For old time's sake...

:)

Ben, I'm not averse to giving it a go.

Nice ending story Saliq!

Very nice epilogue Saliq!

Thanks! :) I thought it suitable to end on a bit of a mystery. I also have a soft spot for elegiac endings - one of my favourite books is The Pyrates by George Macdonad Fraser. Its a farce, played almost completely for comedy but the last lines are just beautifully romantic and bittersweet.

Of course I doubt this is the last we'll see of Saliq, one way or another. :)

Picked up Mistborn at the library last week. I am about 100 pages into it now. The magic system is interesting (i.e., Allomancy): apparently based on the manipulation of precious metals.

The writing is decent, but the inner monologue of the primary protagonist is somewhat annoying. I get it. You can't trust anyone in this world. I guess I would rather be shown that through stuff happening in the book, rather than be told it via inner voice.

Going to press on through the book though to see where it goes.

That's only one of the types of magic too, though if inner monologue is a problem, I doubt it will get any better.

I don't mind sparing use of inner monologue when it provides additional context to the story, but I am fairly certain every use of the device in the first 100 pages has been some variation of: Mentor had always told Antagonist not to trust anyone--everyone will betray you.

At this point, I think it is safe to assume the reader gets the fact the antagonist has some trust issues. No need to remind the reader of it with this device every couple of pages or so. It is jarring, at least to me. Maybe it's just that I don't identify with the character?

That is always a problem. I hate books with no one I can feel for.

Having a week away at Key West to relax gave me some down time to think and rejuvenate some creativity, I hope.  I am currently creating a new "game" which muchly will mirror this one (ie-blatantly stolen) in which to invite you all to join with your current characters in the Ongoing Adventures of Stormhaven.   It has been awhile since I GM'd a game.  I did run some very good online games 15 or more years ago, maybe longer than that, time flies, but on pbem.com.  Several lasted 2-4 years with 5K posts or so, but also I Gm'd some spectacular flops. I did however have most of my games 8-15th level, so I'm used to higher levels.   And even my best games didn't rival this current game, but I'm willing to give it a go for an adventure or two and see if its worth continuing.  I certainly would hate to see this great group of players and characters stop here and now.   DM Storm has given an ok to the idea and also a few beginners tips (they have helped, but still I have much to learn).   He is invited to join also either taking on Gal, or even Eagle if feels that is ok, or his own creation to round out the group.  There will be a few minor changes to the House Rules and a new attack engine.  Maybe it will be luckier, but for any who haven't played with it, it offers a bit more random fun to the outcomes of attacks.  You don't have to roll a 20 to get something special, and to some degree, you get to choose the bonus best suited to your situation.  It's a DragonAge incorporation.   Anyhow, it will be about 2-3 weeks before I will be ready to begin if this group, as a whole, decides it sounds worth continuing.  If so, and your character gained a level after the last adventure, you should go ahead and make those upgrades.  Also, if your character lost any levels due to energy drain, please try to figure out what your xp's would be if that hadn't happened (show me the math), I have a different House rule for negative energy loss, you probably can get those back or already have.   If the group decides not to continue, I will be totally fine with that decision, I will still enjoy learning how to set up a game as I'm likely to do one sooner or later.

Well that's the best news I've heard in awhile! Count Ben in!

Did the exp get upgraded on the exp page there Storm? Not sure, but I'm guessing I did not level...

Picked up the lies of Locke Lamora today... looking forward to digging in.

XP totals are current.

It's a great read! You're in for quite a treat. :)

Okay then, close to a level, but as a thief I know it won't make much of a difference, still, every little bit counts. To be honest, if multi-classing wasn't so harsh I might consider branching out.

Thanks, Galadel. I'd give it a shot. I'm thinking I might like a new character (and we might need a cleric), but I am on the fence.

I'm happy to continue, and to remain Inas -- particularly if Rath wants to change.  We'd need a fighter type, and he's played Rath longer than I have played Inas, so he's entitled to "muster out."

I just had time for the first chapter before bed last night, but I am already drawn into what appears to be a fascinating world...

Wow, great news Galadel. I'll be happy to continue as Saliq. :)

Huzzah!!! Awesome... who's left, Storm, you want to join us? Sure hope so...

If you have a re-imagining of your character you want to pose, PM me.  While this current game stuck pretty close to the core rules, with a few neat house options, like the Fate Points, I am going to have a few more house rules.  I understand the concept for the Dual Class vs. Multi-class and an attempt to balance human vs non-human power options, but some of it plays pretty silly. In a lot of such games, the starting rules say to take max Hp's for first level.  In that case, all human mages should start as Rangers (if they have the stats for it) or at least fighters if not, and immediately switch to mage.  Still have all the mage skills and 10 or 16 hp's to start.   Weird, and nonsensical, but allowable by rule. I'd rather have things make more sense and tweak a few a rules.   Anyhow, this will be a continuation as much as you decide to make it, it will quite naturally be different, a parallel world perhaps.

Might be interesting for Rath to begin developing Cleric abilities. Not sure how that would work, rules-wise.

Let's talk.

Hmmm... in a perfect world, how would I tweak Ben? Fascinating idea...

I had considered cleric, and I can see how that would make a little sense. Does your alternate set of rules offer anything new and interesting to thieves, or have any fun mechanisms for assassin? Be funny to be a thief-Paladin, but that would require a world like mine, where every god has Paladins, and alignment is more flexible.  Be fun to have 'sense loot' instead of 'detect evil' as a power, and instead of lay on hands, lay on purse which puts a few coins into someones possession.

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 18):

Glad to hear you are enjoying the book so far. It is/was one of my favorite fantasy books I've read in a long while :)

I'm not sure how much reimagining is really possible with a ranger, so I will declare myself content.

Ben, I also had a world where all gods had paladins.  I used to play them all the time, kinda a fascination of mine for years.  I even had a set of six types of LG paladins, the most powerful of which had to commit an act so evil they could never be forgiven.  Therefore, their acts of good and kindness were not predicated on a promise of eternal bliss, they were doomed to hell, and still did good for goodness sake alone.  No wonder I'm nuts :-).  Anyhow, I have an intriguing idea, just need to think it through a bit, but I think you'll enjoy it.

Excellent! It would be nice to suddenly be a tad bit more useful...

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 27):

You do have a 1st ed Players Handbook handy?

Several...

Probably not. I pared down my games to just two (one as GM and one as player) and am kind of enjoying the "break". Not only that, but trying to focus on studying for promotion and starting up a new game won't help that endeavor.

:)

Come on over.  I still estimate it will be Monday after next before I begin any in game posting.  And believe me, I may stumble a few times over technical issues for a little while.  In fact, I already got a warning, first from Mr Storm, and then from the rpol moderators, for creating a second account.   Oddly, after finding out it wasn't allowed, I still couldn't figure out how to delete it.  They have taken care of that for me, and I assured them it won't happen again.  Anyhow, I think you'll need to RTJ and once approved go ahead and set things up and level up if it was due at the end of the adventure.  Things should look pretty familiar.

link to another game

Downloadable game files for anyone who wants them:

https://drive.google.com/folde...iQ0k&usp=sharing

Awesome, thanks so much.

Wow, thanks for this! :)

I notice several of you log in from time to time. Hope all is going well with each of you in your lives and continued adventures in Stormhaven!

I also pop in from time to time in your game, but I can't see the active game thread, so I am not really sure what your characters are up to these days, but I am sure they are living up to their reputations :)

Thanks DM Storm, I'm sure you could be added as a lurker if you wanted? :)

Yeah I come into the old game to look up details a lot of the time and relive the good times!

Good to hear from you, Storm.

Hello all! Do any of you know whether Ben ever reappeared?

No word from Ben, I’m afraid. We still refer to him occasionally.

He is a legend who's name and exploits will live on!

After he vanished from posting for quite awhile, I went and checked out the games he GM'd and he'd vanished there too.

I kept reaching out to him for awhile and finally he r-mailed me in May 2017 to say he'd been having a tough time of it but things were looking up and he'd be back in a few days.  That was the last I've heard from him.  I keep pinging him though. Hoping he's ok.   Ben as a character is still alive but is "on assignment", so if he ever shows up again and wants to rejoin, he could.

Thanks. I always wonder what might be going on when players disappear without any warning. Hopefully things are going better for him now.

