Hall of Fame Nominations 2010

[Zeppo007]

Name: Disturbing Disappearances
DM: Myself
Current Players: Elwen, Nocturnal, Olorian, Dalinen, Lint of Death, and girlplay
Former Players: Dancing Dragonborn, Tripod, Contrail, ironpanzer1

Reason for Nomination: I'm nominating my players, because they are, in my opinion, world class. We started with a great core. A group of strangers was brought together by the disappearance of beloved family members. A deva, Navared Shaw, comes searching for what happened to his former body and the boy he was traveling with (played masterfully by Lint of Death). Kiara Sha'falas (played by Elwen), an elven ranger, searches for her cousin. Vesi Myrsky (Dalinen's character) is a Genasi Invoker in search of his missing sister. They were originally joined by Galador, an eleven warden (ironpanzer1); Rhiannon, a half-elf warlock (Contrail); and Xeman, a tiefling warlord. The group meets up in Fallcrest when they are brought together by the local magistrate Jonas Marklehay. Jonas recognizes that their missing friends and relatives were last seen leaving Fallcrest together. He promises to track down any info he can in return for a few favors. The first favor sends the group to a kobold infested hall. They emerge triumphantly after destroying the evil dragon Szartharrax. During their assault on Kobold Hall Galador looses patience with the groups slow progress and leaves the group. Enter Trella Jendran, halfling paladin of Kord and protector of Fallcrest (girlplay), who immediately joins up to help the group on their quest.

After Kobold Hall is free of evil the group heads into the Tombwood of Fallcrest. Lord Faren Marklehay and his daughter were assaulted by undead somewhere in the murky forest. The princess is still missing and the group decides to help in the search. Xeman also takes his leave from the group and is replaced by Delega an eladrin warlord from the Shadowfell. The adventurers track the princess to a graveyard buried in the woods. Hordes of undead creatures assault them, but they emerge victorious. While there they uncover a death cult of Orcus who planned to sacrifice the princess to their dark lord. After they return the princess home to her family they discover their family members were last seen in Winterhaven. They set off the next morning for the town of Winterhaven. They have a new companion Ulrich, a human rogue (Tripod), who replaces Rhiannon, her father turned up at home safe and sound.

In Winterhaven they learn of Irontooth and Kalrel who have taken over an ancient keep north of Winterhaven. Ulrich and Delega take their leave from the group here. Learning their missing family members went to the Keep and haven't been seen since they set off to investigate. They meet up with Lawini of Yakkers, a goliath wizard (Olorian), and Paixlam Verde, an elven cleric and Kiara's missing cousin (Nocturnal). The two companions were part of ill fated expedition to the keep and they were the only two to escape. The group has descended into the Keep and are currently trouncing all in their path.

Chapter One.
Chapter Two.

[Rinjo]

Game: Its cold in the dark... but the light burns...

GM: Rinjo (me)

Reason for Nomination:

1) The players are absolutely amazing. If you start in the prequels and read through the first thing you will notice is the absolutely outstanding quality of each players post. From day one the bar was set incredibly high. Each player strives to make each post their absolute best. Each chapter brings an elevated standard that makes each second fulfilling and exciting.

2) The World: The world is unique and captivating. As the GM I tried to create something that has never been created before. To put the players in a world that would captivate each of their real world senses. I try to help them relate their characters to each event, and give each character multiple choices to make that cause them to get in the minds of their avatars.

3) Conflict: I do my absolutely best to give the characters each of the quintessential conflicts... Man vs Man, Man Vs Self, Man vs Nature... and so on. If you read through the story you will see each character (especially Zams character) grow as the story progresses. Each character is put through personal trials vs their surroundings and especially THEMSELVES.

4) While it may sound like I am tooting my own horn... I believe with all of my hear that this is quite possibly the best game ever to grace these boards. I believe this is due to the caliber of players and not in any way due to my skill as a GM. This is the second game I ever GM'd and the first lasted a single chapter!

Links:

The begining... I really like the way it started and the cameo by Ridin really lent to the story... Prequel 1

Most Current Chapter 3

A great battle where the players are given several variables... protect person, recover item, fend off superior forces etc... all at once. It was the first time they had left their home village and it played out very, very nicely... click

I loved this...

