So what started out as a thread has turned into our OOC, as people wanted to play and we got underway quickly. I'll leave all of the other initial stuff below, but wanted to post in some relevant game resources.
Character Sheets
Map of Circle Vale Commons
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Human Lands:
Dwarven Lands:
Elven Lands:
The Wilds:
Circle Vale: A decidedly neutral city, located at the convergence of the other territories, but owned by none of them. The Vale itself is under the control of the Abbey of Circle Vale, which holds the All-Mother above any other gods. Current leader is Father Ashmamsuit, a silver dragonborn.
The Eastern Cities: A series of city-states along the far eastern edge of the continent, difficult to reach, though commerce does happen via ship and overland caravan.
- Krovesh - a fractious city-state, with various noble families constantly vying for supremacy. Currently in the midst of a succession to power following the rather suspect death of the former leader.
- Krelpo - a steamy, jungle city. Rumors of snake folk stirring up problems.
Now with map!
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- The All-Mother - primarily worshiped by the Abby of Circle Vale, who hold that she predated all other gods, and smote the ground at Circle Vale in despair that all of creation was failing to live up to its potential. They follow The Way, a vision the All-Mother had for the other gods and their creations to aspire to as a means of enlightenment or transcendence. Many other religions pay some honor to the All-Mother in essence, if not by name, though there are a few that refute her existence. Deity who has claimed the services of Randerwaith.
- Mielikki - a goddess of the forest and nature, sometimes referred to as Lady or Queen of the Forest. She is the chosen goddess of Coljin. Neutral Good.
- Malar - a god of the hunt, shape shifters and blood. Followers assemble in small, cult-like cells, much weakened in recent years, largely by efforts of followers of Mielikki, who Malar opposes. Chaotic Evil.
- Obad-Hai - an ancient god of nature and the forests, referred to by some as The Oaken Man. He is the chosen (former?) god of Randerwaith. Neutral.
- Oghma - a god of knowledge, his followers are often among the most learned and strictest scholars. Neutral.
- Dumathoin - dwarven god of gemstones, mountains, secrets, and the dead. Known as Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain, The Silent Keeper. Chosen god of Dornikal Greystone. Neutral.
- Garyx - dragon god of fire, renewal and destruction
- Chronepsis - dragon god of fate, death and judgement
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Quests
- Investigate the strange silence that has been reported on the caravan route to the east - blights found to be the cause, they have killed and consumed all animal life within a few days travel. Party is currently investigating ancient ruins that seem to be over run by blights, the ruin itself points to a history of human, elf, and dwarven races working alongside what seems to be a race of gnomes... and indeed, the complex seems as though it were built for and by gnomes. A recording spoke of an "incursion" at the capital, though this runs counter to the established histories, which make no mention of a large, centralized gnome civilization. Humans came first, from the All-Mother, and other races were formed by other gods and godesses as they arrived and built races to worship them.
- Collect information and evidence of cult activity
- Collect information and evidence of orc activity
- Collect information and evidence of bandit activity
Rumors
- Civil unrest in Krovesh
- Snake folk causing trouble in Krelpo , tied to Church of Ksszeth?
- Orc tribes stirring through the wilds, possibly Umgrash's tribe
Personal
- Zephyr - Family once lived in Circle Vale, Abbey has promised to find what record they can > Surname of "Wind", family left unexpectedly, directed you to an old one armed dwarf who worked with your father, he trained you as an Eldritch Knight
- Rudolph - Brother may or may not be trying to contact you > has since left a letter, with destination, Rudolph left the party to meet up with his brother.
- Coljin - Brother Estin may have more information for you regarding Malar and his followers > gave you reading material, which you took time to study and have ADV on checks regarding the cult of Malar.
- Tess - Found a dagger with the crest of the Anello family
- Maji - Heard of a desert dragonborn tribe, would like to expand his knowledge of dragonborn culture.
General
- The Abbey's spies and agents in the field are supposed to be able to recognize a flower opens/flower closes hand signal from you should you encounter them.