Yeah, I'll add myself to the group that misses Ben and as you say I hope things are going better for him.

It is nice to hear from you DM Storm. How are things going? :)

Things are going well for me and the family, Saliq. I have moved back to the mainland and now live in South Carolina...at least for the next year or so. Who knows where next? :)

I still have a few games here on RPoL:

1) 5th edition D&D game set in the Icewind Dale region of Forgotten Realms
2) Basic D&D conversion of the Red Hand of Doom campaign for 3rd edition
3) Castles & Crusades game set in a Conan-esque style setting

Pretty close to wrapping up the 5th edition and Castles & Crusades game, well at least close by PbP standards ;)

Offline, I am currently running the 5th edition Tomb of Annihilation adventure. We are about 6 sessions into that adventure and having a good time romping through the jungles of Chult right now.

Hopefully all is well with you too!

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 44):

Thanks, yeah things are going well. I became an uncle last year which has been an adventure. :)

Cool to hear you are running games in real life. How are you finding 5e after some experience?

Congrats! Kids are fun...especially when they are somebody elses! :)

***

I like 5th edition a lot. It is very easy to run and has some great time-saving and fun-making mechanics (Advantage/Disadvantage, Short/Long Rests, Inspiration, streamlined skill lists, ability to overcast low level spells to make them more powerful, etc.).

If I am being honest, it's probably my favorite edition of D&D. This assessment does not take away from my fondness of other editions, but I think 5th edition did a great job of taking all the fun/accessible elements from each edition and putting it into one game.

Yeah, he's great! :)

I know what you mean about 5th edition. I began reading and buying (A)D&D in the mid 90s so even though I didn't get to play regularly until college and 3.X edition era I always think of 2nd edition as my starting edition. 5th has a lot of what I love most about that period - the sheer flavour - wrapped up in a simpler and elegant system. It might be my favourite too!

My two nieces, who never showed interest in dnd, started playing 5ed when it came out.  So I had to buy the basic books just so I could relate to what they were talking about.  What I read I really liked but I think I should find a 5ed game here to play, its really the only way to learn.

Why not just ask to play with your nieces? You should get the hang of it very quick, after a session or two. It's pretty straight-forward.

I'd love to and maybe we can run a short game when together at the beach or so, but both are now in different colleges and far from their uncle!!

In reply to Galadel (msg # 50):

Hmm. Any of you have interest in a 5th edition D&D one-shot adventure, to give Galadel a taste for the system?

I'm interested!

It's funny -- I got a message from my own niece (at college) a few weeks back telling me she had just started playing D&D and asking me to run a one-shot for her group via Skype. I'm going to run a 5E version of the Forsaken Temple of the Serpent King (with my own alterations).

Also interested!

Certainly, I'm interested!

Cool. I did a double-take when I saw that adventure name, Forsaken Temple of the Serpent King, and I was like, oh cool, I know that module. Then tried to remember where I knew it from...and then it dawned on me...this game!

Can't go wrong with creepy snake-worshippers in diaphanous robes, doing evil stuff inside a sunken ziggurat in a marsh. That was a fun adventure...especially pissing off Ben with Lord Myron being involved! LOL

***

At any rate, good to know you're interested. Time to start thinking....

Duly noted...

+2

Awesome! +3

Not sure how many players you want for a one off, but I added two players to fill the power void left by losing Eagle and Ben, they've been good additions.

Have any of you played in D&Ds Adventurers League?

I am kind of thinking about running an Adventurers League-style game, as they have quite a few excellent short adventures that are built to be run as either five 1-hr mini-adventures or single 2-hr adventures, in a traditional tabletop setting that would probably translate really well to PbP.

Specifically, I am looking at the Season 5 (Storm King's Thunder) adventures, for those who are familiar. Those were my first exposure to 5th edition and I thought they did a really good job of teaching the game.

Thoughts?

I know none of those

I haven't participated in AL and I'm unfamiliar with the adventures, but, from what I know about the format, I agree that it would translate well to RPoL.

I've been playing 5e on RPoL for about one year -- just made level 3!! -- and I ran a few sessions for my son and some friends. I'm pretty well versed in the rules, but not very experienced. I'll trust your judgment for a suitable starting point for all of us.

I'd be in the same boat with no real experience with AL, but happy to try. :)

I know nothing of any of these things . . . but my son may have a 5E book he's not using.

In reply to Inas Eoinsson (msg # 63):

You wouldn't need a PHB. If you want to give 5e a whirl, you could use the free Basic D&D rules, which allow you to make a character using the following race/class combinations: human, dwarf, elf, halfling, fighter, cleric, wizard, and rogue.

PHB gives you access to other character race and class options.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 64):

I'm game then . . . no pun intended.

Happy New Year Stormhavians! May your goblets ever be filled with the finest of mulled wine from the cellars of the High Sultan of the Empire of the Shifting Sands himself and your hearth stoked with sweetneedle pine from the primordial forests of the Northern Kingdoms!

Shane

*Raises a goblet in toast*

A wish returned in full my friend. Happy New Year! :-)

Ross

Do you have anything harder? I'm not sure Rath can choke down any more mulled wine.

Very well, Gwinkel Woodknuckles' Triple-Barrel, Special Reserve Gnomish Whiskey for you then!

Much better. Thanks!

Hello folks!

Hopefully life is treating you all well. As for myself, the last few months have been really good.

On the gaming front, this past summer I ran a Kids-Only (ages 10-14) 5e D&D mini-campaign at the local game store. This game was loosely based on the excellent cooperative board game Forbidden Island and was a lot of fun. Table size for that game ran from 5-10 players and those kids really kept me on my toes! Running games for kids is a lot of fun because they don't approach the game the same way as adults. Lots of outside-the-box thinking and you need to be really good at improv to keep the game moving.

I also wrapped up my 18-month 5e D&D Tomb of Annilhilation campaign, in which the players were successful in foiling the machinations of the notorious lich Acererak and ending the Death Curse that had plagued the lands. I ran that campaign under the Adventurers League format, and over the course of the campaign over 40 players ran through that adventure! We did have a fairly steady crew of 4 players, but having new players drop-in/drop-out kept things pretty dynamic.

I was able to wrap up the last of my PbP games, Realms of High Adventure, earlier this month in what hope was a satisfying conclusion to a Basic D&D game that had been running for 3 years and which had started as a "one-shot". In the end, the players prevailed against the Red Hand of Doom and prevented their warlord from summoning Tiamat into the vale and visiting certain death upon the citizenry of that far-flung realm.

On the non-gaming front, my family completed the South Carolina Ultimate Outsider challenge, in which we visited all 47 state parks! It tooks us a little over two years to visit all the state parks and was a very memorable adventure consisting of camping, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, fishing, swimming, horseback riding, body-boarding, and just sitting back and enjoying the great outdoors.

I also got orders a couple of weeks ago, wherein we will be moving to San Antonio, Texas in January! We're really excited about this move and the new opportunities it will present. I think this will be my last assignment in the Air Force and we will be putting down roots in Texas. I have 23 years in the Air Force and this assignment should bring me to 25-26 years of military service. Air Force basic training is in San Antonio and there is something fitting about ending my military career in the same place where it began. Texas is also a really good place to retire and has good job opportunities for both me and my wife. Excellent schools for my kids too, who are both now in middle school.

Obviously most of my focus is on moving right now and as a result, I won't be doing much gaming in the next few months...but have definitely been thinking about what I want to do next! Lots of ideas to be sure, but need to sort out our move first.

At any rate, like I said up front, I hope all of you are doing well and the dice roller has been cooperating lately!

:)

Shane

Wow that all sounds incredibly cool. Very glad to hear you are having such an eventful (in a good way!) time Shane, and if you ever want to pick up the virtual dice bag again give us aholler. :)

Thanks for the update. It's great to hear that things are going so well for you.

I've managed (finally) to get a table-top D&D game off the ground with family and friends, sort of weekly barring those not uncommon occasions when someone has a scheduling conflict. I'm pretty rusty as a DM, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. It's been at least 13 years since I've had a regular group. Thank goodness for RPoL!

