All that works for me if everyone else is satisfied. I look forward to it! Cheers :)

Since we're coming out of a 10-month or so hiatus, have new players (to the group at least), and are continuing with what I hope will be a thrilling conclusion to the Elsir War saga...let's re-do player introductions. Please share as much as you're comfortable with, but I find it helps create a better game if it's not a group of random strangers.

Hello everyone and welcome!

My name is Shane and I will be your DM for what I hope will be a very fun game. I am 48 years old, married, with two kids (ages 13 and 12). I am an Air Force weather forecaster and currently stationed in Texas. Aside from RPGs, some of my other interests include: cycling, reading, playing guitar and ukulele, and camping.

I started playing RPGs in 1984 and have been involved with the hobby on-and-off since then. I have played many different games and genres, but D&D type games have always been my favorite. The very first game I played was 1st edition AD&D and it left a huge impression on me. I have played or DM'd every version of D&D (and several variants) and tend to prefer more rules-lite versions of the game, as I am not really that interested in mechanics, character builds and that sort of thing. What draws me in is storytelling, not really the rules.

Most of my gaming experience is as a DM. My DMing experience runs the gamut, from traditional around the table, real-time text-based chat games, play-by-email, play-by-post and online voice/video games (e.g., Roll20, Skype, Discord, etc). I started doing play-by-post in 2009 after moving to New Mexico and not being able to find anyone to play with locally. I discovered I greatly enjoyed the medium and have run and completed several games since then. I took a break from RPoL over the past year, after getting burnt-out, and to focus more on my tabletop 5e Tomb of Annihilation game (which we completed last year!) and to spend more time reading.

Game History:
We wrapped up this game last September, after a solid, continuous run of about 3 years. For reference, this game was designed as a one-shot lark--not a campaign. We completed that first adventure in about 4 months, decided chemistry was good, everyone was having fun, and started another adventure. At some point, the one shot adventure morphed into an attempt to run a conversion of a 3rd edition super adventure, and that's what we've been doing. Except I ran out of steam last year and needed a break.

Which kind of sucked, because there was one final piece I wanted to explore, but just didn't have the energy to make it happen. Until now.

Which is how we end up delving into the Fane of Tiamat.

I think it will take about a year to complete, but it's hard to tell with PbP.

At any rate, please feel free to introduce yourself and share what you feel comfortable sharing. Lastly, I look forward to gaming with each of you and working together to create a fun, compelling conclusion to the Elsir War saga.

:)

Shane
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:45, Thu 23 July 2020.

Hello everyone! Shane thanks for having me here and my fellow players, I am very much looking forward to writing and gaming with you all. My name is Brian. I am 60 years old, married, and have two boys (ages 23 and 21). To my surprise both my boys love RPG and various board/ computer games. I have had the pleasure of running games for my boys and playing in a game run by my oldest son.

I started playing D&D around 1980 using Holmes Basic. I loved it! I have played every version since except 4E. I began running games here on RPLO around 2010. I have mostly DMed so getting to play in a game is a very nice change of pace. As far as this game goes, I have been following it since its beginning. I am really happy to be here and I am looking forward to writing and gaming with you all.

I work in Health Care so having this diversion in this challenging time is wonderful. I love reading, doing meditation, Tia Chi, Wing Chung, hiking, and biking. So again, thank you Shane for having me here and I am really looking forward to writing with you all. It has been a very fun game to read along with and I know I will enjoy playing in it! Cheers :)

Been playing about as long as Shane and started with the red basic book and actually still have the dice (now heavily worn) that came with the boxed set.  Played a number of different games and genres throughout the years including Classic Traveller and Lords of Creation.

I enjoy games that are more than just hack and slash that allow characters to go off the rails to do what they think is right rather than what they're "supposed" to be doing.  I also prefer to avoid the metagaming and keep the game in character.

Currently living in Central New York but I've lived as far west as Fort Huachuca Arizona with some time working on a dude ranch in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming and a real life job in Boulder, Colorado.

