I've asked you all to share a lot about yourselves, so I guess I should reciprocate. I'm also going to include some thoughts about how I intend to run the game. I've received a lot of strong applications. I've turned away some good ones already, and I'll have to make a few more even tougher choices before we have our final line-up. So, I want to be sure that the folks who make it through know what they are getting into and like what they see.

About Me

I'm 37 years old, male, been playing D&D off and on since I was 12. My play as an adult has been almost exclusively on RPOL or PBEM (play by e-mail), as I've rarely lived in one place long enough to seek out a regular group.

I enjoy stories and storytelling, and while I read a fair bit of what gets called "literary fiction", fantasy, especially of the epic variety, has always had a special hold on my heart. It started with the Dragonlance novels when I was a kid. I'm currently enjoying S. A. Chakraborty's Daevabad trilogy, N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series, and the Harry Potter books, which I'm reading for the first time. And I guess technically I'm still in the midst of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle, though I've been waiting years for the third installment.

I also enjoy writing. I derive some income from non-fiction writing, but I also try to make time for fiction writing as a hobby. That was part of my motivation for getting back into RPOL, to light a fire under my butt to get writing and creating. Perfectionism is my constant enemy when I write, so having deadlines to write things that don't have to be perfect (i.e. RPOL posts) is good for me.

Finally, I enjoy games, which makes RPOL a great triangulation of my interests.

DM Philosophy

This is less organized than the above, just a collection of tidbits on how I think about running a game on RPOL.

1. Things have to keep moving. When games slow down (not in terms of post rate, but in terms of interesting things happening in the game), that's when people start half-assing it, and that's how the game dies.

Keeping things moving is on everyone to some degree, but I have tools that players don't. Ideally, I'm not making decisions for you, but I am presenting you with clear decision points and options, giving you the information you need to make a choice, and then delivering consequences for your decisions once the choice is made.

The term "sandbox" means different things to different people, but I've always been wary of it in RPOL games. It doesn't seem productive to me to just drop players in a town and say, "OK, here's a map, go talk to people." That sounds like a recipe for getting stuck in the sand.

So, we'll need to feel each other out a bit to strike the right balance here, but I'm inclined to shove things along a bit when I see them slowing down, and to limit the world of options while still maintaining meaningful choices. On a scale of 0 (sandbox) to 10 (railroad), my natural inclination is probably about a 7.

2. This is a game, but it's not a competition. My goal isn't to kill your characters (nor is it to keep them alive, although I'm inclined to think that if there is a total party kill, the players can't be the only ones who made a mistake).

The ultimate goal is fun, but that means different things to different people. To me it means being transported into an exciting world, confronting interesting challenges, and discovering a compelling story driven by my choices but also by the players' choices and the dice rolls.

3. Rules are tools. I'm far from an expert on them. There will be players in the game who know them better than I do. I'm happy to hear feedback if you have suggestions for how I could handle something better (I've already received some good suggestions, actually), and sometimes I'll even ask for it. Ultimately, though, I will have the final word on what happens. I don't feel obliged to adhere to the letter of the law, though I do have a strong presumption towards them because I know that a lot of thought and playtesting went into the RAW (Rules As Written).

Players must be willing to trust that I'm trying to do what is best for the game and am not out to screw the group or any player in particular, even though that is sometimes the short-term outcome.

I'm biased in favor of you doing cool and fun and creative things. If your character has a funny or creative solution to a problem, I will probably assign it an unrealistically good chance of succeeding (which isn't to say it is likely to succeed).

4. We're going to make up a lot as we go along. What you see here is at least 80% of what I know about the world we're in. Sometimes that means making up or revising rules on the fly. I strive to be transparent about what I'm doing and why so that you can plan accordingly.

5. For an example of the above, see the thread with house rules concerning skills and skills challenges. I think skills are an interesting and often-underused feature of the game. I want to try to do more exciting things with them, so skills challenges will be resolved through a combination of dice rolling, bonuses based on the mechanics of your character, and bonuses based on your roleplaying and ingenuity. I give you that general rubric in advance so that you know the things you should try to do to maximize your chances of success, but when it comes to assigning numbers and dis/advantage, etc., I'm making a lot of s#$% up.

6. Communication is key. I was happy to see that a lot of you mentioned this in your RTJs. As you can probably tell from the amount of material I've regurgitated onto the forum already, I'd rather tell you too much than too little. I'll strive to keep you informed about how I'm handling rules questions, intra-player disputes (which hopefully good communication will avoid!), etc. as well as any anticipated delays on my end.

I'd like to see the same from the players. There will be an OOC thread where you can plan things in-game. Light meta-gaming for the purpose of strategizing is welcome. The kind of meta-gaming that irks me is when players use knowledge their characters wouldn't have - just because you recognize a wight when you see one doesn't mean your character would.

If you're going to be away for a few days, let me know. If you're confused about something or feel like something I did was unfair, let me know. If you have an issue with something another player did, let me know (I'll probably open a discussion between the three of us, but I'd prefer you brought it to me first rather than starting drama via PM or OOC).

When there's elements of the game or story that aren't working for you, let me know. But when it is working, please let me know that also! It's one of the best ways to prevent DM burnout :-)

7. Speaking of DM burn-out, a lot of people mentioned this as a problem with RPOL games. I agree. For me, active and engaged players are what will keep me motivated. I want to be surprised and amazed and amused just as much as you all do. The more I feel like I'm just mechanically processing the results of simple actions, the less satisfying the experience will be for me.

Regardless, I won't just disappear on you. If I'm not happy with how things are going, I'll start an OOC conversation about it and see if we can't fix it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:41, Thu 17 Oct 2019.