San Antonio is one of the few places I've been in Texas and it was a really awesome town.  Sounds like things are going well, that's great!  Like Rath, I haven't played a table game in at least 15, maybe 20 years.  I love online gaming now, not sure I'd remember how to roleplay in a face to face group.  Maybe when I retire I'll try to find a game.  My niece plays all the time so maybe by then, she could bring the old man along! Best of luck with the relocate!  If you ever get a hankering to play rather than GM, let me know, I'd love to have you play!

Hello folks!

Starting to get the PbP itch again and was wondering if any of you know of any good games looking for a player?

Hey DM Storm! :)

I'm afraid I'm not in any new games at the moment but if anything pops up I'll let you know. Just AD&D or other systems/settings?

Hello everyone!

Checking in to see how everyone is doing in these strange times...

As for myself, we moved to San Antonio, TX this past January and barely had time to get settled in before COVID-19 struck and changed everything. My family has stayed healthy throughout, but the pandemic has definitely impacted our ability to get out and explore the city. I am told there are a lot of things to do here, but I haven't really had the opportunity to do very much while here. I guess at some point when things return to some level of normalcy, I will have a better sense of the area. From what I have seen, I like it here, just the times we are living in leave something to be desired :)

On the gaming front, I migrated all my tabletop games to virtual tabletop (VTT), in my case Roll20. I have been running two VTT campaigns since last March--one for my kids and their friends/cousins (six children, ages 11-14) and one for adults--on alternating Saturdays. Same campaign/adventure, just different groups, so it has been very interesting to see how the Kids and Adults approach the same problems, differently. Interestingly, the Kids' game wants to parlay with adversaries and the adults have murder-hobo tendencies. Opposite of what you might expect, perhaps?

This past summer, after a year-long break, I got the itch to do play-by-post again. I restarted the Basic D&D Red Hand of Doom campaign I had been running, to run the finale of that adventure (dungeon delve inside crazed dragon cultists' lair who are trying to summon Tiamat from the Abyss into the world). Having a lot of fun with this game and excited to see how it plays out.

Around the same time, I also started up a trial/one-shot 5e D&D Eberron game. This game is close to completion and I am fairly certain I will shutter the game as soon as we complete the adventure.

At any rate, hopefully life is treating you well!

Shane

Hey there Storm,

Nice to hear from you.

I too have moved, though to Vegas. Not sure if that is new news or not. I took a LONG break from RPoL, but I am giving it another try. Oddly enough, the first game to tempt me was an extension of this one, with new characters. I much prefer lower levels.

Taking it slow though, don't want to burn out.

Glad to hear you are well...

I'm very glad to know that Ben is still out there!

I eased way back on my online gaming, although I'm considering re-entering the fray. Work was extremely stressful during the initial COVID shutdowns and then the re-openings, but things have settled down at the front. The family is dragging through our isolation, which has been exceptionally challenging on the fourteen year old starting high school this year (and for his aging parents).

I am running a hybrid in-person/virtual game for family (who can share my space) and friends (who cannot). I'm using hand-drawn maps and a camera to share them, along with some video-conferencing software. We've adjusted pretty well to the format, but I find DMing even a three hour session to be exhausting. I sometimes think about looking into virtual tabletops, but I'd need new hardware and more time than I have to dig into the options.

I hope all is well with everyone. I miss the old group!

Wow Aldo, that sounds pretty impressive! And fun!

I agree that does sound a lot of fun! :)

Things aren't terrific here in Ireland Covid-wise (we're heading back into heavy restrictions) but we're coping.

Glad wveryone is well.  I've had nothing of note happen.  The worst part is my wife's difficulty coping with the Covid restrictions and isolation.  Or, it may be her difficulty coping with extra doses of me.  Probably both.

Still playing RPoL.  I'm in the Stormwind extension too, as well as the Red Hand restart.  The one tabletop game I played in has moved to virtual, using Fantasy Grounds.  It works out well, but nothing truly replaces face to face gaming.

Happy to know you are doing well and have returned to RPoL.

For what it's worth, I also prefer lower levels, both as a player and especially as a DM :)

Great to know you are coping as best you can through these challenging times. My kids are now 13 and 12, and we had just moved to a new state right before COVID hit, so they really had no opportunity to make friends. Been tough.

You don't necessarily need much hardware to run VTTs, depending on the VTT platform you use. I have a fairly basic 15" laptop, but I did purchase a second monitor because I needed more real estate. I use Roll20 for the VTT and Discord for Voice. We don't use video.

If you're interested in seeing how I have things set-up, let me know, I can walk you through and show you a demo to give you an idea of what's available. There are of course other VTTs out there (Fantasy Grounds, Foundry, Tablesmith, Epic Table, etc.), but I am most familiar with Roll20.

Yeah. I do miss some aspects of playing around the table, but to be honest, it's also kind of nice playing from home...

Just happy to be gaming when all is said and done. :)

I expect we're heading back toward restrictions where I live as well. Things are starting to heat back up again, with higher infection rates, etc.

Just doing what I can to prevent unnecessary community spread so have mostly stayed home and/or within my immediate family bubble these past 8 months.

The benefits of play-by-post are so large, you can do so many wonderful things here, but yes, somehow it falls short of face-to-face.

The ability to communicate separately to an individual or a group is massive, and I use it a lot when I DM. I love the ability to open private threads, and the language function is very nice too. Being able to see everyone's dice is pretty sweet for a paranoid DM like me as well.

Also fun to meet people from all over, and be able to play in snippets whenever you have the time.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 84):

Thanks, I might take you up on that.

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 87):

I do love play by post, and I've been considering running a game on RPoL for years, but there are a few barriers for me. Mostly, I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew. And I can't stand that player turnover that I see in most games. That would bother me in a game I might run.

That is tough. Tougher for me can be the fact that you never know if anyone reads your posts. Very frustrating.

No problem. Just let me know when. I am generally available during the evening hours, after 6pm CDT, Monday to Friday, with more flexibility during the weekends.

Player attrition is tough.

When I run games I try to mitigate this unfortunate factor of PbP by deliberately designing games that don't rely on specific characters. This, coupled with seeding games with known quantities, i.e., people you have played with before and know are reliable, sometimes works.

Rath, you could form a game with us as "known quantities."

I would be in, given it starts at level one. I know a lot of people prefer higher levels.

I'd be in for a Rath led adventure too :-).   I also tend to try too much epic arching story, which can just crumble when you start having attrition.  I've been trying to learn from Storm and other such excellent DM's I've been around to make each leg of the story "nearly" stand alone and with definable and achievable goals.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:00, Wed 21 Oct 2020.

Thanks for your support! I’ll give this some thought. I need to be realistic about my capacity these days.

I’ll reach you all here as things develop.

I agree that from a player's standpoint that is very helpful as well.

I have trouble with the capacity issue myself. My energy levels fluctuate to much, and when I am doing well it is easy to bite off more than I can chew.

Hey, everybody.

I'm a player in long-running (5 year) 5E Princes of the Apocalypse game and we need another player to take over a 5th level war cleric. The game is generally fast-paced (as far as posting rates go) but ... 5 years, 5 levels. You do the math.

Knowledge of the 5E rules is a plus, and we use (free) D&D Beyond character sheets.. The DM handles all the dice rolling, and he doesn't pull punches. We use a gritty healing system. Long rests don't allow for recovery of hit points, unless you spend hit dice for recovery.

If you're interested in filling some butt-kicking boots, let me know and I'll introduce you to the DM.

I appreciate you thinking of me, but this isn't a great time for me to add to my RPoL plate, particularly since I know nothing about 5e except that it exists.

In reply to Inas Eoinsson (msg # 100):

I get it. I can’t even remember why I picked up 5e in the first place. Probably curiosity with no intent to ever play it.

In reply to Aldo Rathmus (msg # 99):

Thanks for the invite. Sounds like a good game. My 1st 5e tabletop character was a war cleric. Currently 11th level, but I only get to play the character about once a year now. Fun characters to play for sure.

For those who haven't played 5e before, it's actually a really fun game and has a lot to offer.

Hope everyone is doing well out there!

Shane

Glad to hear you are doing well. I have played some 5E, and I find it over-powered for my taste, but to be honest with any RPG I find it is the people I play with that is by far the more significant factor than the system.

Take care...

Getting that old AD&D itch again...

I have some ideas in the hopper but not sure whether interest still exists.

I have also noticed increasing slowdown in RPoL posting frequency and it makes it discouraging to launch new games when finding consistent posters is so difficult. It was always difficult, but I think even more so now.

