[D&D-5e] The Island of Dreams

[Chaucer]

Game Name The Island of Dreams

Game System DnD 5e

Theme A coming of age adventure as a group of youngsters strive to discover the truth behind an ancient evil surrounding their home

Flavour Collaborative world and adventure building, high on role-play and character development

Plot Summary The elders say that at the dawn of time our home was formed out of the mist and the fog that swirls around our isle. We have never seen the world beyond the misty borders and they.....they likely do not even know that we exist. Thus we have been, thus we always shall be. This is our home. The Island, as it is simply known by the people who live there, is a place of unbroken peace and tranquility. Surrounded by an impenetrable wall of fog, the people have never known any other life than their own simple, hard-working existence. If there is a world out there, they have never known it. If there is life outside the misty borders, it has never come to the Island. It is such, and it has always been. Home to less than two hundred people, living inside a single village, life is hard, yet rewarding. The farmers work the farms. The fishermen fish in the river. The blacksmith forges iron. The builders build homes. The hunters hunt the plentiful game in the countryside. Yet one thing that the people of this small community do not do is leave their immediate environs. All those who have.....well they have never returned. You are one of six very special youngsters, and soon you will come to realise that a darkness quite unlike any before seen threatens your peaceful existence. Guided by prophetic dreams, you will leave home -- you will travel further than anyone has travelled before. You will uncover dark dark secrets -- secrets that others would do anything to prevent you discovering.......even if it means killing you. A Collaborative GM'ing Experience To paraphrase a famous show - and now for something completely different. My name is Chaucer, and I have recently returned to the site after a long spell of absence. As I came back, I asked myself, am I ready to GM again. As this ad is here, I guess the answer to that is yes, but there's a little more to it than that, and this game is not something that I will take on alone. This is my way of giving back something to the community I enjoy being around, but at the same time, finding some like minded souls to share an epic tale with. Here is my proposal:- I will bring a character to the game, and I will also GM it. Five others will be chosen. They too will bring characters and co-GM alongside me. I will be the primary GM for this opening short episode of the game. Once the game finishes, I will step down and someone else will run the second episode, and then a different person for the third, and so on..... Sort of like a guest speaker or a guest writer for an "episode of the week". Hopefully that makes sense. If not then let me know, I'm more than happy to clarify further. A Collaborative World Building Experience This is not just a collaborative GM'ing experience as noted above, I will also open the table up to allow you to help shape and guide the world as it is created. My opening pitch puts you on an island surrounded by the mists. If there is a wider world out there, it has not been discovered yet. I will not expand on the wider world in my opening adventure, but if you wish to tackle it as part of yours then I will happily help and support you in any way required. You are six youngsters. You live inside a village on that island, a village called Anser. When the game begins, I will provide you with an overview of the village and a handful of notable NPC characters. The rest of the village will be populated by you. If you make reference to a building, a character, or an event in your backstory, or in the game once it starts I will add it to the village and we will make the lore canon. For this opening episode, although there is an overarching plot for the adventure outside of that the world is what you make of it. I fully intend for this to be a shared experience - we will, together, grow the world around us. Mechanics, Combat and Character Another main difference between this and other games is that we will start out, and remain, as 0-level characters throughout the course of this particular adventure. Although I do not wish to discuss the specifics of character creation at this point until the remaining five are selected (for obvious reasons), we will be using the below homebrew rules for 0-level character creation. We will, however, be selecting the background from the table of many backgrounds rather than rolling: Balthazar's Bloviations 0-level homebrew rules. There will be combat in this game, although it will not be the typical combat that you might be used to in your typical D&D game. I like to be creative in my combat encounters, and it will be used sparingly as a plot device more than anything else. Expect my combats to be not simply player vs creature, but player vs enemy and environment. For example, you might find yourselves, as 0-level characters, surrounded by a warband. You may choose to flee, and in doing so you might have to run over a rickety bridge spanning a gorge. That bridge may, in turn, break as you are sprinting over it desperately..... As you might imagine given the parameters of the game, this is not a combat focussed game - this is very much a story and character based game. I would like applications in the following format: Name: Race: Lets stick to Human, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Gnome and Halfling for this Alignment: Non-evil Age: 16-20 Background: Taken from the Table of Many Backgrounds as detailed above Personality Traits: Two please Ideal: Bond: Flaw: Provide me with a bit more of an in-depth write-up on the following: Appearance (include picture): Personality: Backstory: RP Sample: Since I am not certain how much interest there will be in this, I am not setting an end date to the applications yet, although I will give plenty of notice before I close it.