First few pages here Chapter 1

First three and last three pages of this thread: Chapter 2



Even if you do not vote for my game... I highly encourage you to start in the prequels (in the archive section) and read through the story! I believe it will be one of, if not the best, game you have ever read!



Again, it has been one of the greatest blessings of my life to be able to GM this fine cast of characters, and I look forward to a continued game... we have taken a few months off here and there over the past year or so but I am working to rectify my scheduling issues...

Thanks for your consideration!

[TheEternalAbyss]

Name: Deadly Games (3.5 Homebrew DnD Campaign)
DM(s): TheEternalAbyss (Since DM's are allowed to submit I thought I'd throw my humble brainchild into the mix)
Reasons for nomination: This game is my first successful run on DNDOG. I started other campaigns that sputtered out whilst Deadly Games burst into life thanks to the excellent players that have come and gone, and those that have been with it since the very beginning (Shout out at the bottom of the post ). This game started out with zero planning and world creating that I usually do for my campaigns. It had one premise and the players helped forge my world, full of darkness, deceit and hope. The game started on 12-23-2008, 02:40 PM and it's still going.

The game thread has 1459 posts (not counting the second thread of the campaign/players it spawned), so picking out a few wouldn't be truly representative of the game (also they are set to private, should I make them public for review?)

Also this Game has helped me grow as a DM as I'm still learning the art behind the role of all powerful puppeteer of my universe.

Some key characters and moments I'd like to highlight:
Michka (played by ChaosOrange) - Probably the craziest elf I've ever seen. Continually mocks and taunts the NPC relentlessly, has the subtlety of a Tarresque in heat (which is awesome since this campaign is all about being secretive and ninja-like ) and basically is on a never ending sugar high.

Kaiden (played by Kazgroth) - Duskblade evil Dwarf that wants to do nothing but kill and fight. Please see the subtlety note in previous entry . Has been a hilarious contrast to the bubbly elf making their give and take priceless (I'll try to add some posts)

Fuuja (Played by Eviltedzies) - Pyromaniac in disguise, really wants to make thing go *boom* and yet in all this time since the beginning of the campaign, he hasn't had the opportunity to set fire to something...or someone. Soon, Fuuja....soon

There's so much more to say...I could make an entry for every character really, all are so unique and awesome I'd be going on for pages if I listed them all.

Some moments that stick out in my mind in the campaign are:

* Tiny 100 lbs elf sits on captive 6'8" 300 lb human. Yes..sits ON TOP of him to get him to talk
* Dwarf hits on every female he encounters. I kid you not. Not just hits on, but really cuts to the chase
* When subtlety is required, characters run out into the open waving and greeting potential threats (cause it'll make the NPC's head explode)

Of course this campaign is actually a very dark themed campaign where character have handled themselves with poise and dignity in many a disturbing situation such as:
* When an NPC loses it and cuts off the hand of another NPC, and throws it at yet ANOTHER NPC. (She was a bit miffed)
* Watching an NPC get beaten in front of them and not able to react, to not blow their cover and get attacked themselves
* Just the inner conflict of Paladins, elves, humans and evil dwarves as they are suddenly comrades in a cruel Game.

I'll be more than happy to open the threads to the public so that people can look through the posts and peek in our little world.

Lastly I want to recognize every player that's graced Deadly Games:
(In no particular order)
lcg16, ChaosOrange, Sandy, Eviltedzies, Vetinarus, Lukarnis, XellosMetali, vikinglief, CE2JRH , Kazgroth

Thank you guys. You made Deadly Games awesome

[KithKunabi]

Name: Mutants and Masterminds, Time of Crisis
DM: GleefulNihilism
Current Players: Trinity, Rilibast, KithKunabi, lcg16, Finrod Ancalímon, Moridain.
Past Players/ DMs: Khabi, Dinkleberg.
Reasons for nomination: Time of Crisis is a highly active Mutants and Masterminds game, which has been going on for two and a half years now, making it one of the oldest active non-DnD system games on this site.

