[D&D-5e] Uncaged: Journey to the Wilds

[Wynamoinen]

Game name Uncaged Season 3: Journey to the Wilds A one-shot adventure inspired by the Uncaged project.

Game system D&D 5e

Themes & Flavor An Uncaged-inflected adventure in the spirit of Journey to the West. High power in a small environment. Light-hearted but dealing with serious issues. One episode of many on a long set of travels. "Uncaged-inflected" means we'll explore issues of social status and power. I'm looking to include characters and players of many backgrounds and perspectives (which I hope includes a mix of experienced and newer players on the site).

The long road The road goes on and on and on. Months and months ago, The Seeker set out from Huanghe, called to travel through the long Wilds in order to learn the Great Secrets beyond. Along the way, the Seeker met many strange and wonderful people. Some were friends; some were enemies; and some become companions, traveling the road together with the Seeker. Known lands were soon left behind. Trials lay around every bend in the road. All trials were met, and all were overcome. You shackled the terrible dragon of the waterfall. You subdued the army of oni. You outwitted the 7 heads of the demon-god and out-wrestled the 10 arms of his consort. You walked upon clouds and bent ancient trees over double. Your companionship was sundered, and your companionship was reformed. Many adventures lay behind you. Many adventures still lay before. The road winds ever onward. You continue to walk it, where few have walked before. Whether because of piety, or stubbornness, or oath, or mystical compulsion, you are dedicated to seeing this Journey through to its end. You are a group of mighty adventurers, on an epic quest to the lands beyond. This is the story of one of your adventures along the way.

Rules for application For your application, I ask you to give me the basics, plus two brief writing samples that show off your RP chops and give your character a stake in some themes of the adventure. I expect to accept about 5 players. Races and classes from all official and published D&D 5e rulebooks are permitted. By "rulebooks" I mean: the PHB, Volo, Xanthar, Tasha, and Fizban. No campaign books (Sword Coast, Ravnica, Eberron, Strixhaven, etc) and no Unearthed Arcana, please. Special bonus build request:In the original Journey, one character is a wise person who is on a religious mission "to the West". One PC MUST be on a similar mission as part of our story. That character need not be "the boss" or "the leader" of the party, but they are the inciting inspiration for the Journey. They must be part of some organization (a religion, a cult, a group of mystical scholars, etc) and they must be traveling to achieve some associated goal (religious enlightenment, mystical education, glory of their god, etc). The most natural classes that fit this bill would be cleric, paladin, or monk. A warlock or sorcerer could easily work, given a proper patron. But any class, with the right background, could do it. For now, I will call this character "The Seeker". If you'd like to be considered for this role, please note so in the application. Only one of the 4 or 5 players will fill this role. I'm happy to select multiple people willing to accept this role, though only one will actually fill it. This story is NOT about achieving The Seeker's goal; their goal is only part of the narrative framing of the story. That mission is why the Journey started, and all PCs got swept up into that Journey for one reason or another. The Basics: Fill in the following six bullets Name: Race Gender identity: Class: Characters are LEVEL 10. Multiclassing is fine. We can always e.g., "I can't decide if I want to be Cleric 6 ranger 4 or cleric 5 ranger 5"adjust the class mix when and if you are accepted. I don't expect (or want) full mechanical builds right now. Appearance: images are encouraged, but not required. Paint a (brief) word picture! The Seeker: Y/N would you like to possibly fill this role? Adventure Thematics: answer two questions Heed this, my most CAPS-LOCKIEST of instructions: DO NOT GIVE ME YOUR CHARACTER'S "BACKSTORY". I don't want to see it, I don't want to read it. For real! Read those caps again, if you are still confused. Notice: I didn't say 'don't HAVE a backstory'. I just literally don't want to see it No, not even cleverly hidden under a spoiler tag.here in this application thread. I have written screeds on this very issue. Having a backstory, whether that means a few fleeting impressions in your head or a 15-page file on your computer, will be very useful when you give me what I ACTUALLY want in the other portion of your application: RP samples: Below is a list of questions/prompts. Show me Two is all I need, seriously! No penalty for two and only two, and no bonus for more. But if you're anything like me, you might end up writing more, anyways, as you think about which is the "best one" for you to write. If that describes you, feel free to share more, but please post them in the order you'd like them considered.two of these scenes, in character. Let us hear your character's voice, and see who they really are: how do they react in novel and trying situations? Please feel free to interpret any aspect of these prompts in any way you'd like. They are meant to be springboards for creativity that relate to the flavor of the adventure. Length is not an important consideration. Understanding your character is. You overcame tremendous odds on the battlefield. What were you up against, who were you fighting for/alongside, and how did you prevail? You were once caught between two loyalties. How did you resolve the conflict? You were once in a place where the rules you knew no longer applied. Describe the scene, and how you responded to being a fish out of water You are mighty beyond the reckoning of most mortals. Your powers once put something you love at risk. What did you do to create this risk? Did your love survive? Even the mighty can fall to simple words. Describe a scene where your powers failed to solve an important problem, where other methods might have succeeded.