At any rate, hope everyone is doing well.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 104):

I know what you mean, frustrated with the slow games I find myself in.

That said, interested if you do opt to start something up, let me know.

Will do.

I don't want a blistering pace, but just something more steady, e.g., 5 posts per week, just to ensure the game can move along at a good clip and things can get done, etc.

I have tried to be deliberate in recruiting to prevent inevitable slow-downs, but somethings you just can't forecast what will happen in peoples' lives that prevent them from being able to log in and say, "hey guys, having life stuff go on, please NPC me..." or whatever.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 106):

I feel kind of guilty, I did that when I was going thru a lot of stuff. My life has settled down though, and though I don't have the energy to run a game, I think I'm good for playing, and posting five days a week would be blistering speed compared to the games I am in.

I am in one where the RTJ made it very clear that daily posting was expected, and now even the DM is showing up every three or four days, the players even less.

Sigh...

Do you want to discuss your ideas at all? I am all ears...

I'm in, too, if you'll have me.

Wow! Two of you are in and I haven't even pitched any ideas yet? :)

In all seriousness, I am currently running two games. Both are pretty close to wrapping up with their current adventure, which always leads me to start thinking about new game ideas.

My thinking has been a little bit everywhere in this regard, but after doing PbPs for the past 12 years and learning a lot of lessons the hard way, I can definitely say I prefer running simpler rulesets for PbP. It's annoying having to keep complicated effects in my head while merging 4+ players' actions, etc. While I like modern games e.g., 5e D&D, I don't necessarily like them for PbP. The best thing about modern games and PbP is there is a larger player pool to draw from.

AD&D 1e is pretty simple, but there are some annoying elements, specifically the to-hit tables and descending AC. For this reason I was toying with using Swords & Wizardry (S&W) as a ruleset, which is basically a reinterpretation of Original D&D with all the supplements, i.e., proto AD&D, but with ascending AC as an option.

I have only played S&W once and generally enjoyed it, even if it had less options than AD&D. On the plus side, the rules ate available as a free download, which is nice. The con is anytime I have run obscure rulesets (Castles & Crusades, Decipher's LotR), regardless of whether the rules are freely available, I have struggled to find players. So, that sort of is a strike against it. Successful PbPs have to be able to easily recruit new blood into games and the obscurer the ruleset, the more challenging this becomes.

Back to AD&D, it wouldn't be a big issue to reverse engineer descending AC out of AD&D, converting it into ascending AC, which eiminates the need for To-Hit tables and is much simpler for me to ajudicate. This would be a simple hack, doesn't fundamentally change the game, and is a nice quality of life change for me. AD&D 1e is not freely available, which is a con; however, OSRIC and Advanced Labyrinth Lord are, and both are close enough to AD&D 1e that you have to look real hard to find the differences. There also seems to be a larger pool of players interested in playing AD&D, even if it is a drop in the bucket compared to raging waterfall clamouring to play 5e.

So, with rulesets sort of covered...game concept...

Stormhaven was a really fun game that started with simple goals. I didn't have anything planned out. Just sort of created it as I went along, with the help of players' input of course. I guess it was sort of an urban sandbox that morphed into an overland sandbox with well-defined missions. It ws a successful game formula and that's sort of what I am thinking.

However...I have also been running a classic 3e era adventure (Red Hand of Doom) with an iconic BBEG using Basic D&D and it has been very fulfilling seeing this epic campaign about to come to a conclusion. That game also started simply, but eventually morphed into what it is now. So, that's also the sort of game I want to run.

I have another 3e era adventure in mind (updated to S&W, which would be easy to adapt to AD&D...assuming that's the way this goes) that does all these things: urban sandbox (port city similar to Stormhaven, with lots of modular adventure seeds), overland sandbox (bit of a mini hexcrawl with lots of interesting adventure sites), and an iconic BBEG endgame (sprawling dungeon) that I have been itching to use.

Similar to the Basic D&D Red Hand of Doom game, this campaign would take a couple of years to play out (assuming it ever gets to the endgame). Similar to my other PbP campaigns, this would also be a low level campaign, with characters max'ing out just before reaching name level. Again, assuming it gets there.

Sorry for the wall of text, but those are sort of my thoughts right now. Welcome any feedback or thoughts.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:48, Tue 27 Apr 2021.

I'd be in, I know my own posting rates vary as well due to real life, but I try to pick it up during combats, etc.   Any of the early game systems 1 or 2ed, or osric, labyrinth, or anything I can download is fine with me.

As long as the gamemaster is patient, I am not worried about the system. AD&D is of course my go to, but I am not married to it.

As to story ideas, again, it's all good. I really enjoy the urban game, when a GM is flexible and allows you to build things within the city, networks of contacts, etc.

I'm interested, but I want to sleep on it to answer realistically if I can meet the commitment. I can let you know tomorrow. Any system is fine. I've grown apart from AD&D and old-school systems, but I can compartmentalize that in play-by-post. It would be great to have the old team of players back together.


I strongly prefer not to spend a lot of time selecting equipment and calculating excumbrance. that could be a barrier for me.

Ben and I are not twins, but we think alike. :)

If it helps, I have a PDF version of AD&D, and maybe a link where it can be found online, both of which I can share.

But I picked up Labyrinth Lord readily in one of your other games, so I'm sure I can pick up any of the rulesets you listed.

My AD&D books are still within arms reach of my chair.

Some of mine are, and the rest are in a bookcase three steps away, along with about a thousand dice.

After thinking it over, I find that I am ready to join a new game. Let me know when you're ready. I'll be here.

When we were in high school, my best friend and I split the cost of a set of books.  I had possession of them for years, but about six years ago he sued for custody so he could introduced his high school aged sons to the game.  So I shipped them to him.  Consequently, I have no actual 1st edition books. :(

But as I said, I have the PDF versions.

If you're ever interested in relishing in the unbridled nostalgia of opening up a 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook, and don't want to scour eBay paying premium prices from somebody ratty, tattered, smoke-ridded, mold-infested book, I highly recommend the following print-on-demand product:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/p.../Players-Handbook-1e

You can also pick up the premium reprints of the Monster Manual and Dungeon Masters Guide. I believe Fiend Folio is now an option as well, but so far, not MM2.

The reprints are excellent quality and are fun to read, for old time's sake :)

Okay. It sounds like at least four of you are interested in a future game of 1st edition AD&D!

I may extend the invite to a couple of other players I know to be great players, consistent posters, and open to playing older versions of D&D. Cast size will likely be 6, which will keep things manageable and give us a little room for attrition.

The two adventures/settings/sandboxes I am considering leaning into for this next game are The Lost City of Barakus and/or Stoneheart Valley, both by Frog God Games, but originally released by Necromancer Games during the d20 craze of the early 00's. Both are well reviewed, have a ton of mineable content, and seem like they would make for a fun game.

They both feature a starting town or city, a fleshed out small geographic area that serves as the sandbox with story hooks, etc, and an end-game larger dungeon.

Have any of you played either of these adventures/sandboxes?

I have never played, nor heard of either of those settings.

Ditto, plus have never heard of Frog God Games.  But with a name like that, how could it be bad?

In reply to Inas Eoinsson (msg # 121):

Lost City of Barakus was an Enny award winning product (2004), but I did not become aware of it until very recently. But, yeah, Frog God Games is a pretty name and a pretty cool company, as well.

Not me, never heard of either, which is a nice change of pace these days. Too many people running Greyhawk, which I love, but I know.

Excellent! Sounds like it will be a nice, new experience for all of us!

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 124):

What is an Enny? Assuming it is some sort of gaming award?

Yes. It's the end of the year gaming awards hosted/presented by ENWorld, which is a website that launched right before 3rd edition D&D launched, and was initially THE forum to get news about the (then) new edition of the game.

It's a pretty influential website for whatever the latest version of D&D is, though discussion on those forums covers all editions of the game. It has branched out into a publishing and game studio, but it started as a simple message board by a guy who loved D&D and wanted to have a place to post news about the game.

Wow, very cool, good for them. I had no idea.

I am not at all familiar with either adventure.

A little late but I'd be interested in more gaming. I have to admit that creatively I'm running on a bit of low ebb right now but I'm hoping to get out of my funk.