This game was originally begun in December 2007, by a member named Khabi. Under his DMing there were 5 original players, Trinity, Rilibast, Dinkleberg, GleefulNihilism, and myself. By the end of the 2007-2008 school term, Khabi had lost interest in the game. At this point, Gleeful Nihilism began a series of solo games for the other players. In March 2009 Glee became the official DM, running a new group thread, whilst continuing to run solo threads. The game has gone strong ever since, never losing a player since 2008, and gaining three new ones.

Glee himself has DM'ed to completion two group 'issues' (This being a Mutants and Masterminds campaign, each adventure runs much like a Comic issue), and 5 solo issues. He's currently DM'ing an active group campaign, and 6 solo ones. His continued activity, and excellent job of DM'ing, have inspired several of his players to run other campaigns, which are also contained within the Time of Crisis folder. One of them, the "It Always ends in 'X' Mayhem" Series, has been running since May 2009, making something he inspired eligible for nomination itself.

What sets this game apart from other games I have been in, is the way that Glee runs not only the group campaigns, but also the solo campaigns. This allows extra content for each player, and encourages character development like no other game I have been in. It is truly remarkable, and as a result the characters have become much deeper then they would have been otherwise.


Suggested Reading: Each player brings their own style to the game, and while overall Glee does alot of work, it's obvious that this game is a collaboration between DM and the players.
As all good games should be.

Here's some reccommended reading.
The first is an anti-hero named Vox. Vox is played by the DM himself, Glee. Since Glee started as just another player, I felt he deserved to play a character himself, and so I DM his solo adventures.
Vox is an anarchist, and repentant supervillain. In this thread he's gone undercover to infiltrate the lair of a former villain buddy of his... and he's working alongside another former villain buddy of his, looking for revenge.
One thing after another, and Vox ends up watching some underground street fighting... and then the cops come. Here he is, taking a stance for absolute morals, instead of simply siding with the cops.

The second is my hero, named Exemplar. Exemplar is a mundane human being, who's a hero simply because he really, really wants to be one. So, he pushes his body and mind to the limits, and succeeds where the less determined would fail. He's turned his inspirational success into a series of self-help books. In the selection below, Exemplar has been making a visit of New York City. Someone's been hacking neon bill boards to put up riddles, as well as sending robots to fly mysteriously through town, and Exemplar is on a hunt to find out who. A hunt that leads him through a frat party.

Third, we have Dreadwing, played by Rilibast. Dreadwing is a half-Demon, half-human, raised in a Monastery somewhere in Eastern Europe. Most of his time is spent reflecting on whether he isdamned by his demonic nature, or if his good acts are enough to overcome it. In the selection below, Dreadwing has journeyed to Hell to salvage the soul of a young girl who shouldn't be there. Here, he intimidates Cerberus, because not even the Hound of Hell can stand in his way.

If a nominator wanted to read just one thing, I would recommend the 'Christmas Special edition'. A slightly satirical, but mostly loving tribute to similar specials run by comic issues.
Since it's just a special edition, it runs a short 4 months, and is mostly devoted to some small character development.

Also, if put in The Hall, this game (from what I've seen) Would be the first non-DnD game in the Hall of fame.

 

A group image of the players, assembled by Rilibast

[SpatulaOdoom]

The perimeter
DM: Birched.

Reasons for Nomination
The game started in mid 2005 making july it's upcoming 5 year anniversary.
The game has a gritty down-to-earth feel despite an epic storyline. The storyline involves the disappearance of gods and invasion of countries but the story focuses on the struggles and trials of individual characters that have been sucked into the maelstrom.
It was the first game on DnD Online Games I've been in that has lasted more than a few months and Birched's help has allowed me to come a long way both in terms of roleplaying ability and general writing.
We've explored morality, survival against the elements, obligation and dedication to ideals, causality versus fate. We've seen the death of both PC's and beloved NPC's (grrr), hard won triumph and helplessness in the face of overwhelming power, the excesses of the powerful and the happiness of simple pleasures like a game of cards to break tension.