[Dvorak]

Sounds interesting. Can you post an application for your character as well? Just so we can get a feel for the type of party member we will be seeing?

[Chaucer]

That is a very good shout, and yes, I certainly will post something over the course of the next couple of days.

[Dvorak]

So looking at the list I am thinking Maybe a Halfling Drover.

[Nasrith]

Gonna be honest, I'm pretty in on this whole idea. Waiting for a few questions to be answered and to see Chaucer's character, but otherwise very interested.

How is class being chosen? The backstory I have in my head lends itself to one of a couple of different classes, but I don't want to jump the gun.

[gravitywolf]

Not going to lie- this looks extremely interesting in both scope and concept. I really like the 0-level homebrewed rules, so I'll throw in an application soon.

[bigAl]

I'm just returning to rpgx as well after a couple of years away, and putting together a game. This sounds like a great way to jump back into the system.

Should we roll for the

Dice Roll:

d100

74

Table of Many Backgrounds in this thread?

Edit: Whoops! Just reread your ad and saw, in bold type nonetheless, that we will be choosing rather than rolling for the background. Although "Pimp" would be an interesting choice

[Ericg1s]

I don't want to play, but I will probably watch.

[Chaucer]

Originally Posted by Nasrith

Gonna be honest, I'm pretty in on this whole idea. Waiting for a few questions to be answered and to see Chaucer's character, but otherwise very interested.

How is class being chosen? The backstory I have in my head lends itself to one of a couple of different classes, but I don't want to jump the gun.

I don’t anticipate that you’ll get to level 1 until the end of the first adventure and the choice will be yours as to the class you’ll ultimately become.

[tomplum]

