a student didn‘t suit me very well, still I learned a lot dabbling in History and English studies first and Computer Sciences second. During that time I also started getting more and more into RPGs, a hobby I had got introduced to in 1984 with our own „Das Schwarze Auge“. D&D 2nd and 3rd, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, we pretty much played everything, though the Forgotten Realms stayed pretty much my favorite setting of them all (and still is to this day; though I prefer the 2nd and 3rd edition stuff because I never wanted to do the time jump that came with 4E).

During that time I also met my future (and as of now, ex-) wife, and started to become a Paizo fan via Dungeon and Dragon magazins. When they started their Pathfinder adventure, I used to be a Charter subscriber, but I lost that status somewhere along the line, when I had to cancel my subs for a period of time. Still have an awful lot of Pathfinder material that I‘ll probably never get to make use of (no regrets, though). I also was part of the initial translation team of the German Pathfinder localization team, so I have my names in the credit section of a few of the early books. Well, long story short, between my studies, my family and the need to earn money, life became pretty complicated, and when the dust had settled, I decided to finally give a f*** on what I had been told 20 years before and start doing what I actually wanted to do, which is how I ended in my job as Nurse.

Apart from all that, I‘m a big metalhead, and depending on what you mean with folk melodeath, we might have some favorite bands in common (I‘ll throw out Eluveitie for a start). But in general, I pretty much listen to all guitar-heavy genres. Also, Classical music. I still like to read a lot, though it‘s mostly fantasy in the meantime. And after a longish hiatus, I‘d like to return to roleplaying in PBP format, because apart from a game I run for my kids and some other members of my family, I pretty much live in a RPG diaspora (or I‘m too old to know the right people). I‘m also trying to work on my own rpg setting and I‘ve been preparing my own game for these very boards.

If I get to participate in this game, posting daily at least once is absolutely possible, though time might differ according to my working schedule. There are also 2-3 days per month where I have to work a 24-hour shift, so I may not be able to post anything on these days. Also it would be my first 2e game, so my rules knowledge still is a bit shaky as I‘m pretty much a learning by doing guy.

I still have to work on the details of my character, but the base idea would be that he grew up in Willowbridge as the son of a poor family. Him being born as an Aasimar made everyone plan for him to become a member of the Knights of Ozem, but when he got into a bit of trouble with the law thanks to his best friend, that changed the perception of him being worthy to join the Knights.

I would love the initial attack to be the triggering event that puts him on the road to be a Liberator Champion. As said before, if the story allows for it, I‘d like to see him join the ranks of the Knights of Lastwall and the Crimson Reclaimers especially, though that‘s not a must-have. Also I‘d like to add some personal stakes, because during the initial attack, he lost his younger sister and his best friend when fleeing from the mayhem and while he can‘t be sure they survived, he would certainly not give up looking for them.

I'm 35, a father of two young girls (age 5 and 3). I work at a television station as a director for the local newscasts. I've been playing RPGs since middle school, starting with the Star Wars RPG from West End Games before moving on to D&D 3rd edition and others. I've been playing Pathfinder since its inception and love the system and the setting.

Adrennin Markvos has been the town priest for many years. It was a good, simple life where little was asked of him. He gave as much as he could, however. Between officiating a few weddings a year, healing some broken bones and hunting wounds, and calming down the odd bar fight, he did all he could for the town. It was Erastil's way, and he loved the town and all it's people. When the undead came, everything was torn away from him. Now, he wants two things. He will save those of his flock who survived, as Erastil dictates. Once it is done, he will shuck off the mantle of the shepherd, however, and take the fight to the undead for as long as he can. If the flock has been lost, the shepherd must become the wolf.

I'm in my 20s and a college student studying Forestry. My first exposure to RPGs was reading through my dad's DnD 2e books, the monster manuals in particular catching my attention. Once I got old enough to properly play, he wasted no time in running an adventure from the Pathfinder beginner box (Black Fang's Dungeon, of course) for me and a few friends from school.

Quite a few years later, I love the hobby as much as I ever have, maybe more so.

Beyond just RPGs, I'm an avid listener of punk, metal, and various sorts of folk music. I love spending time outdoors, with backpacking being my favorite of all the outdoor activities. Strategy video games are a favorite of mine, and I'm involved in the development of several modding projects for the Crusader Kings series.