- Bodies have been found by the party, staked to a rock and subsequently partly consumed by vultures. Footrpints point to orcs.
- Bandits that forced Krodop to join them don't seem to have been part of a bigger organization, though they were aware of the silent area lacking in all animal life
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Members of the Order of Circle Vale:
- Father Ashmamsuit Snowclaw - elderly silver dragonborn, current head of the Abbey.
- Brother Estin - an ancient human, hard of hearing, Head Librarian in name, though he handles little of the day to day administration. An expert on histories.
- Brother Gordruth - dwarven male, handles Abbey accommodations and housing, prefers to go by Gord.
- Sister Alruth - handles accounts and payment.
- Brother Wilim - a younger human member of the Abbey, recited The Way at the most recent Festival of hope, accompanied the party members that fought the gibbering mouther.
- Sister Dresfina - young human, she initially accompanied Wilim and the party members, before being sent back to alert Father Ashmamsuit.
- Sister Delva - rotund, older dwarven woman, runs the Abbey's kitchens. Fond of hot sauce.
- Brother Vai'lon - wood elf, Shadow Monk, member of the Abbey's Garrison on the eastern escarpment, head of scouting and intelligence. Hinted at an unsavory past before joining the Abbey.
- Brother Orodeth - older elf, works on translations and the like, reads and speaks many languages. Currently working on a Fey book that Randerwaith brought him, quite friendly with the ranger.
- Sister Penfrem - middle aged human, she handles book acquisition at the Abbey's library.
- Brother Holgor (with an 'o') - rotund, middle aged dwarf who was registering acts at the Festival of Hope. Quite jolly and friendly.
- Sister Rena - one armed half orc, she ran the strength competition.
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Townsfolk and festival goers:
- Buckleburry - Halfling, owns Buckleburry's Goods Emporium, in NW quadrant of the Commons. Jovial and a bit of a gossipy drinker.
- Lailum - owns and runs the Emerald Chalice, a tavern at the northern edge of the Commons.
- Dorbo - nephew to Lailum, helps her run the place
- Tom - the barkeep, rescued from the cellar by the party.
- Oldreth (deceased) - owned a warehouse SW of the Commons, killed by cultists who cut eye and mouth symbols on him
- Lai'tal (deceased) - male elf, produce and foodstuff merchant, accompanied Yoseph, Podrun and party underground, eaten by the gibbering mouther.
- Yoseph Anso - human male, accompanied Lai'tal, Podrun and the party
- Podrun Stonefist - dwaven blacksmith, accompanied Lai'tal, Yoseph and the party
- A sad mandolin player whose instrument was broken. Ulmwin attempted to repair it, and gave him coin to buy a new one.
Caravan Folk:
- Szartha - blue male dragonborn caravan leader, employer of Galt, Tren, and Dornikal among others who did not survive.
- Tren - human female caravan guard
- Galt - half-orc male caravan guard
- "Renny" - formerly deaf, currently mute orc cook with some level of cognitive impairment
Others:
- Arturo - one of the traveling merchants, Buckleburry told Randy he's an ass
- Dhavor - head guard of Arturo's caravan, told Buckleburry of the strange silences
- Krodop - dwarf, former caravan guard, former bandit, liberated from banditry by the party.
- Umgrash - female orc tribe-leader, reported in story and song to be notoriously violent. May or may not be involved in orcish unrest.
- Scribe Kel - follower of Oghma, half elf, reported to be heading up questioning of captured bandits
- Grev - leader of a small caravan the party encountered on their way east. Large human.
- Dryderion - leader of a band of centaurs
- Alistral - druid centaur, mentored Maji in assuming beast shapes
- Kreentath - centaur warrior
- Rothar - centaur scout
- Kreldoran "Stargazer" - dwarf wizard, encountered in the desert when the party stumbled upon his observatory tower. Old and crotchety, but apparently in possession of no small amount of skill and magic.
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Tool Proficiencies
Hey all...