Additional game details Game world context: This game is inspired by the Journey to the West and other Chinese myths. It takes place in an undefined time "long ago". Much of the Journey to the West happens in a liminal "wild" space between the two great civilizations of China and India. As you create your character, I encourage you to build in elements from either of those cultures, or from nearby ones – Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, etc (places like Japan, Persia, or Micronesia are too far afield). It is appreciated if your character reflects this context, in terms of things like naming conventions, religion, clothing style, skin tone, and so on. Applications that accept and embrace this milieu will be heavily favored in player selection over those that adopt a European cultural styling, or an origin from a pre-fab fantasy world like the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc. I am no expert in these places, and I do not expect you to be. The game will take place in a fictional world of our own making, not on Earth. We shall build the world together, to the extent required. We can take liberties to make this a world that is acceptable and welcoming to all our players and characters. The only world-building I have done is to call the Chinese-influenced lands that you are traveling from "Huánghé", and the Indian-influenced lands that you are traveling to "Putra". You may feel free to create and expand on any world details beyond that. Do I need to have read Journey to the West to play this game?: Not at all! While the setting is inspired by that story, I pull heavily from other inspirations as well. And we're not re-enacting the story at all. Those myths and folk tales are a foundation that are then Uncaged-ified for our adventure here on site. This will be our own story. That said: I do believe that everyone reading these words, in pursuit of living their best life, should read Journey to the West! It’s literally one of the greatest stories in all of human history. It’s in the public domain, so it’s easy to find. I believe, however, that any given translation may not be public domain, so I won’t link them here. It’s probably best to look for an abridged version. Reading it will give you a sense of the flavor of the story that is hard to describe in other words. It's often a pretty bonkers story, and I'd love to see some of that come out in our game. None of you will be powerful enough to wallop the entire Celestial Bureaucracy, but this is a pretty high-level adventure in order to permit some high-power shenanigans. I want the PCs to "feel" powerful. Character creation: As mentioned in various parts of the ad, please feel free to make non-normative class/In both the D&D and IRL senserace/gender/orientation/body type choices in character creation (but I have no requirements in this regard - the norm is indeed the norm!) All fantasy races from official rulebooks are welcome in this context. I very much encourage you NOT to build a character sheet right now. This is a high-power game in the spirit of the original Journey to the West. As such, I expect to give an alternate stat array, a fairly generous endowment of magic items, and perhaps some feats or boons. If you imagine a particular magic item being key to your character concept (as they often are in the story; Iron Staffs and Cloud Trapeses and the rest) we can talk about it by PM, but there's a This is particularly so for any rarity aside from "legendary"; those, I'll be more cautious with.good chance I'll permit it. Since this is a one-shot, you may get character rewards, but you will certainly not level up. I plan on holding a "session zero" scene once the game is underway, where we will have a round of connection-building among the characters. This reason need not be "good" - in the original, the reasons range from "I must promote proper religious teaching" to "the gods will crush me under a mountain for eternity if I don't help out".You'll need a reason to be coming along on this trip, and you have an existing relationship with all the members of your companionship You don't need to worry too much about that now, in the application phase. But you should be thinking about it - characters whose stories make them impossible to connect to others will not be good candidates for this game. My preferred pace is a GM post every 4 or 5 days: usually if I set that goal we can settle into a once-per-week pace once we're comfortable. I ask players to be comfortable with that pace. There is a hard deadline for applications of January 31st. No applications shared or edited after that day will be considered. I'm already feeling pre-emptively bad for needing to turn most of you down.