Any clue when you might have to game set up? Itching to roll up a character. Hope we are starting at first. Thinking maybe a Druid.

Not really sure right now. I haven't done any of the back-end stuff I need to do to set-up a game and I have two other games that are closing in on the final scene of the campaign and/or adventure. I would like to have one (or potentially both) of those games wrapped up before launching another game, but definitely need to have the proposed new game setup first. I don't like doing this half-assed and starting a new game would be half-assed personified. :)

I didn't really know that the response would be to the pitch/interest check and I guess was kind of surprised people would be interested.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 131):

Okay, I will try to be patient. Good luck with your games that are wrapping up.

Just checking in, letting you know I'm still interested, curious how things are going. No rush...

Going well on my end. One of my PbP games just finished its first adventure and I am seeking player feedback while evaluating whether I want to start another. The other is just beginning the campaign finale battle.

Still reading through a couple of potential adventures that I may use a springboard as my next game...but now there is a new entrant that has come to my attention and need to evaluate for feasiblity...so need to take a look at that one as well to see what will work best for PbP.

I think I have ruled out one of the two adventures I was initially keen on running, for various reasons really, but mostly because I get the sense it won't translate very well to this medium.

I admire your attention to detail, those are factors I'm not sure I could judge very well.

Keep us in the loop, I'm eager to get started. Considering a druid this time, been awhile since I've had one of those make it past first level.

Thanks. I have been running play by post games for 12 years, all but one I was able to run to completion, so I have a pretty good idea of what works (at least in my experience) and what doesn't in this format.

Common adventure elements and game modes my experience tells me do not work (at least for me):

Pure crawls of any type: dungeon or hex
Reliance on doors, traps, or puzzles as a resource/time management element
Open sandbox games
Large casts (8+ players, but even 7 is pushing it)
Splitting up the party into separate groups for long periods of time
Games without a defined end

From a player perspective, I agree that those types of games don't work wonderfully.  Although  I have played in games run by a GM here where the games have a defined end but the universe does not.  We could finish a scenario, and then have a hiatus of months at which point he'll toss out a new adventure in the same world, same characters.

Similar to how you've done Stormhaven, except I've come to expect a break between chapters/scenarios.

Yeah. Not having breaks between chapters is one area I need to work on. This Stormhaven game basically plowed on, one adventure after the other, when it realistically should have had more downtime between chapters. Gives me more to think about for this next game...hmm...

Hey Ben I'm considering a Thief when we go ahead so I might need to pester you for advice. :)

In reply to Saliq Musfara (msg # 139):

Sure, any time. Ben was a fun thief. I am playing an illusionist right now in another game!

Starting to really take a shine to an old Mystara adventure (the default Basic D&D campaign setting) that some friends recommended to me when I was talking about looking for a springboard adventure for a play-by-post campaign...

I am about 1/3 of the way through and think it has a lot of potential for this format.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:04, Wed 19 May 2021.

I didn't even know there was one, I played Basic before AD&D hit the stores, but I very quickly jumped in to Greyhawk.

I did play B1 thru B3 if memory serves, but it was a very long time ago.

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 142):

The adventure I am looking at now is B10 - Night's Dark Terror. It looks like a lot of fun.

The D&D book I owned was AD&D 1st edition PHB, which would have happened summer of 1984. I had that book for a few months and when Christmas came around my Mom bought me the Mentzer Red Basic and Blue Cook Expert boxed sets.

I did not play much Basic D&D, but did use the boxed sets interchangeably with AD&D. I don't have a lot of familiarity with Mystara as a setting. There was a brief snippet of it in the Expert rulebook, but that was about all I ever knew about the setting.

Unlike most old timers (I guess I am an old timer now), I don't have a lot of experience playing or running published adventures. I only played/ran two published modules from 1984 (when I started playing) until 2000, when 3e came out. All those old school adventures people talk about...Keep on Borderlands, Hommlet, etc. Yeah. Never played them.

Mystara, as it appears in this adventure I am looking at, looks very appealing though.

I do have the Basic rules somewhere - it was before my time but I'm interested in the classics. I also have a few of the Gazetters I bought on DriveThrRPG and Mystara does look quite a fun setting.

If you are curious, I have a link to a site that has the basic rules, though they might be slightly modified.

I never played B10, always excited to try something new.

I also have a link to the Basic and Expert rules . . . somewhere.  And I have downloaded copies of both, so in a pinch I could email copies.

I had the '74 boxed set and then got the other about the same time as I got adnd.  I might still have it somewhere, but probably boxed away in the attic, lord knows what's up there!

Never played B10,  I had a steady DM in those days that loved doing the modules, (the giants, tomb of horror)  but apparently, he cherry picked them.  I've actually bought a few recently at goodwill and the like just for nostalgia purposes and found out they are nothing like he played them.

In reply to Galadel (msg # 147):

I started out with a disdain for modules, when I was young and full of energy to make my own adventures. That faded quickly, and I found some of the early ones to be quite fun. I was always willing to modify on the fly as needed though.

Good! Played as-is they're not very good. Speaking generally.

I don't know the B10 module at all.

I have the Basic Rules Cyclopedia. I have no idea how close or far that ruleset is from the other basic rules versions I've heard mentioned here.

My experience with TSR-era published modules is as follows:

B3 - Palace of Silver Princess (played)
X2 - Isle of Dread (ran)
A1 - Slave Pits of the Undercity (ran)

I have a few TSR era modules I have never ran or played, but own, and I have to say, for the most part, they don't really appeal to me very much. Without the cloud of nostalgia, I honestly don't see why everyone likes them so much. Perhaps it would be different if I had experienced them first hand and didn't have anything else to compare them against. But having not seen most of them until I had 20+ years of playing experience, yeah, they're not that exciting.

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 150):

I think a lot of what makes any role-playing experience memorable is the people you play with. I have really fond memories of the Giant series, but no real memory of what the modules were like, it was all about the fun of playing with that group of players.
That said, the modules I feel stood up the best over time on their own were Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (which is ironic because I really disliked the two sequels) and the tournament module The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan which was designed to be played in one hour, real time. (Set the egg timer!). Those were both well enough put together that I used them over and over with new groups.
Ravenloft (the original 1st ed. version) looked awesome, but never played quite right somehow.

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 151):

Very true. The people you play makes or breaks a campaign, module or not.

From a DM's perspective, I need a good story to sink my teeth into, at least as a starting point. It's not enough for me to just say, "let's just make some stuff up along the way and see what happens and keep playing until it's not fun anymore". I can't do that kind of gaming anymore. I don't have time for it.

These days I am very much goal-oriented and a strong hook/story/situation gives me a defined end point--especially with PBP--with marks/scenes/etc. to hit along the way. Without a strong story as the background (and finish line) for a PbP, I find it very hard for me to maintain excitment, motivation, pace, etc.

B10 has a strong story. It reminds me a lot of another PbP adventure I am currently running, Red Hand of Doom, in that it has a strong villain, pits the characters in a race against time, lots of cool locales, etc. For those of you who play in Realms of High Adventure, the campaign set-up I am looking at will be quite similar.

***
Re: ravenloft, I played the first half of the 3e version of it, was enjoying it, and then the DM got bored and had the campaign jump the shark when he polymorphed all of our characters into dragons and teleported us to another plane to play out some weird homebrew dragon world campaign.

I split off from that group and never saw what became of Dragon World campaign. LOL

That sucks. I probably told you this story before, but I have had too many DM's whose worlds morph to meet the current interest of whatever girl he was dating, or hoping to date. I've had fun worlds morph in Pern, for example, and a few other sci-fi/fantasy books along the way.

Not to give away any secrets, but I have had issues with trying to run stories, the players rarely want to follow the path it seems. I have honed the skill of running a seat-of-my-pants campaign, while allowing the players to think there is a plot, the game simply follows along with whatever they find most interesting though. When things are often, I often get compliments for having created such a rich campaign, I never tell them that their ideas crafted the story as much, if not more than my own plan.

I have lost the energy to DM though, and I suspect it is health issues, though how much is just age is hard to tell. I get the urge, I start things up, then I hit mental-quicksand and things grind to a halt. As such, I refuse (for now) to start anything.

I have had fun with starting one-on-one games here on RPoL, but they always die when the player gets upset over something that happens in the game. To heart breaking to try that again.