This isn't an official recruitment thread, it's entirely possible that I may decide I don't have time to do it, but I've been wanting to run a 5e game for a while now... and with my RL group ending our Star Wars Force and Destiny campaign and starting one in 5e (with someone else as DM), I figured now would be as good a time as any. What's that? You're interested, but have some questions? Ask away!
What is the setting?
The world would likely be one of my own devising, and as such I may tweak somethings, but would mostly be sticking to what's in the core books of the edition (as I don't have access to the expansion books).
How will turns work?
As much as possible, I plan on letting players make their own rolls using a forum-postable roll generator (such as
Coyotecode)... this does mean that players will need to be relatively prompt and responsive. I'm not sure what my update schedule will look like yet, but as this game will require much less dice rolling on my end than the other games I'm currently running, hopefully by letting players do their own rolling, I can focus on story. I will be using Google Drive to share documents, unfortunately the form-fillable pdf character sheets are not form-fillable while on Google Drive. I'll likely be keeping a copy of baseline character sheets up to date and including links to them in the bottom of each post, as well as Google Drive drawn battle maps.
Well, I don't have the books, can I still play?
Certainly. In fact, this is one place where I intend to deviate from how most forum games I've seen generate characters. Since I have the books, and many players may not, I want to do a random character generation to avoid some of the need to be able to access game content. Shooting for less minmaxing and more taking an interesting character concept and running with it. I will roll up a series of Race, Class, and Backgrounds, and give players their choice of the results. Players will get to choose in a randomly determined draft order, and any unchosen character concepts may be the base for NPCs later in the game. Once you've picked out your character, you'll be able to flesh them out, chose gender, appearance, backstory (I may have questionnaires to this end), as well as making ability roles and making any class choices that need to be made at first level. As things progress, I'll work with you to let you know your options as your character develops.
How will you be doing abilities?
We will be rolling for them, roll 4d6, drop the lowest, add the top 3, then repeat 5 more times. These will generate your scores for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, and you may assign them as you see fit for your class and character concept.
I've not played D&D before, can I still play?
Sure! I'd not played proper D&D until Theis2's game here on the forums, and the upcoming RL campaign will be my first pencil and paper D&D, so I'm welcoming to new folks!
I've only played edition X, what is different in 5th?
From what I can tell, there are few distinct mechanics that vary from 3.5e (I haven't played 4e, so can't say what is and isn't different from that).
*Advantage and Disadvantage: This is a mechanic I find pretty interesting, and there are folks that go a lot more into the effect it has on the rolls produced, but at its simplest, there are 3 rolls I can specify characters to make when rolling a d20. The most common is just the standard roll. Your roll the d20 and whatever you get is what you get. Advantage and disadvantage both mean you instead roll two die, if you have advantage you take the higher, if you have disadvantage, you take the lower. This could be based on something (good or bad) that has happened to your character, or could be a result of your items, class, etc.
*Proficiency: Whether you are proficient in something (weapon, spell, tool, skill, saving throw) determines whether you can add your proficiency bonus. This condenses attacking, spell casting and resistance to your spells, skill use and saves into once value. It scales with level, and as long as you have proficiency with it, you can do it better. Your starting class, background, and in some cases, race, determine which skills you can select from to be proficient in, but generally you won't be able to add to those proficient skills except by taking the Skilled feat, or by multiclassing into select classes.
*Feats: Feats are much fewer, but are more powerful than in 3.5, with may feat concepts being combined. Part of the reason for that is that instead of being able to take a feat every few levels and being able to increase an ability score every few levels, instead you can do one or the other....
*Ability Score Improvement: Every few levels, you can increase one ability by 2, or two abilities by 1, OR choose a feat.
*Spellcasting: Caster classes have cantrips that can be cast an unlimted number of times per day, but are able to cast fewer spells at each level than in the past. However, low level spells can be cast at a higher level by using a higher level spell slot. In the case of some spells, this may increase the damage, targets, or duration of the spell.
I think I had other questions, but can't remember them just now...
Well, if you think of them, just ask!