An ongoing project As it says up top, this game is part of an ongoing series, and is named after the Uncaged project. Uncaged is a collaborative anthology of one-shot adventures designed around two big themes. First, they are directly inspired by the folklore and myths of our world, often being a 'twist' on a well-known story. Second, the project is very explicit in its feminist and LGBT-inclusive approach. It explores the power dynamics and political issues of today, through the lens of fantasy gaming. In full disclosure, this adventure is NOT a published Uncaged adventure. It's one of my own design, that allows me to explore themes in the Uncaged realm that I think are interesting, while putting them in a setting that I'm afraid I think the Uncaged project sort of misses. I want to be clear about the themes and attitudes of the project for a few reasons: 1) If this approach is a concern to you (I'd encourage you to reconsider, but), fair enough. This campaign is probably not your cup of tea, and there are lots of other games on the site. I will not club players over the head with these themes as the game proceeds, but they will be a consistent part of the story and the "attitude" of the adventure. 2) It is a one-shot. This adventure could probably be run face-to-face in about 3 or 4 hours hours. That means there will be something like 4 or 5 scenes, and 1-3 combat encounters. Then boom, rewards granted, insights gained, lives enriched, game over. I expect this adventure to take about 9-12 months (but who knows? 6-15 months is probably a more-honest and less-helpful estimate). I make no promises for a long-running campaign. Quite the opposite; I promise this will end at a very definite point in the not-too-distant future. This is "season 3" because I have recently completed my second Uncaged one-shot. Each of the past seasons took about 13 months to complete. If all goes well, when this adventure ends, I will write up a new ad and recruit again for season 4. Rinse and repeat for as long as time, interest, and ability allow. I consider this game a mini-series. Each adventure is stand-alone and the seasons are completely disconnected. Each adventure/season simply shares the broad themes mentioned above: mythology, gendered power dynamics, and inclusiveness. I have no plans for running multiple parties at the same time.

Applications Player Character Race Class Concept Seeker candidate? Status BlackDragon0 Demouse Dragonblade Half-drow Fighter Homicidal Loner Leader No complete DialPforPickles Gilead Wickley, DFA Human Alchemist Artificer Quirky Academic looking for the Philosopher's Stone Yes complete Elanir Jiǔ bǎi qī shí sān o Re-fluffed warforgedTerra Cotta warrior Banneret Fighter Terra Cotta warrior in search of his mortality Yes complete Fillyjonk Xiǎo Zhū (Piglet) Halfling Creation Bard Sybarite Romantic Yes complete Inuvash255 Shanyang re-fluffed race tbdCelestial Goatfolk Glamour Bard Former Celestial servant (?) No incomplete Lazer Yangchen Sumati Jamyang A custom lineage versionHuman Divine Soul Warlock Lama in search of the equity of Nirvana Yes complete lostcheerio Gita Human Rogue/Druid Kinetic trickster Yes complete neverknew Yěshēng Tabaxi Phantom Rogue Walker at the edge of planes No complete Onward XiYi Lizardfolk re-skinLizard Demon Light Cleric Escaped pet from divine worlds No complete Osse Jinlong Gold Dragonborn Monk/Barbarian Confined dragon reclaiming his honor No complete rhaiber Li Ruiying base race tbd; possibly Custom LineageFox Spirit Archfey Warlock Trickster on a path to redemption No incomplete sammichweasel Jing Xu Wang, the Whisker King Re-fluffed TritonElder Catfish Fathomless Warlock Dragon Spirit, left behind as a catfish No complete Seekr34 Jayasurya Aasimar Monk Defender of the Monastery Yes complete Sprite Song of the Wandering Path Tabaxi Snow Lion Monk/Ranger Protector along the mountain paths No? complete Strangemund The Great Feng Wu Re-fluff dragonbornApeling Drunk Monk A Hot Mess of a Spirit No complete Unko Talok Parvati Human Moon Druid Avatar of motherhood No complete