Characters of Note (from my perspective, will add posts regarding particularly good posts soon)
Nia Ledder: Jinx Greyflower. Haunted prophet and wiry survivor. MIA both in game and IRL
Blane
Tory Jarsworth: Ronars Corruption. Wizard turned cleric, always on the run physically and emotionally from a dark past.
Blane Kenesic: AlwaysCivilMike. Young woodsman struggling with his own self-doubt and the scope of his task. Epitome of a Scout, deadly archer and peerless mobility. One of the last Tower Wardens. How badass is he? He once took out an assassin mainly with a Butter Knife of doom
Marcus Raddic: SpatulaODoom. Burly ranger, blessed with near physical perfection he none the less has to fight depression and the bitter pill that your best isn't always good enough and you may fail no-matter what you do. One of the last Tower Wardens.
Aquilus Solaris: Blacksun3 and Phoenix. Opinionated Elven druid/wizard. The Chronicler of The Tower Wardens Aquilus has watched the order fade in importance then fall in treachery. He is not well liked by Marcus or Nia.
Ghoson: NPC. Second last of the old guard Tower Wardens and mentor to Marcus and Nia. Died to a green dragon while the party was helpless and weak as a kitten.


This game has spawned one of my all time favorite roleplaying characters who has gone from a fresh-faced laid back kid to a worn and weary veteran who still doesn't realize just how far he's come. He also happens to be unable to go a single combat without being covered in sap, entrails, blood, or other unpleasant substances (a butchers apron and galoshes were once suggested)

We're currently in chapter 7 and a quick glance at the archives indicates roughly 3700odd in-game posts. The game has gone on hiatus due to the dreaded Reality more than once, and several players (myself included) have dropped out only to re-join at a later date. We recently moved to the Pathfinder system and at this point I'd be happy to continue the game if the rules set were paper-rock-scissors because it's not about the rolling method or who has the highest to-hit but the characters, we've had people build sub-optimal characters because it fit better, and at no point has anyone really cared about party balance.

[Birched]

Game: The Perimeter (nominated in the previous post)
DM: Birched

Originally Posted by SpatulaOdoom

(more to come, it'll take a lot of writing and thread searching to do this game justice)

I've really enjoyed DM'ing this game (and still do), and I've been really impressed by some of the awesome players that I've had along the way (and still do!) So I'm going to add some information for those looking through the game, and then give a few links to my favourite parts of the game (in every case, due to great roleplay by my players).

What's truly awesome about a game this old (and especially where PCs had long solo threads to develop early on) is how real and fleshed out the characters are. I feel like I know them all.

Originally Posted by AlwaysCivilMike

Blane cringed at Nia's comment. He know she was exhausted but obviously had been a bit loud in his questioning of the elf. He said "Sorry Nia. Go back to sleep. You can stab us in the morning."

 