Greetings to some, hello again to others:

My name is Steve; I'm 55 and live in Kansas City, MO.  I have two adult children, two teenaged step-grandchildren, and a nearly 6 year old grandchild.  I am a lawyer; I work for a federal judge, and teach part-time at the Univ. of MO - Kansas City School of Law.  I enjoy games of all sorts; other hobbies include and tae kwon do and watching movies and sports.

I began playing D&D in the late 1970s, and our primary game was First Edition, pre-Unearthed Arcana.  We also played (in the versions that existed at the time) Runequest, Rolemaster, and Paranoia, along with others here and there on an experimental basis.  I have dabbled with some of the "newer" games on RPoL, and play a tabletop game of Pathfinder every three weeks or so.

Fun Fact: Vaxfar and I have known each other since Junior High School.  We split the cost of the PHB and DMG way back when; he currently has physical custody of those books.

That is a cool fact! Do you have weekend custody?

My fun fact is I bought the 1st edition PHB with rolls of pennies I stole from my Mom's penny jar (one of those big glass water cooler jugs). I also used pilfered pennies to pay for the city bus to get the hobby shop. The only problem?  After I bought the PHB, I didn't have enough money left to take the bus, so I walked home instead (~ 5 miles). But the best part? On the way home, I found a DMG sitting on a bench at a bus stop...nobody around! Talk about total dumb luck!!!

I snagged it and walked home with a spring in my step!

It would be several more months before the penny jar filled back up to a point where I thought I could get away with pilfering again, but eventually, the MM joined the collection. Then, that Christmas, my Mom bought me the Basic and Expert D&D boxed sets!
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:40, Thu 23 July 2020.

No, but to be fair I had them in my custody for far longer than he has.  And he has probably put them to better use than I did.

It is very cool to see so many with similar ages, several fellow martial artists, and naturally D&D lovers... Love it!

Name is Chris. I'm 48 now. My wife and I are married 21 years next week. We have 4 daughters (35,34,33,19... or there about. The 3 oldest are from her first marriage, but just look at my bank account and you will know they are my kids. Our 3rd grandchild was born less than a month ago. The others are 5 and 3.

I'm an IT Director for the world's leading chemical distribution company an am responsible for all Data Center and Network Operations across North America and chair our Global Infrastructure Board. When work and family aren't consuming my time, I enjoy training kung fu with my 19 yr old, shooting defensive handguns, and an sort of adrenaline type activity  (racing cars, hang gliding, bungie jumping, etc.).

Started D&D in 1983 when I received 2 copies of Mentzer's Basic Set and have been hooked ever since. I actually have several copies now, but still have one of those gifted sets, including dice. Stepped away from it during my explorative years, and then got in to high end competitive gaming for a bit. Now I focus mainly on RPoL and some Roll20 as I find it much easier to fit in on my chaotic schedule.

Looking forward to rolling some virtual dice with you all and creating an epic finale to what sounds like one of the best campaigns on RPoL ever! :)

What games have you run for your boys and what game did your son run when you were a player?

I have been trying to convince my kids to take up GM duties, but they have been reluctant. I think it's mostly a confidence thing. Both have been playing RPGs for the past 8 years, so it's not like they don't know how it works.

If I remember correctly, the Basic D&D set came with soft dice and the d20's edges eventually rounded away such that the die would roll and roll and roll and roll...

Pardon my ignorance...what is high end competitive gaming?

Yes, the dice were made from a soft plastic. Numbers were uncolored and you had to color them in with a crayon... I still have part of that as well. Mine are actually in pretty nice shape. https://lh3.google.com/u/0/d/1...UsTj=w2560-h1297-iv1

I am sure you can figure out which one of the 2 is the original gifted copy on my shelf... LOL
https://lh3.google.com/u/0/d/1...5mPO=w2005-h1297-iv1


As for competitive gaming, it was primarily in the MMORPG-era. In 1998 I got swept up playing Everquest and ended up getting involved with a guild that was focused on accomplishing Server First (and sometimes World First) events. They're most famous for being the first to "Awaken the Sleeper" in Everquest.