Q&A Q: Should my RP sample be of the character I'm applying with? A: Yes please! I want a sense of this character’s personality and approach, and the “voice” they’d bring to the game. Q: This adventure is not narratively related to any other seasons of Uncaged, right? A: Right. You can think of it as a totally separate universe, as far as I am concerned. Q: Can you describe your GM style? A: I can describe it, but any such description will be messy. Long answer short: (a) this is definitely not a sandbox, but (b) I value giving characters narrative control as often as possible, within the context of D&D mechanics. (c) I value player-on-player interaction above most other types of engagement, and will always create space for that, but the relatively slow pace I'm advertising done make witty repartee a little challenging.

[Seekr34]

Name: Jayasurya
Race: Aasimar (Protector)
Gender identity: Male
Class: Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Appearance:

Standing at 5’7 with an athletic build with long brown hair tied in a ponytail with pale skin. He looks like your typical monk, with no armor. He wears a plain gray robe with full cut Pants, socks, and elastic leg bindings at the legs that most monks wears and thigh high boots. What’s usual about him is his eyes, they are pupil-less pale topez color.

The Seeker: He is sent off to retrieve an ancient but powerful scroll
RP sample#1:

 

He was traveling on the road early morning when he saw a young girl sitting on a rock off an off beaten path that went towards the forest. The path was connected to the main road. She was rocking back and forth and as he gotten closer, she looked up at him. She wasn’t a little girl after all, but a halfling. While she wasn’t a girl, she wasn’t yet a woman. She had tears down her face, she had been crying.

“What’s the trouble lass?” Jay asked.

“Our village is going to be destroyed and there’s nothing we can do. So, you best turn back before they come.”

Blinking, he asked. “Who is coming?”

“Goblins.” Another voice, a male, walking up the path, another halfling.

Jay turns to face him, a bit confused. “Pray tell, and from the beginning please.”

The lad nodded. He seems to be a young adult. “A goblin leader came with a few of his warriors a couple of hours ago. He came to talk terms with our mayor. He only gave us two choices. Either pay him with food and supplies once a week, or else they will take everything we have and take some of us prisoners and sell into slavery. We had one week to decide, then they left, or so we thought. We all were packing up to leave when they came back. Said we couldn’t leave. They were going watch us to make sure we didn’t.” The man then rubbed his head, in serious distraught, before he continued. "The mayor knew we had no choice. We couldn’t leave and while we could gather up enough food and such each week, it would only be enough for us, we couldn’t gather two weeks worth in one week, just not possible. So, the mayor basically told them to go to hades. So, the goblins coming in full force today. A ride went to the duke for help, but help won’t arrive until tomorrow.”

Jay’s jaw dropped as he listened. He guessed the village was probably all halflings. Since they are being watched, they couldn’t just leave, not without a fight. “How close is your village?"

“About half a mile down this path.”

Hmm, he was thinking it was before sunrise two hours ago, dusk. The foul creatures don’t like daylight much, so they’ll arrive around evening as the sun sets. “Probably have no idea how many goblins?”

“One lair is what we figured on.” The lad then went to the girl and took her hand. “Come sis, ma and pa is looking for you.”

The monk watched the two leave. Well, he thought, three choices. Head back, keeping going down this road and perhaps make a left off the path to give a wide birth. He already knew his answer before he thought about it. The third choice was to help them. One lair can be as many as 25 or a few hundred. He watches the two young halflings until they were out of sight. He wasn’t sure how many goblins were watching the village, but he doubts they care about two youngsters walking by themselves. He then headed down the path, went about a quarter of a mile and went left a ways. Tied his horse loosely to a tree. If there is danger, the horse will be able to run off. He took what he needed and went through the forest to where the village might be. After some minutes, he saw the buildings in the distance. He then went silently, checking everywhere. It had gotten quiet, not a bird made a peep. So, he knew the goblin scouts were near and sure enough, he saw one, near a tree, watching. He continued going west and saw another goblin sitting on a boulder and by then, he was past the village. So he went back to the path and kept going east, then he saw another goblin at a tree. He wandered around village in a large arc and he counted seven goblins total. Since he had time, he went back around again, checking as if checking for the first time. He still came up with seven and he took them out one but one. He was glad it was easy. He didn’t want to miss one and have one escape to warn the others.