I might try running another game of Diplomacy on here though someday. That is always fun.

Ben brings up a good point...

I talked quite a bit about what I look for when running a game...

What do you guys, as players, look for? More specifically, if we're to "get the band" back together, what would you be looking for out of a game?

Gosh, that's a tough question, I'll have to think on that... :-)

I agree that pure sandbox seems to be a bad idea but at the same time you want some level of flexibility and scope. (Also I have to admit I'd love to play a dragon!)

I've never gotten a chance to do much seafaring in roleplaying, so that could be fun as could at least a visit to non-European cultures - Oriental Adventures and Arabian Adventures always looked so interesting. Actually I have the Complete Ninja's Handbook for 2nd edition and one of the 'non-ninja' alternate campaigns suggested was a medieval/renaissance fantasy James Bond/Mission Impossible style campaign, which struck me as interesting.

The PCs as the dashing spies and top agents of a small kingdom or city state sent to exotic states to deal with evil masterminds...

I like a plot hook.  It's been a long time since I played around a table, and often at that.  We used to have weekends where we started Friday night and played till late Sunday night, with very little sleep.  Grand plots, and deep storylines were great then. But online, that is much harder.  We did in a weekend what takes a year online.  If you have a long complex story, even really good players forget the clues they've uncovered (not all, some remember everything!),  but you also have attrition, so whole adventures get forgotten.  I tend to play till I get killed off, and then some, but I really love a good storyline, good character players who can interact even outside the normal story, add some flavor outside of just the norm  (this group of players here are about the best at that I've encountered)  and a mix of something new with a touch of the familiar.  I don't ask for much :-).


BTW, Ben, I know what you mean.  In both real life and dnd, I'm amazed at how many times I get credit for some plot/plan that just seems to develop organically out of a bunch of creative players/coworkers doing what they do.  And I think, did I make that happen, or did they?  Long as everyone has fun, I'm good with it.

In no particular order:

I want the DM to convey essential environmental information with enough detail to allow some immersion without devolving into walls of text -- enough detail to get my teeth into and to facilitate interaction with the world and characters.

I want to avoid non-fantastical resource management like calculating if I have enough silver coins to buy a pair of boots or if I have enough capacity to carry those boots without dropping to half-speed. (I don't mind playing resource-poor characters. I just don't want to use spreadsheets to do it.) I will tolerate some of that for a good game, though.

I want players who want to play their characters without using those characters to make it difficult to play as a group. I want players who want to interact with one another and with NPCs, who have some conflicts but are still essentially a functional team.

Sand-boxes are overrated. Players might have very strong ideas of a desired course of action (or they might not), but GROUPS of players seldom come to consensus without some very clear hooks. I don't mind following a railroad or at least a sign-post. I'm good at rationalizing a character's interest in pursuing the adventure at hand.

Ideally, I want a game with PC downtime for the sake of verisimilitude. We don't have to play out the downtime on screen all the time, but it's fun to do that sometimes. I like time to pass for my characters. Months, seasons, years. (I'm running an in-person 5e campaign that's been going on for less than three months in-game time and the characters have risen from 1st to 11th level. Not ideal.)

I like shorter adventures (or at least shorted segments of an over-arching adventure), in part for the sense of closure and accomplishment but also to encourage that downtime that I enjoy. It also gives players and characters a chance to come and go without derailing an entire campaign.

I'm content with traditional D&D fantasy settings, or traditional settings with That One New Feature^tm, but I'm also open to new ones or gently mixed genre mash-ups.

One of the first campaigns I played here on RPoL was a Basic D&D seafaring campaign. The campaign was supposed to be like Pirates of the Caribbean, with an emphasis on sea trade and the like. It turned out to be much less focused on trade and way more focused on using our ship to island hop to new adventures.

I started with an orphaned 1st level character (who I believe was originally played by "Ben Scristos" first) and we played for several years and eventually concluded the campaign around level 9. It was a fun campaign for sure.

I played a game called Bushido and Oriental Adventurers a couple of times back in the 80s, but was never really big on samurais and ninjas. Arabian Adventures, via Al Qadim, always seemed interesting, but I know so little of the source material and have always been reluctant to run/play niche games like that. The potential player pool for those kind of games is really small, so if/when you end up having to recruit, it's slim pickings.

Good point on the timeline involved to pull off grand plots, especially where clues, etc. are involved. I mean, if we look at Realms of High Adventure (the Basic D&D game I am running right now that is in its final battle), that campaign has been going for 4 1/2 years. Two of the players are original. One came in a little later and two...well, they are hardly even players at this point and came in really at the end of the campaign.

Maybe replicating that sort of grand, sweeping sort of adventure might be a bit ambitious?

That campaign isn't over yet, but will be seeking feedback on that one as well. Will be interesting to see how the players viewed it, versus how I viewed it.

These are all great points and I really appreciate the feedback. It helps me focus in on what is important, rather than getting swept up with delusions of grandeur (to borrow a phrase) :)

Definitely more for me to think about.

All good points, but I find myself agreeing with Aldo a lot.

Of course having the opportunity to indulge in down-time activities was something Ben did a lot of, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I also like a world rich enough in detail that the players can pull from previous encounters, etc. to add to their actions.

I'm not big on a 'gimmick' campaign, where there is a lot of emphasis on some odd quirk that often gets forgotten, I am really fine with the more traditional fantasy background.

I guess what I loved about the original Stormhaven was that the city itself had become a character in it's own right, it was easier to immerse myself.

That said, I am not expecting the game to simply be a rehash of that one, the world can be memorable without having to be a city. Small towns have their own charm.

I am not a big fan of the sea travel game, done realistically sea travel is boring, and making it exciting pretty much takes away the realism. I don't need complete historical accuracy, but months at sea simply doesn't offer much chance for adventure.

Finally, I really like starting as basic, simply normal folks. If a huge overarching and world shaking plot is going to come along, that is fine, but only after we have gotten on our feet, and gained a few levels. That said, I am good with that never happening, I don't really love so-called 'high-fantasy'.

Rath stole most of my thoughts.  Get out of my head, Rath!


I can add:

To the extent possible, I like the opportunity to try new character concepts, or new spins on old concepts.  I like my characters to not be the same as some other character I once played in some other game.  For instance, I'm running low on ways to make/play a fighter in AD&D. (I think I have one left . . . )

I guess with a sea based campaign I was thinking the actual boring travel parts would be background: 'a stiff breeze carries you west and five days later you spot Stormhaven from the crows nest...' or 'three days out of port you spy a red sail on the horizon...'

The fun stuff would be the exotic and shady ports of call, unexplored islands, desperate battles in storm tossed seas.

Thanks again all for the excellent input. It really helped me sift through a bunch of competing ideas to hone in on a more feasible, realistic, and sustainable game concept. Probably the point that really stuck with me the most is not starting a character-dependent game, i.e., a game that assumes the same characters will be present throughout.

Player attrition is really high on RPoL and it causes issues when it's time to recruit replacement players to take on characters who can't be easily removed from the cast, for one reason or another. I have been dealing with this in one of my games for the past few months and it's been less than ideal.

With that in mind, the next game I run will be similar to Stormhaven--a series of episodic adventures, this time with more of a wilderness/overland focus. I will try to incorporate more downtime between adventures and not have the entire campaign be a race against time, as previously suggested. This should better address the player attrition issue.

For setting, I am going to use Elsir Vale (a fairly generic D&D setting, i.e., a sparsely settled frontier region, and the backdrop of the Red Hand of Doom adventure). Some of you already know this setting through my other game, Realms of High Adventure. For those who don't, this is what I have been using for the Basic D&D game that is close to completion.

I will advance the timeline by about 10 years, after the conclusion of the party's fight against the BBEG. The outcome of the battle in that Basic D&D game will help determine Elsir Vale's status at the outset of the next game and may provide some nice Easter eggs and homages for those familiar with the other game.

While I really like the simplicity of Basic D&D and am sorely tempted to use those rules, I can accomplish the same feel with 1st edition AD&D, while still providing players a bit more character building options through more race/class combinations and spells. Similar to Stormhaven, I can jettison the clunky AD&D rules I never liked anyway.

One thing I do want to hammer out from the outset is which rules to use. We ran into some issues in the Basic D&D game that kept coming up, over and over again (particularly with spells), because I didn't clearly establish which ruleset were being used. I'd like to avoid this in the next game.