This was pretty big deal because back then, if your character died, not only did you lose XP, but the corpse remained at the location with all of your gear. You would need to either have a backup set of gear in the bank, or try to retrieve your stuff naked... Raids back then were also major events of 72 people that took many hours, sometimes days to complete. And it was not uncommon for an entire raid to wipe, and you would need to take the time to recover everyone's stuff before you could attempt to continue. It took a lot of dedication and coordination to say the least. The sleeper fight above took ~200 people and more than 3 hours alone, not including all the clearing and stuff that had to happen before getting to that point.

In 2001, I got laid off when Lucent sent most of their microchip manufacturing to Hong Kong and had the fortune (good or bad depends on your point of view) to stay home with our newborn daughter. That is when I really started going down the gaming rabbit hole... running multiple accounts on multiple pc's with a linux servers to sniff the network traffic coming from their servers to find out what creatures were up in each zone, what loot they had, running raids, etc. Here is my now 19 yo daughter sitting in my ghetto command center back then. https://lh3.google.com/u/0/d/1...AU3wi=w1920-h937-iv1


We branched out in to other MMORPG games. I think we reached the #10 ranked World of Warcraft guild world-wide at one point. WOW, Vanguard, EVE Online, Warhammer, etc. pick one we were there and often with early Alpha access.  It was neat to have direct communication with developers to help with testing, etc. Hell, I even had one developer include a gag gift in one of my pre-orders... anti-fungal foot cream (wtf? lol)... no idea why, but was fun times for sure.

As you can imagine, all of this took up more time then a full time job and it really put a strain on my marriage. Eventually, I smartened up and put the gaming behind me to focus on my family & career and life is much better for that! I am happy to say that my wife is now able joke about it with me. We see all these streamers making millions playing video games and she will bust my ass that I missed my calling and if I would have been bringing in that kind of $$ she would not have minded as much. LOL

In reply to Elam (msg # 27):

Ah! Thanks for the explanation.

MMOs were one rabbit hole I never went down. The closest I came to that realm was when I developed content for a Neverwinter Nights persistent world server circa ~2002-2004. Never played any of the games you mentioned, but of course I am familiar with them. My hardcore PC gamer friends played all those games and would talk about them often...usually trying to rope me into that world. But, at the time, I was trying to finish up college while working full time and didn't need any distractions. :)

Thanks for sharing the story and the pics though, very cool!

In reply to Sarah (msg # 23):

Is it really a fun fact, or just a fact?  I think the custody arrangement was a decade at a time.

Yes, Steve and I have been good friends since Junior High.  He roped me into several things (mostly to my benefit) including debating and D&D.

My name is Arjun.  I'm an intellectual property lawyer with 2 adult children (19,21) who are almost done with college.  I too enjoy games of all sorts like board games and cards (including bridge).  I cycle, golf and bowl (that's on hold for a while).

Nice to meet everyone.

In reply to DM Pawn (msg # 25):

Hey! Well, my boys started D&D late though I played off and on throughout. My oldest, I think, got his interests piqued just looking through some of my rule books and sourcebooks. We had played many board games like Talisman, Risk, Munchkin Quest, and Blood Bowl for years as they grew up. It was not until my oldest went to college and met like-minded friends that he started playing D&D 5th ED. Then he started DMing and crafted his own campaign world with maps. My younger son was invited to join him and he loved it. When they came home my oldest would DM one-shots for us. Eventually, I ran a few of these for them during the summer, except I used Orginal D&D/ Holmes Basic which they surprisingly they loved.

We now play whenever we can including a lot of those old board games. The boys and I have a Blood Bowl League going on right now, which I am failing miserably. Cheers :)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:56, Thu 23 July 2020.

I was greatly tempted to pick up Blood Bowl again a few years ago after seeing an advertisement in a local game store for a new league that was forming.