He went back to his horse and rode into the village and told the mayor he took out the scouts and they can leave. After helping them pack just the necessities (although a few packed more), he watched them go. They were going east since that’s where the Duke castle was. Jay stayed and strolled through town. He always wondered what a halfling village would look like and now he knew, and he smiled. It was homey, it had the look of peace and happiness. He then realized that he couldn’t leave with the thought of this happy village being ransacked and destroyed.

He was glad he left his horse with the little folks. He headed west and he soon left the small forest, and it was wide open. He sighed and looked around. He was no tracker, but he did see footprints. And he followed them until he walked a mile and he saw a hill and the prints seemed to be leading towards it. Must have a cavern or something, he thinks. There was no hiding place, that was a problem. He wasn’t going into the cave, sure he can see in the dark, but so can they and it’s their home, not his. He then sighed and decided to wait. He meditated for a while as he waited.

The dreaded time came as he heard the goblins coming out and he began firing arrows at them, taking them town one by one. They then stop coming out. The waiting game started. When darkness came, they tried coming out again, figuring it was halflings or humans firing the arrows. They can’t see in the dark, so when they came out, Jay let loose his arrows again, then they stop coming out again and he can hear them howl in frustration. They know who ever is firing the arrows, can see in the dark. He couldn’t make out what they were yelling but he thought he heard the word elf. He grinned. Elves not only can see in the dark, but they are good bowmen. Maybe they will stay inside.

It was wishful thinking, an hour later, they poured out of there like angry hornets out of their nest. So he quickly fires his arrows as fast as he can. It was a good thing he was good with a bow. Damn, he thought was he watched, there had been at least a hundred, his magic quiver held sixty arrows and it was no time when he ran out. He wasn’t ready for close combat yet, so he used his ability to fly and flew overheard and used firebolts and burning hands and whatever he had to use. He couldn’t fly for long though. So now, he had to use his quick speed. He ran and avoided the crowd of them. Soon, the goblins realized that they had just one attacker. He ran to the hills, and they chased him. He ran up the hill leaped to one side, hit the ground rolling to his feet. The goblins were amazed at what they saw, A few though were brave and got close and he castes a light spell on them and the light drove them crazy.

This went on all night, hit and run, taking only one or two at once, avoiding a crowd as much as possible. Sometimes they caught him, the foul creatures vicious. but he was very agile and quick, taking in only minor wounds. He played dirty too, whatever it took to win. Hells, they would play dirty if they could. He was getting tired and the sun was beginning to rise. There was at least fifteen left and he heard more coming out, females. He groaned, he was running out of stamina. At least he saved the village anyway. He then heard the ground rumbling, both he and the goblins turned to see horsemen. The Duke’s men had arrived. The goblins all quickly ran to their cave. He then let out a huge breath. His job was done, the Duke’s men are taking over now.

A halfling was riding a pony, leading a horse behind him. It was his horse. “You’re alive! I was hoping but-.” He stopped at stared. Jay had a hood on when he saw them, but his hood was off now, and the halfling saw his eyes.

A couple of the human soldiers also saw and yelled out. “Aasimar. The halflings had a angel save their home!”

Jay shook his head, an angel he was not. After talking to the men, he got on his horse, he was dead tired. The halfling brought him back to his village, they all were back now and when they found out what he did, word spread quickly through out the village. Knowing he was tired, they gave him a room at the tavern, free of charge. He slept most of the day and he had a free dinner, and the tavern was crowded since they all wanted to thank him. Still tired, he retired early. The next morning, he bid farewell and two of the human soliders escorted him to the castle. The Duke had personally thanked him, laughing calling him both a fool and a hero. He had a choice of a gift. That evening, they had a feast. The next day, he went on his way. He can’t remember when he ate so much…

Roleplay Sample#2:

 

Jay had met a man, wounded on the side of the road. He said bandits did it. They became fast friends, sworn as each other’s protectors. Blood brothers. For two years, they been at each other’s side. During travels, they had each other’s back. They were like brothers indeed.