A brief guide to the game This epic tells the story of a beleaguered group of mostly forgotten guardians, whose reason for existing becomes abundantly clear. It incorporates many themes and ideas, including the selfish application of power, the nature of evil, helplessness, strength through association, a dreamworld, how one defines purpose, trust, addiction, and many more. Throughout, players have had a huge input in the focus and direction of the game. First in-game posts: July 2005 (started at level 3, progressed to ~12 so far)   Current Players AlwaysCivilMike (founding player!) ~ main group Chronicler ~ Sundock's Shadow ronarscorruption ~ main group, also Midnight Duet Saito no Cero ~ (just returned after long absence) SpatulaOdoom (founding player!) ~ main group Kiiz ~ main group (but inactive?) kingmonkey ~ Midnight duet   Former Players Beezly Blacksun3/Phoenix BraveSirRobin deezer Gath Jinx_Greyflower Kagarrot orcbane Saito no Cero Zeff   Game Threads Possibly helpful while perusing the game: There is a thread called The Story So Far that summarises some of the threads. So far, I have not had time to catch this up. There is a partial (but still extensive) list of people and places in this thread, and there are the original maps here Most players started in solo threads. These threads are listed in the following spoilerbutton. All except "Nia's Dreams" (which wasn't so much a prologue as a parallel thread) are located in the Archives folders for the game. Note that if you are looking for one and can't find it, it might be located on the second page. The ones that are more central to the main plot are in bold.   Prologue (Nia) - Nia's Journey Prologue (Marcus) - Marcus' Journey Prologue (Farun) - Farun's Journey Prologue (Aquilus) - Home Sweet Home Prologue (Blane) - Blane's Journey Prologue (Vellmund) - Vellmund's Journey Prologue (Velvet & Yeln) - Rendezvous in Fairwind Prologue (Lirit) - Island Bound Prologue (Stephen Dunshire) - Idle in Fairwind Prologue (Vahid & Stephen Dunshire meet) - Meeting an Ambassador Prologue (Naurdil) - The Road Beckons Prologue (Kaith) - Loss Prologue (Vahid) - Undercurrents Prologue (Tory) - Turning Point Prologue (Jacinth) - Prophecy Nia's Dreams The main game threads all start with a 'Chapter' designation. At times, players in the main group were separated or more than one thing was going on at the same time, which led to the 'interludes'.   Chapter I - Journey from Davrish Chapter I.1 - Safe?house Chapter II (interlude) - The Tower Besieged Chapter II - The Fall of Wrinklebrook Chapter III (interlude) - The Northern Safehouse Chapter III - Enlightenment Chapter IV (interlude) - One More Look Chapter IV (interlude) - The Dark Chapter IV - Set Course for Song Chapter V - Messengers Chapter VI - The Duke of Fairwind The events leading up to the fall of Southmaren (a story-like connection to bridge a game hiatus and bring the group together) Perimeter - Chapter VII - Bugs and Flesh (current) There are also a few extra game threads that fall outside the normal sequence of events in the main game.   Chapter O-I - Flight (related events on another plane) Midnight Duet (current) (a game thread for residents of Ottawa, Canada) Sundock's Shadow (current) (a solo thread for chronicler)

 

Some Favourite Bits There is no order to this other than stream of consciousness. Nia's Dreams: This short (58 post) thread may be a bit of a tough read, as it is formed of a number of short sequences of posts from different points in the campaign. I enjoyed adding the dreamworld aspect of the game, and although Nia disappeared before she really came into her power there, the additional dimension (and direct connection to a BBEG!) it gave added a lot for both Jinx (or at least, she seemed to like it) and myself. Kaith/orcbane's prologue thread: I remember strongly being very impressed by orcbane's portrayal of her handicapped priestess (very weak, and, due to the nature of the campaign, magic-less!) and relishing reading updates Dunno if I should be proud of this, but there was some kind of sadistic pleasure involved. I even got a thank you from one of the players afterwards for the way his PC had met his demise. For cross-reading players, this post was one of the earliest that gave a clue as to what was at the root of the goings on in their own threads. The Davrish thread, about the journey by Marcus (still playing) and Nia (who disappeared, but played for years and is much missed) to the Tower, had some good moments, including a nicely done (by the players) meeting sequence at the end of their prologues and beginning of this thread, betrayal, loss, a common theme, a wind-propelled gnome BraveSirRobin plays a great wizard; I enjoyed having him in the game and appreciated him coming back later into the main threads for a while despite his real life time constraints. This was another excellent solo thread, and one that helped to develop a major political axis in the world (Fairwinds Duchy... currently taking advantage of the end of the world elsewhere for their own gain.) Blane had some fun in his prologue (I'm pretty sure I didn't write anything unsuitable for minors) including some man vs. nature The whole beginning of the messengers thread takes place on the Plane of Shadow, and includes a rather harrowing journey including a quite extended battle with a shadow dragon I know Blane enjoyed overcoming yet another betrayal with a butter knife

[LordJecks]

Name: Stronger than Destiny
DM(s): Aerondor
Reasons: Been near on three years now and constantly moving, despite RL issues coming up for both the players and DM. We've still have 3 of the original players (myself included) and new blood has been add. The game world is limited in magic making characters much more vulnerable and thus care must be taken for you can't just go running crying to a priest for healing.