I played it, and DungeonBowl, pretty heavily in the late 80s and then again in the late 90s (different edition). Great times and some of my funnest gaming moments are wrapped up in that game.

I usually played human teams when I was trying to win, but my more memorable team was a halfling team that lost far more than they won. But man, when they won, talk about stuff for the ages!

My name is Eustace Conway, you may have seen me on History Channel's show the Mountain Men.  If you've seen the show, you know all about me.

Okay, that was a bit of role playing.  My name is Robbie, and not a week used to go by that I wasn't stopped and sometimes pestered by people thinking I was Eustace Conway.  I'm his doppleganger.  Even now in pandemic,  when I go almost no where ever,  I get it a couple times a month at the gas station, and even once today when my wife and I hiked up into the mountains to a beautiful waterfall.

I'm 54, Director of Housing for a retirement community, and the past months have been nothing but protecting our seniors from the virus.  So far, not a case.   l also have my own company and buy and rent out houses.  We live in a college town.  I have 5 such homes now.

I've played D&D since, I believe 1977.  Played it ever since but pretty much have stuck to Basic, 1st, 2nd editions.  Although, I'm learning 5e because both my nieces, with no help from their uncle Rob discovered they loved d&d.  After college, I had no one to tabletop with and went exclusively online with pbem and then rpol.  I love the format.  It gives me a creative thing to do and at times when I can manage it.    Apparently now, the cool kids, and pretty girls play.  Well, not that we weren't cool, its just no one realized it at the time.  I have no children other than the furry type.  I live on a small farm with 10 goats, 80 chickens, 7 dogs, 2 cats, and five pet rats.

I hike (its a love / hate thing), but I do it.  I enjoy shooting darts, cooking, watching good movies/tv, and Broadway.  I've acted in several local shows, and though it scares the heck out me everytime, I'm hooked.

I have village house in a small rural medieval town in France that I bought and my wife and I are renovating and plan to retire there at least part time when I can retire.  If we are ever allowed to travel or enter France again.  The front door looks directly down a small ancient street to a Norman Castle.  It is called the Chateau de Lassay, it is quite a sight!

I have learned to enjoy DM'ing more as I've aged, but love a long game with real personality type characters.  Looking forward to playing alongside you all.

Just so we don't stall at the beginning with the new folks, this is probably the time where your character might step forward and pledge their undying loyalty to Dame Daflin and her foolhardy quest.

Or if you had other plans, please let the DM know in a PM so that he won't be waiting on you before he empties out the room with no takers.

In reply to Eoni Daflin (msg # 33):

My bad, I did not know it was a scene for everyone. I thought it was just Eoni's and Vaxfar's intro scene. I will post tomorrow as it is late here. However, Dergan and Elam, do we want to arrive together then? I guess we came from Brindol to pledge our sword, axe, and spells to Eoni with Valthur's blessing. Does that sound good to you both? Again, sorry as I was waiting for the go-ahead and missed it I guess. Cheers :)

No. Sorry, I wasn't more explicit that this was your intro scene. It's exactly as Eoni describes--your entry point into the game.

I don't want to linger to long here in the "getting to know you" phase (side note: I really don't like starting games with tavern chatter that doesn't move the story forward), but figured we needed to at least provide a quick entrance before jumping to action.

I toyed with just hand-waving the group getting together and restarting with "Roll for Initiative" but decided against it at the last moment.

Maybe I should have gone with that...

And just so it is abundantly clear...

Dergan, Elam, and Ovo are already in the audience hall and just heard everything that went down.

"You had me at foolhardy quest."

"Certainty of death, *small* chance of success... What are we waiting for?"

-- Gimli, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Man! I was just going to use that line!

I should've left it for you, it having been spoken by your kin. :)

In reply to Sarah (msg # 40):

No worries! Ovo is foolhardy himself... that and he only has 6gpc's to his name. He's going alright! Cheers :)

P.S. I am working on a post now. Elam and Dergan, Ovo is stepping forward but he will say others have traveled with him in case the "all of us arrived together" is cool with you all. :)