One day, the man had to leave but said he would be back in three weeks. When he came back, he had what looked like a warband of fifty men. They were sent to attack Jay’s monastery, which of course shocked him. The two were very close, Jay was loyal to him, but he was also loyal to his monastery.

Jay felt torn, but he also felt betrayed. His friend may not had planned this, but attacking the monastery was wrong. He managed to warn his brothers and sisters and as fate would have it, during the battle, the two met on the battlefield. They had sworn not to fight each other and ignored each other on the battlefield. However, fate would not have it, and it wasn’t long when the battle was near it’s end in the monastery and the two had once again, come face to face. Jay was standing in front of the sacred room. Close to tears, both men went at each other, his friend wanted to destroy the monastery and sack the sacred room, which made Jay angry, and he poured his anger into his fighting, then it was over. Help had arrived, but Jay’s friend lay at his feet, dead.

[Seekr34]

Question: The RP sample, does it have to be the character we will play in this game?

[BlackDragon0]

Dragonblade Demouse ( pronounced: De- moose) Dragonblade. Male. (straight) lv 10. Fighter/ champion. Race: Halfdrow Seeker: no https://www.rpgcrossing.com/attachme...9&d=1623392317 Appearance: Male half drow 6ft tall. muscled toned. wears all black clothes. Elven chain mail and elven boots. And uses 2 elven long swords. Has a travel pack a quiver and a elven longbow. His hair is long and black ( showing some of his human heritage as does his size). His dark skin singles him out as drow. If he walks into a town people normally assume he's a drow assassin with great skill. He tends to look angry or brooding as he is a warrior. 1.rp. (You overcame tremendous odds on the battlefield. What were you up against, who were you fighting for/alongside, and how did you prevail?) Demouse wandered from his cave clothes tattered, except his eleven boots. Weapons frail and crumbling useless in a fight . No longer able to hunt. He started out alone looking for a new home. But each town he came to he would be chased from, at best or worse hunted for miles. The sins of his ancestors haunting his every step. Surviving on nuts and berries he finds by luck. He falls by a less traveled road, from exhaustion. Ready to give up. Demouse wakes up tied and bound in a wagon, being force fed a soup of some kind. "He's waking up", says a half elf. As Demouse looks around it seems he's in a small band of all half elves. "Ahh good we can learn who he is then.", said one who must have been the leader. "I'm Demouse of no house...", he responded groggily. "Well he speaks common.", laughed another near the wagon. As the one who had been feeding him asks Demouse, "How did you come here?" Demouse hesitated to answer, "Speak your answer will determine your fate.", said the leader. So Demouse told them his tale. " Ok then", the leader began. " here's what we can offer you.", he said as he told Demouse of their current plans to hit a orc camp. That Demouse would take out 2 sentries and if he survived that he could be allowed to keep what he found and could use from them. And be on his way, but if he even seemed like he would betray them, he would die. Shortly the wagon stopped and he was cut free they handed him a small knife. He approached the camp with 2 archers flanking him ready to end him at first sign of betrayal. He moved with out a sound as he snuck up behind the orc and his goblin companion. Knowing the orc was the larger threat he slit it's throat first. then flipped the knife backwards and stuck it into the neck of the goblin. As he lowered the orc to the ground. Both died without a sound or knowing death had come for them. The sentries down the elves descended on the camp. As Demouse checked the bodies. The orc had a spear and loin cloth. The goblin had a chain shirt to big for him, oddly enough the right size for Demouse. Smelly though it was, it was better than nothing. Demouse put it on and continued his search the goblin had a short sword chipped and dual. Suddenly the elves were retreating as a second band of orcs had come to join this one in its raids. With no more time Demouse grabbed the short sword and began to stand, so he to could run. When out the corner of his eye he saw a orc bearing down on the halfelf that had feed him. Without a thought he flipped the knife from his hand flinging it into the orc's eye. It fell dead behind the elf, having failed to strike a single blow. As he turned to run he grabbed the spear and threw it at the