Draul's Human mother was a bandit who was captured by Lastwall knights. She was given a choice between jail or joining the crusade, and she chose the latter. Eventually this would lead her to come in contact with orcs from Belkzen, and eventually to Draul's birth. His mother sent him to live with her aging relatives in Caliphas.

The relatives who raised Draul were not well off before a child came into their lives, so Draul grew up in poverty. Draul also proved to be a problem child, most notably being a theft, bullying and getting into fist fights with practically anyone. Eventually he found himself in the company of a group of nomadic bandits.

After years with the group, they eventually ended up near the small village of Willowbridge, planning to stay only long enough to get some coin and be gone before Lastwall sent someone to deal with them. However, the group had barely been in the area form more than a month before the undead horde arrived. Draul was luckily on watch when it happened, so he was able to defend himself,the rest of the group was not as lucky. Draul, realizing the numbers that he faced, abandoned the group and made his escape.

I'm 30. Been playing pathfinder since collage. Not as much experience with pf2e, though currently am gming a game IRL.

Baffled by the ways of tallfolk, it looks as though now Maruta will be spending more time with some of them than he had ever planned or imagined:

The sprites of Fangwood have co-existed with the human(oid)s of Willow Bridge, if separated by steadily thickening fir, spruce, and maple the further from the village one enters the strange forest. It is here that his own kind dwell, frolicking about, bent towards various daily tasks, leerful upon their unwitting neighbors, and wary of heading into the northernmost reaches of their beloved wood.

With the sprites' move [redacted: cardinal direction] to avoid the newcomer hounds - or so their scouts reported - Maruta's kin gained temporary reprieve from these anticipated guests, having surrendered an excellent and ancient copse they inhabited for counted seasons, an opportunity cost justified by the council (upon which he has never sat) as prudent for the time being.

No matter.

One dewey morning, this same council had called upon our sprite hero to venture closer to Willow Bridge to "check up" on the villagers, and shrugging his shoulders, it was soon that Maruta discovered a horrible truth: That only a few of them remain!...

I think the best characters are half-truths reflecting and spurning their creators: What might Maruta have to say about rainzax?

Referring to oneself in the First Person is likely a consequence of living outside of the First World. Though not from there, rainzax might agree with that assertion. He got introduced to Play by Post a short two years (or so) ago, and quickly discovered that he loved taking time to play with language, given the time distortion between Conversational and Literary roleplay, imbuing both with unique characteristics.

Conversely, while Maruta seeks to explore rainzax, too, rainzax seeks to explore Maruta!

But a caveat: Earliest they could start is two weeks from now...

Late 30's father of 3. I have been playing TTRPGs since D&D 3e first came out. Just finished up a PF2e adventure that actually finished, I have tried to play Age of Ashes 3 times and would like to try PF2e some more. I enjoy martial characters more that casters, hence vthe rkgue that appears below this.

Gonna be your petty standard Scoundrel rogue. Unbreakable Goblin with the Bouncy goblin feats because i find the idea of a rubber ball-esque goblin hilarious.

Rols had only just come to Willowbridge when all hell broke loose. At first the locals were unsure of his wheeling and dealing and gambling but when the dead came Rols readily jumped in to defend and assist people with escaping. Using his various skills he tries to keep the remaining survivors entertained while they all seek safety.

Well I just turned 30, finally admitted defeat in my battle against my thinning hair (though I'm told I rock the Lex Luthor look quite well), and I tend to always go for the pun. I like to think of myself as fairly witty, though usually dont find my zinger till later, but that's why I like pbp! Been playing ttrpgs for almost a decade now: Pathfinder 1 and 2, 5e, Starfinder, and a bit of Warhammer 2e of all things. I try to make everyone laugh (or groan) and consider that to be what drives me!

I'm thinking a bard! A half elven woman named Mareona (or Mari, for short) who travels all over the place, though always comes back to her sisters in Willowbrook, going around telling tales to gain money to bring home, while also gathering stories to entertain her family.

Of course, that hardly matters now. With the blood of one sister still staining her blouse, she hopes she'll still find the other... but has also taken it upon herself to still tell tales to inspire, and in remembrance.