My preference is for using 1st edition AD&D books as the definitive source, but this assumes everyone has the books. I love looking through those books and it brings me joy to use them for games. I don't get the same joy opening an OSRIC PDF. Aside from access issues, the downside to 1st edition books is looking up spells is a pain in the ass because of the way it does the "Same as Druid 3rd level spell of same name, except..." and then when you look up the Druid spell it says, "Same as Cleric 2nd level spell of same name, except..." etc.

Might be worth the annoyance, if only for the joy it brings me to use actual books. Open to thoughts on this.

At any rate, after more reflection, I think this is the pitch. Thoughts, comments, concerns?

First Edition is more than fine with me.  Will it be with or without UA (Not advocating it; when it came out we hated and shunned it and I still feel that way, but if it's there . . . ).

Here's a nice hyperlink-laden site with First Edition spells.  Makes that problem of similar spells a little easier to navigate.

http://pandaria.rpgworlds.info...ules/adnd_spells.htm

If someone wants/needs a link to the PHB, let me know.

No UA. I am not a fan of it either. :)

I now actually own a pdf of the 1st edition AD&D PHB, so I am able to use that rather than Osric. :)

Knowing in advance that it is a wilderness/overland focus very helpful, and such knowledge is greatly appreciated.

1ed is great and I have all the books.

Wilderness is wonderful, given my interest in playing a druid. 1st ed is my go to anyway, sot hat works as well. If I were to run a game, the only major thing I think I would really change is using 2nd ed. thieving rules, because it gives them some say on how to improve their skills, but as I am not a thief this time, it matters not. It all sound good to me...

If Ben passes on Druid, I'm thinking that.

Or we could all be druids.

Druid is a strange class, given the scope/write-ups of other 1e classes. I read an forum post, penned by Gary Gygax over on the Dragonsfoot forums, where he talked about how the Druid class  came in the mail as an unsolicited player submission and he liked it so much he included it in 1e PHB, pretty much unchanged. It's an odd class because its design is so unlike the other AD&D classes, with exception of maybe the Thief. It has a lot of situational skills, with their own unique subsystems, and is one of the better-defined classes.

It sort of sticks out from all the other classes, at least in my mind, just based on its write-up and all the situational perks it gains.

The Complete Druid's Handbook from 2nd edition showed druids could be surprisingly diverse.

I have to admit as someone who really likes big fantasy cities, wilderness is a bit of a new field for me - even my barbarian (Fighter) warrioress Vala in the other AD&D game is someone who left the wilderness for civilisation.

Want to make sure everyone is clear--the next AD&D game I run is not going to be all sitting around a campfire in the woods, roastin' weenies and makin' S'mores. There are plenty if civilized areas in Elsir Vale, so I wouldn't build a character based solely on the "wilderness/overland" pitch I described earlier.

What that means to me is this game won't be an urban or dungeoncrawl. It will be a classic fantasy game with a good mix of all environments.

All classes will have their utility so please don't take my comments to mean everyone should play a ranger or druid.

The only druid I ever played, mostly due to my youthful want to be good, so never played neutral or evil characters,  the whole absolute neutral thing was beyond me, so the first and only dnd tournament I went to, I was a assigned a druid.  It was a strange one day adventure (based on a module I had already seen) where characters interact with a spaceship and alien robots, creatures, etc.   I was over my head in the whole competing against each others to "win" the tournament, but at one point, characters were allowed to box against an alien robot boxer and gamble on the outcome.  I quietly bet time and again on the robot (I figured being neutral, it seemed the better odds).  I amassed a bunch of money an xp's doing that one and only thing and ended placing 3rd in the tourney and getting some prizes.  Strange day.

Sounds like Barrier Peaks. Voted fifth best module of all time!

And yes, True Neutral in 1st ed. is a fascinating but difficult alignment for most people. In essence, if the world got dominate by good, the Druids were fight for evil, to restore the balance. I loved it!

Yeah, Ben, I get it more as I age, but my young idealist self, could not fathom such a thing :-).  Still, I play to imagine the better parts of myself...

In reply to Galadel (msg # 178):

Trust me, plenty of older people can't understand it either, it's pretty odd.

I sometimes wonder if there are any fictional characters that fall into that category.

Could you imagine Gandalf spending decades aiding Sauron's right, because the world had gotten to soft, then he turns around and guides the Fellowship to knock him back down?

Or what about Snape, Slyerin, but turning on Voldemort when he got too powerful?

This is premature, but I’m open to playing any 1st edition class other than thief or a monk (due to the low level incompetence). I’ll probably steer clear of a fighter as I’ve done that quite a bit, unless a character comes to mind that intrigues me. I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy a wizard, with 1 spell per day, but I might give that a shot, since I haven’t really done that before.

The game as described sounds like a good match, so I’m getting excited.

If someone else is hungering for Druid, I would switch to Monk, been a long time.

Cool. :)

As I've said I'm leaning towards a Thief but I'm not glued to that. Guess I'll see how it goes!

What will happen is that we will all politely step away from choosing druid to allow someone else to do it, and in the end all that politeness will result in nobody being a druid. :)

Hah! :D

It's entirely possible no one will qualify for Druid - you need a 12 Wisdom and a 15 Charisma!

(I'm still amazed I rolled the attributes necessary to make an Illusionist the first time around!)

Years ago I wanted to play a Druid but didn’t get the scores to qualify. I ended up with an hardened, hide-wearing fighter who was expelled from her Circle because she didn’t measure up. That was a great character!

Re: Unearthed Arcana

I pulled this book off the shelf last night just to take a trip down memory lane and to see what (if anything) I might want to include/allow in a game, today.

As I flipped through the book, it was eye opening to see this material 25 years or so after it first appeared. Frankly, I don't think it has aged very well. Probably the most useful items in the book are the additional spells and the expanded demi-human deities.

At a Glance

Expanded Character Race/Class Level Limitiations: Take it or leave it. In 37 years of gaming, I have only seen a handful of occasions where a demi-human character bumped up against the maximum class level.

Expanded Races: Mostly a Greyhawk focus here, but the new races are neat.

New Classes: I only saw Cavaliers and Barbarian in play a few times. Never seen a Thief-Acrobat. I don't have any strong opinions on these classes.

Weapon Specialization: Loved this as a young player, less enamoured by it now.

New Spells: A welcome addition

Alternate Character Generation Rules: Eh..whatever. 4d6, drop lowest works fine.

Comeliness: No

Social Class and Rank: Neat idea, but I have never run a campaign where this was a focus area.

New Treasure: A welcome addition

Demi-Human Deities: Very nice

Pole-Arms: Purely space filler to flush out page count to make a complete signature

Having skimmed through it again, can say I don't think we're missing much by not using UA. Probably will have the spells be accessible, if a caster wants to use them. Other than that, not looking to add anything from UA into the next game.

All I think I ever really use from UA is the extra spells. Actively dislike some of the new classes they liked. Barbarians and Cavaliers? Ick.

Lacking UA I'm mostly familiar with the 5e version of Barbarians, though I gather they are much simplified and balanced by comparison.

Doing some backend stuff to set this game up, but while looking through Unearthed Arcana, that then led me to look at the 2e Players Handbook.

I am looking to bring the 2e bard into 1e and am working up a conversion, as another possible character option.

Oh yay! :) The 2e Bard is a lot more manageable than the crazy old school Bard.

So if its just the group here starting out, that's five.  Rolls may determine what we can actually play as some are tougher to get.  But, let's post our first choices and see if works out to a rounded party (ie, not one thief and four druids :-).

You may have another player (possibly two) joining the cast. I have one player who has expressed interest. Good player. Good track record of regular posting, etc. There is a second player who I have not asked yet, but will likely do so, because the player is also excellent.

Good to know, though I hope we keep it manageable. I find big groups can really slow down a game.

Hmm. I think I'd honestly like to consider a Bard if I make the rolls, and assuming the conversion is pretty similar to the 2e version.

Otherwise I'm thinking either a Thief/Magic-User or a 'pure' Thief.

Itching to start rolling, can we roll up our stats here, or do you want us to wait till (if) you open up the new game?