closest orc. It hit it in the shoulder, as it fell it drove clean through as part of the shaft broke off. And the next orcs tripped over the orc, spear and broken shaft. As he ran through the woods the only sounds he made was his hard breathing. A archer appeared to his side and motioned for him to follow. Follow he did. After a bit the group returned to the wagon. The leader laughing."Haha, that'll teach em.", he chuckled. "I don't understand.", said a confused Demouse. As another half elf held up a bloody sack. "We took the leaders head. Killed one tribe and many of the other." the half elf said. "The Lord of these lands tasked us with delaying any further raids. As he rounded up his troops to march against them. I'd say we did that and more. And we have the proof.." said the leader as he gave Demouse 3 gold coins. " You earned it." he said putting a hand on the half drow's shoulder. "We all saw what you did...." said another. "You saved one of us rather than just run and save yourself." A number of the group said as one. Then the leader spoke. " We are the 'Elves of the half moon' A group of chartered adventurers. We are all half elves. And we have decided to invite you to travel and train with us." 2.rp(You were once in a place where the rules you knew no longer applied. Describe the scene, and how you responded to being a fish out of water) (In truth this fits both to and said chs whole above ground life but I'm hoping this is good enough.) One quest was for a moon elf weapons Smith. He offered one boone to them for retrieving some stolen items meant for highelves. The group pushed Demouse forward ( as he only had a single eleven long sword for weapons. Demouse asked for a sword liken the one he carried to be made specifically for him.( what he didn't know was this was one of the moonelf's early works) To which the moon elf replied "Why would I make a blade for a drow?" ( Drow are considered evil, assassins, & betrayed. They raid the surface allot. Their favorite prey moon elves. Demouse is trying to prove he is not like that even though that is the world he grew up in.) Demouse answered, " Half drow and tell me any one here who has killed more Drow than I? And this sword I cherish needs a mate as I prefer 2 blades in a fight especially when fighting drow." This peaked the moonelf's interest He agreed to forge a new long sword for Demouse. the respect he showed for a early lesser work was all he truly needed to hear. 6 months later they returned with Demouse carrying all the stolen items. The group told the moon elf how Demouse put more effort in to the quest than any one. And how he polished them everyday once he recovered each item. He carried them him self, as they talked Demouse placed all the shinning items on the table for all to see. The moon elf pulled out a sword and said ,"This is yours to use but I have a seal on its true magic. Until you prove yourself worthy and a little gold to boot. It's true name is Dragonblade. The sealed magic is a the dragon scale infused into the blade. It will deal great damage to any dragon wyrm or dragon like creature. Once in sealed." So the group gave him a new name Dragonblade. He joined on quest made money training even more mastering more than just the drow weapons he had trained with growing up. For 3 more years. Then near the end of a caravan detail, he was told the half elves were going to Cromyr. That Drow were not welcomed even if they added him to the charter. Dragonblade was ok with this as he was beginning to wonder if he even belonged with them anymore. He always felt as an outsider and this proved him right. Not that the group hadn't been good to him just that he wasn't ever actually part of it. Having overheard the conversation the caravan leader said they had several more towns to visit and Dragonblade would be accepted into each as part of the caravan and paid for each trip. So he did. After the caravan route was over he wandered about as a sellsword. Funny he wound up with more "Jobs" as though the whole world only saw him as a drow assassin. He has recently revived a letter from the moon elf to return . And his sword was unsealed. Now he truly was "The Dragonblade!". As a traveling sell sword he has come to this new place....

ooc looking for team leader or just a fighter team member role.

[Wynamoinen]

Thanks for the applications, seekr (OMG are you a ringer for that role?) and BlackDragon!

Originally Posted by Seekr34

Question: The RP sample, does it have to be the character we will play in this game?

Yes please. I want a sense of this character’s personality and approach, and the “voice” they’d bring to the game.