The story is not cookie-cutter and Aerondor allows huge amounts of lee-way for PC's to do what they will (including working with you on absences). The same can be said for the party which is a strange mismash of characters, each with more depth than your average bear character. On a personal note this game is by far my favorite on or offline and Silvavir Amicus is also my fav char.

============================================

Name Seis'Kerta
DM Makenshi
Reasons Who else lets you make a chaotic evil half-fey blackguard who hunts down mages? No, seriously the amount of effort and personalization Makenshi has put into his world is staggering. He has enough PrC's, deties, et al; to pubish a book capable of taking on any of the published campaign setting. As with my aforementioned nomination he too allows alot of freedom to the PC's.

While this game runs rather slowly its quality make up for it, as each player and the DM has had several RL issues.

[syberpuppy]

Game Nomination Name: Bleakrock: The truth revealed (The Adventurers) DM(s): Abilena

Reasons for nomination I joined this game immediately after joining DNDOG, almost two years ago. Never playing PbP games, and only playing heavily rollplaying tabletop games, being accepted proved extremely lucky for me. Right from the start Abilena put us through heavily laden scenarios, which combining with the much more RP oriented way of playing of PbP games than tabletop, made me have to step up my RP, english, and writing skills and get at it. The story took hold of me really strongly, much more than any book or movie could, and I got more into it than it's probably healthy. The first part of the game involved Sa'ida, a young bedine child who saw everyone she knows, aside from her small lion cub, get massacred in front of her eyes. Little by little we discovered how much more horrifying her fate was than we all believed. Along with us wanting to save her life, we needed to fight the diseases a swarm of undead inflicted upon us, fight the extreme conditions of the desert and the lack of food and water. This was extremely difficult especially since throughout all this time we experienced the shadow of a great evil trying to destroy us. Even though the RP part of the game was very challenging, the fights, even though scarce, were extremely difficult. We had two fights through the first part of the game, the first of which was against a group of powerful undead which I was certain all throughout the battle that we have no chance of winning. It was only through a lot of luck and some ingenuity that we managed to prevail. The second battle came while we were trapped and already at the end of the rope, and against an enemy we had little ways of combating (though it proved to be enough). It wasn't an hard battle by itself, but the circumstances made it challenging. Now we're at the beginning of the second part of the game. So far we had little RP opportunities since our third battle started quickly after the start of the part. Unlike before we had some time to prepare (though RP prevented us to take too much time). Even though we prepared a little, the fight is against such an enormous enemy that I still have little idea how we can win it. For a low to mid level group of characters it's usually hard for a DM to achieve a balance between difficulty, so that the battle will be interesting, and survivability for the characters (no raise dead on these levels yet). Abilena managed to create desperate battles that we needed to use all our resources just to survive, but although he gave us no quarter we still managed to somehow survive. The game is also heavily layered, each of the players having his own challenges and semi side quests, happening in parallel but separately from the main storyline. Also, since the beginning I saw hints for another side to the game we know nothing about. At the beginning of the second part of the game we met another group that must have been playing in parallel to us from the beginning of the game and now our stories combined. There are also hints for at least one more such group. (I never asked... hate spoilers.) The game seem to have a lot more where to go in the future, there are still many things we don't know and I still have no Idea what the objective we need to achieve. Though it seem there is definitely such objective. In conclusion, this game is so far the most interesting and the most enjoyable game I've played and I believe it will even grow more.

Links It's very hard to decide what the "best posts of the game" are, since there were so many good ones, but I'll throw a few that jump into mind: This was a post I wrote at Abilena's request (and bribe) that tells "the story so far" at the end of the first part of the game. It also tells Sa'ida's story from as told from a few view points: Here (Sorry about the block of text, was before I started working on that flaw) The start of the long awaited curing of the bedine girl (this go on for a few posts): Here The end of the first part of the game: Here * Those are the things I remember since they involved my character, I'm sure there are others for the other players too. I've also linked some lines in the relevant passages in "Reasons for nomination" above.

[Admin Toad`]

Nominations complete. Thread closed.

If you would like a hand in the voting process, it still isn't too late to become a Community Supporter!!

-Grave

[Admin Toad`]

The results are in!

-Grave