Bit premature. Still wrapping up a game and working on some backend stuff. Rolling stats leads to assigning to a character sheet, assigning to character sheet means character creation threads need to be generated, character creation threads lead to house rules threads, completed characters lead to when we starting? etc.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

:)

In reply to DM Storm (msg # 196):

Fair enough. I'll wait. Sigh... hehehe.

Been awhile, how's things?

Howdy, howdy!

As good as can be expected in this crazy world we live in.

You?

All good on this front, health issues are irritating but not debilitating, can't ask for much more than that.

Still curious about the potential for game here, all my others are creeping to a halt, with concerns about actually demise always present in the back of my mind.

Thanks for checking in, all.

Unfortunately, I've been tied down by other real life commitments/concerns for the past few months and haven't really had much motivation, opportunity, or time to put into developing the framework for a viable play-by-post game.

Some of this can be attributed to the fact I started running and playing VTT games around the time COVID broke out (~March 2020). VTT has become my primary gaming/creative outlet and RPOL has sort of gradually faded to the background. This kind of makes me sad, because for many years (2009-2017) PbP was my ONLY or primary RPG outlet, but somewhere along the way, it lost some of its luster.

I also have some real life stuff getting in the way...

I am going to retire from the Air Force 1 February 2023, after 26 years of service, and I have a lot of stuff to do between now and then to prepare for a smooth transition, line up new employment opportunities, etc. This is weighing pretty heavily on my mind right now and making it difficult to devote energy to running or playing PbP games.

All this to say, not really sure if/when I will be running another PbP game, but appreciate the interest and will be sure to chime in here when I have sorted stuff out.

Thanks,

Shane

Congrats on your retirement, that's quite the achievement.

What is VTT by the way?

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 202):

Virtual Tabletop. In my case, Roll20 coupled with Discord.

My gaming schedule right now is as follows:

I am running two alternating groups through the 5e D&D adventure, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. One group is 4 adults and we play for three hours, Saturday evenings. The other group is 6 kids, and we play for two hours on alternating Saturday evenings. Roll20 for VTT and Discord for voice. No video.

I also run an open play, no commitment, drop-in/drop-out episodic Castles & Crusades game (think AD&D with ascending AC and a universal d20 resolution mechanic, basically a stripped down 3e) every other Friday evening. These are two-hour sessions and has a roster of about 20 different players. The most that have ever shown up to a single session was 9, but it's usually in the 4-6 players range. As long as two players show up, we play. Roll20 for VTT. Discord for Voice. No video.

And, thanks! Really looking forward to beginning the next chapter!
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:54, Tue 07 Sept 2021.

I envy your busy gaming schedule. Sounds like you found a much better option than this poor place. If you get the itch however after you've settled in to your next chapter, be sure to send me a PM.

In reply to Ben Scristos (msg # 204):

The gaming options available via VTT these days are astounding. As long as you have a computer (or even a cell phone, as some play on just their phones!) internet access, and a block of free time, you can pretty much find a table.

Gone are the days where you were limited by the circle of people who actually lived near you. Now you can play with people all over the world who want to play the same game you want to play.

I think PbP still has its place and will likely still fill a small niche, but I think some of the slowdown evident on RPoL over the past few years is due to many players being able to get their gaming fix via VTT, as the technology has become more user friendly, free, and ubiquitous.

But, yes, will definitely keep you in mind. :)

I'm also jealous of your playing schedule.  For me, it's not so much the tech as it is the time.  Taking care of father in law consumes a lot of time . . .

And congratulations on both your Air Force career and retirement!

I appreciate it.

For me, play by post is a good fit because my schedule is so irregular. I don't think I could play Roll20, when I never know what part of the day I will be awake.

Too many years working graveyard I think, broke my circadian rhythm.

There certainly are times when I wish I had stayed and retired. Though if I had I would have been in during wartime, which I dodged by chance.

Anyway, take care of yourself...

Okay...

Over the last month I have reflected a bit more about running a play-by-post game again. Realistically, I have the time. I know I have the time because I am still checking in on RPoL every day, even though I don't currently play in or run any games.

What do they say about old habits?

At any rate, I think I am going to give this a go. After thinking long and hard on this, I have refined the campaign pitch to the following:

Game System: 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Genre: Heroic Fantasy
Campaign Theme: Gain Fame and Fortune
Adventure Hook: The characters are traveling in the company of Corian, a wizard’s apprentice who posted a notice at a tavern in Bard’s Gate, The Starving Stirge, seeking the aid of able-bodied adventurers willing to join an expedition to a ruined wizard’s tower in Stoneheart Valley, just outside the small village of Fairhill, with promises of equal shares for all.

Six Truths about Stoneheart Valley
1. Stoneheart Valley is a sparsely settled, idyllic frontier region just north of the Tradeway and is straddled between the large, bustling merchant city-state of Bard’s Gate and the sprawling Grand Duchy of Reme.

2. Fairhill is a small, peaceful town in Stoneheart Valley with fertile fields and a happy populace due to the divine blessings of its patron deity, Pelor.

3. Stoneheart Valley is a land of verdant green hills dotted with pine forests and lesser woodlands, plentiful game, and isolated villages within the shadow of Stoneheart Mountain.

4. The region is growing darker of late and dangers abound in the form of roving orc hordes, marauding gnoll packs, scheming mad wizards, fanatical cultists, and more!

5. The Tradeway runs through the region and is well patrolled by both bandits and the Grand Duke’s sheriffs who hunt them, but has also seen an increasing number of orc raiding parties of late.

6. The ruined keep just east of Fairhill was long ago the home of a wizard who fell to madness in his pursuit of dark arts and in more recent years was used as an Iron Circle stronghold before they were rooted out by the Grand Duke's forces and forced to resume their illicit operations elsewhere.

Stoneheart Valley Map

Larger Regional Map


I will be looking for 4-5 active players for this game. By active, I mean players who are realistically able to check in on and post in the game every 1 to 2 days, not counting weekends (though weekends are honestly best for my posting availability, I know this is not true for all), holidays, and planned absences.

I emphasize the active thing because it's really difficult to maintain enthusiasm/motivation in a game when players are not posting regularly and I have to prod players to post, NPC characters, etc. Some of this is just the nature of the medium, but I want to mitigate these issues upfront by being very clear about posting expectations.

At any rate, this is where my head's at. Let me know if any of you are still interested.

Thanks,

Shane

You know I'm in, and I can (sadly) post dozens of times a day, though I will try not to.

Have you created a thread for this new venture yet where I can drop an RTJ?

Also what level are we starting at? I prefer 1st, but I'm open to anything really.

My response and question are the same.

You have my sword/bow/axe/spell book — not sure which it will be just yet.

I've got a new class combination I am trying in a 2E-ish game, and I am tempted to try it here in this 1E, though it depends on how DM Storm interprets the rules on a few things. I am playing a Cleric/Mage, and according to the RAW as I read them, they can wear armor and cast mage spells. In the 2E game I am getting cantrips and orisons, which don't exist in 1E, unless we use UA, which I think has cantrips.

I'd like to play,  1e is my most comfortable zone and I'm not playing any of those right now.  I find I tend to drag my feet when I'm in systems I'm still new at, mostly cause I'm always trying to look up some rule before I try to post or not do something that isn't allowed.

Depending on how hard it is to meet the stat requirements, I'd like to lean towards a fighter class, either straight fighter, or ranger, etc. depending.  I've dropped down to just 3 other games, and am playing an illusionist, a priest, and a war-priest.   So something without a spell book.

I'm definitely up for vacating my spot as ranger, but I'd have to give some thought as to what to play.

Like Galadel, 1e is my comfort zone -- but I admit that the class options can get stale after a lifetime diet of the game.  And cramming some ideas into those options can be a chore sometimes.

But I'm a bit stuck in my ways. :)

I love 1st. ed., playing it since 1978, but somehow I always manage to find some way to put a new twist on each persona. Class is such a small part of a fully formed character.  I've played every class, except Bard, some more than others of course. Ben must have been by tenth or twelfth thief, but he still felt fresh and unique to me.

I agree completely.  I start with a concept/persona, then try to make it work.  But it seems harder and harder (without duplications).

I'll kick it around and come up with something.  I always seem to. :)

I find that I like to work the image into my concept earlier and earlier. Somehow the picture helps me find the characters voice, as it were.

Okay. Great!

I have added you to the game and you should now see it among your active game lists.