[wodine]

Originally Posted by Wynamoinen

RP samples: Below is a list of questions/prompts. Show me Two is all I need, seriously! No penalty for two and only two, and no bonus for more. But if you're anything like me, you might end up writing more, anyways, as you think about which is the "best one" for you to write. If that describes you, feel free to share more, but please post them in the order you'd like them considered.two of these scenes, in character. Let us hear your character's voice, and see who they really are: how do they react in novel and trying situations? Please feel free to interpret any aspect of these prompts in any way you'd like. They are meant to be springboards for creativity that relate to the flavor of the adventure. Length is not an important consideration. Understanding your character is.

So you do want parts of their backstory.

Just very specific parts.

[Wynamoinen]

Originally Posted by wodine

So you do want parts of their backstory.

Just very specific parts.

I like to think of it as “flashback” or “historical reenactment”.

[BlackDragon0]

included in back story is 3 shorts. but I just saw you don't want backstory sorry I put the whole thing in ...

[fomolobo]

Hello! Are you open to experienced 5e players who are new to RPG Crossing? I've done PBP on other sites for a long time. I just registered on RPGx so I still have noob status.

[Wynamoinen]

Originally Posted by fomolobo

Hello! Are you open to experienced 5e players who are new to RPG Crossing? I've done PBP on other sites for a long time. I just registered on RPGx so I still have noob status.

Yes! It's one of the first things the ad says:

Originally Posted by Wynamoinen

[LanceTheMan]

Interested, probably as an archer of some sort in the vein of the great archers of the Mahabharata. Is there any rule on ability scores?

[Lazer]

Hey Wynamoinen, this game looks like a lot of fun! I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon last night because your ad got me in the mood for that kind of aesthetic!

I have a character concept in mind, but there are a couple of ways I could develop it. My preferred direction depends on DM style, though, so I should ask; how do you feel about the Noble background Retainers variant? How would NPCs connected to a PC work in the game? Obviously NPCs would be under DM control but that would mean you would be controlling characters which you have had little to no input in creating, which doesn't seem great in PbP.

I did once play a game as a Chainlock with a Sprite familiar and the DM let me control the Sprite too, so she was a distinct character and there was a good back-and-forth, but I can envision some potential downsides.

[Ermine]

I'm considering joining as well, and I don't have any questions yet, but I'll wait until I see more characters before I fully commit. (Besides, I have a few concepts and I don't wanna overlap too much)

[Wynamoinen]

Welcome all!

@Lazer: I'd prefer you didn't use that variant of the background. Retainers are low-power, and they are symbols of your place in civilization. This adventure is high-power, and it is far from civilization. I don't think that variant fits the I can imagine a cute story where you started the travels with assistance. But you would have quickly learned the folly of that choice. Retainers would have run off and/or gotten eaten by monsters long ago. That could be an interesting little tidbit of history.flavor of this campaign.

@LancetheMan: As the ad says:

Originally Posted by Wynamoinen

I know making 10th level builds can be an exciting prospect, but I want to encourage everybody to presently focus on reading the ad carefully, thinking about the flavor they (and I) would like to see in the adventure, and writing an app based on that. Mechanics should mostly come later. Sketching out the basic choices of a build (this class and subclass; a focus on melee or mobility or debuffing or whatever) makes sense to me; when I build a new PC, those choices help me to feel who my character is. Picking exact stat arrays and proficiencies and feats and ASIs and so on is premature.

[Humble Hero]

Hey, Wynamoinen, just had a few questions:

1. I understand this is a part of a chronicled whole, so just to confirm, this means the adventure for season 3 will remain a contained and unconnected (to other season/s) approach to the story? Example, characters used in this game will only be in this game?

2. What is your approach to GMing? Are you hands on, do you consistently engage and provide updates or situations for players to interact with? Or do you approach things less structured and allow players to do multiple posts back and forth and expand their own adventure, until stepping in? Or some variation of the two, or something different completely, etc?

I did see that you likened to GM post every 4-5 days, per info above in the first post, but I'd just like to understand the GMing method or approach you plan to use!

Thanks, looking forward to your response!