WIP

Application Name: Elben Mageson Race: Half-elf Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Age: 16 Background: Wizard's Apprentice Personality Traits: When I set my mind to something, I follow through no matter what gets in my way. There's nothing I like more than a good mystery. Ideal: Nothing and no one can steer me away from my higher calling. Bond: I have a father, but I have no idea where he is. One day, I hope to see him again. Flaw: I'm convinced of the significance of my destiny, and blind to my shortcomings and the risk of failure. Appearance (include picture): Tall and slender like his father but lacking the golden skin or hair of his patriarch. Elben acquired his pale skin and brown hair from his mother. His ears are distinctively pointed and his eyes, large and almond shape so that despite the preponderance of physical characteristics from his mother, he is decidedly his father's son. Personality: Ambitious and headstrong, Elben has embraced the legacy that only he knew of his father, discovering a way off the island. The history of Anser is littered with those who attempted more mundane means of escape such as by the sea but Elben is convinced his father was correct that there were other, hidden ways off the island. The carefree boy who grew up an orphan in Anser has been replaced by a driven and over serious man intent of solving the riddle that is the island.   The particulars of my existence are a cause for consternation among some of the elders of Anser. For as long as there has been fog around the island, there has been a wizard's tower atop Andron Knob. The tower itself resembled the rock it sat upon, squat and out of place. Even the oldest dwarves or gnomes in Anser knew of only one resident of the tower, the elf, Xalabar. No one knew how old Xalabar was for even the oldest dwarves or gnomes parents had always known that Xalabar had been in the tower upon Andron Knob. It was quite the scandal when a local shepherdess became pregnant. None knew who the father was and the girl was unwilling to divulge the secret. The answer came when I was born with the almond eyes and pointed ears only my father, Xalabar, possessed. With my mother dying of complications, I was raised by the kind-hearted residents of Anser. Of course, some marched to Andron Knob to demand my father raise his own son but he could not be bothered to even answer his door. I grew fast as only an orphan can and quickly grew curious about my mercurial father. I was only ten when I made the three mile hike to Andron Knob and my father's tower. I banged on that door until my knuckles bled and then used a rock until it had broken into pieces too small to use for the purpose and still my father did not come. Huddled into doorway, I sat for days until the mud itself rose up to claim me. I would later learn they were a creature known as mephits and that they had been brought to the island by my father. As the unnatural beings descended upon me, covering me in constricting mud and pummeling me with their dirty fists, the tower door burst open and missiles of magical energy filled the air around me. He had known I was there all along. My early tutelage consisted of sweeping floors, sealing cracks in the stone walls of the tower becoming Xalabar's pack mule for supplies in Anser. I was bombarded with questions from the people who had helped raise me but I had few answers for them. These ranged from the mundane, "Do Xalabar's feet touch the ground when he walks?", to the dangerous, "Is Xalabar responsible for the fog around the island?". The answer to the former I could discourage quite certainly but the answer to the latter was something even I did not know the answer to nor was I certain it was not true. When I first confronted him with the accusation, he flew into a rage and I did not see him again for two weeks. When he at last had decided to speak to me again, it was the only time he sat down, looked me in the eye and spoke to me as a father to his son and not as a teacher to his pupil. He was trying to escape. He was certain there were places upon the island which 'touched' other worlds. It was just a matter of finding them. He had also been successful bringing creatures from other places to the island, hence the mephits, but had failed to achieve teleportation himself. I had barely grasped my first few rudimentary spells when he had presented me with a gift, my own spell book. He said there were incantations within that would require much more practice to learn but that in only six short years, I had learned much. That was the last time I saw him. The next morning when he did not come down from his study, I went about my day as normal. It was not unusual for him to lock himself away unraveling the secrets of the universe. However, as the days stretched on I grew worried. The door to the study had not been locked and slowly opening the door I found the upper most room of the tower was empty. RP Sample:

[Chaucer]

Game closed due to lack of interest.

[Zwingli]

Originally Posted by Chaucer

I don’t anticipate that you’ll get to level 1 until the end of the first adventure and the choice will be yours as to the class you’ll ultimately become.

Does this mean that the PC's have the opportunity to become full-fledged adventurers in the future?
In any case, here's my application:

Application Name: Yurimir Fenring Race: Half-Elf Alignment: Neutral Good Age: 17 Background: Noble, Second Son (Cormyr) Personality Traits: I'm always polite and respectful. I can't get the images of violence out of my mind, and the death of my father haunts me. Ideal: Greater Good. Our lot is to lay down our lives in defense of others. Bond: I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Flaw: My hatred can push me to be blind and unreasoning. Appearance: Standing a little shorter than his elder brother Zmitri (who was more than six feet tall), Yuri's muscular build and sun-darkened skin mostly come from his predilection to work with his hands in the farming business. His striking green eyes and slightly pointed ears are traits he inherited from his mother. He keeps the House Fenring signet ring around his neck in a thick necklace made of twine and metal wires. Personality: Yuri was raised to be aware of social modicum, and growing up received praise from other families who observed him to be "the good son". For the most part, Yurimir tried indeed to be a dutiful son to his family, what with his brother Timnir disappearing and all. What most people don't observe is the young man's temper, which could flare up at the smallest trifle, and would take an eternity to calm. His temper has always gotten him in trouble, and for the longest time Yuri has been struggling to control it better. Unlike most nobles, Yuri enjoyed and embraced the opportunity to work with his hands. He like going with the workmen during the early mornings to till the soil, harvesting crops and the like. He had even gone on fishing trip or two with some of them in the past. For Yuri, his status was simply a different role he had to play in order to pursue the common good.   Backstory: Yurimir grew up in the Fenring "estate" - which was basically a stone house and a farm - near the coast in the island town of Anser. This has been home to the Fenring family for at least four generations, and even their workmen's families have been with them since before Yuri was born. As such, both the noble family and the people in their employ have enjoyed a peaceful, harmonius relationship for as long as Yuri could remember. Born the second son to Justus and his lovely elven wife Llewyn, Yuri was raised to be well-behaved, socially adept, and able to accomplish tasks pertaining to administrating the estate. All this the youth did without resentment, though personally he enjoyed getting his hands dirty with the workmen to either farm the small plot of land they owned, or join in fishing expeditions by the coast. Yuri preferred the simple lives of these workers to the political maneuvering, subterfuge, and mollycoddling of nobility. This proved quite irksome to Justus, for though he had two sons, he expected each to be "beyond reproach". Having one son who liked to slum definitely did not meet his standards, and thus held Yuri to be a soft-hearted failure, incapable of honoring the Fenring name and house. Timvoril, the eldest Fenring son, was groomed to be the heir and head of the household. He surpassed his father's every expectation (and was naturally more talented than his brother), and everyone expected him to be an even better leader than his father ever was. This was not a notion that Justus took kindly to, however, for the man was proud, and vain. Yuri witnessed several occasions where both father and son would argue heatedly with Justus visibly shaking and seething, while Tim simply stood his ground; a picture of cool confidence. Yuri looked up to his brother a lot, for he was kind to all, even to Justus. The younger brother considered his senior a true example of what a noble or leader should aspire to become. Life would change forever for Yuri when Tim suddenly disappears. No word or note, only whispers that for some reason, he ventured out of the village into the misty unknown. For days they searched for any clue regarding where he was headed or why he would leave, but none could be found. Yuri blamed his father, and said as much in a fit of anger and deep loss. Yuri inherited his father's fire; an intense temper that would light up at the faintest scratch. This did not sit well with Justus, of course, though he was taken aback slightly at this soft boy having the courage to stand up to him. Shouting ensued, insults were hurled back and forth. Then the boy's father, frustrated as he was by everything that was happening, took Yuri by the neck and shook him so vigorously that the boy was afraid that he would kill him on the spot. Fearing the worst, Yuri picked up a letter opener and stabbed Justus in the stomach. At that moment Llewyn stepped into the room, then stood frozen in shock and horror at the scene before her. --- That very night, Yurimir decided that he could not stay home. Remaining here would only deepen his mother's sadness, and remind himself of the cruel consequences of his own lack of restraint. He determined that he would find Timvoril and bring him back, but after that... He could not stay. RP Sample: WIP

[Endtimes]

I, like others, really like the idea of this campaign, both as for the 0-level rules, and the multi-DM format. I think I just may throw in an app as well.

[Chaucer]

Originally Posted by Zwingli

Does this mean that the PC's have the opportunity to become full-fledged adventurers in the future?

It is up to the discretion of whoever runs episode 2 onwards, but given my own episode will leave you at level 1 it would certainly make sense.

[Dvorak]

WIP

Application Name: Kithri 'Kit' Race: Hafling Alignment: Neutral Good Age: 16 Background: Drover Personality Traits: Flattery is my preferred trick for getting what I want. I judged people by their actions, not their words. Ideal: Live and Let Live, Meddling in the affairs of others only causes trouble. Bond: Friends and Family come first to me. I will give life and limb for those that I truly care about. Flaw: TBD Appearance Head held high with pride, Kit is a slightly taller than average hafling. In a way to try to stand out, he prefers to wear bright colors. Often Blues, Greens, Oranges, and Purples. Much to his chagrin, he has brown hair, which he usually wears tied back, and dull brown eyes. He wears a vibrant orange crystal on a string around his neck, the last gift given to him from his grandfather. Personality: Kit is a very confident kid. He knows what he knows and he believes in himself. Backstory: RP Sample: