Before requesting access, you are required to read the following:
Game rules may be subject to change.
Applications will not be accepted on a first come-first served basis. Please take some time and give some thought to your answers. Try to provide specific instead of generalised answers.
SECTION I. PLAYER QUESTIONNAIRE
- Please provide your age and year of birth.
- What is your current time zone?
- What is your average posting rate?
- What is your first language, if not English?
- Why do you wish to join this game?
- What are your expectations for this game?
- What is your experience with gaming in general?
- What are the sorts of things do you enjoy? (In terms of games, books, movies, et cetera. I'm interested in hearing about anything, really.)
- What are taboo issues for you? (For example, some people are averse to games that depict drug usage in any way. Others feel uncomfortable with current political issues.)
- Please provide a writing sample. (I'm mostly looking for correct spelling, adherence to the rules of grammar, good diction, interesting ideas, and so forth.)
SECTION II. CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE
Think of this second questionnaire like a pitch. You are pitching your character for the game. Some characters may not fit with the game I'm trying to run. Or perhaps won't fit with the characters other players are running. My philosophy is that there needs to be a synergy between the players, GM, and the
characters so that we're all rooting for the same thing.
Which in my opinion, should be "a successful game".
Write a paragraph of text for a character, like you'd see in a story outline, describing the most essential elements of your character. What kind of arc do you envision for the character? What do you envision their story to be about? Try to capture what makes them unique as a character.
Compose your pitch in complete, grammatical sentences. No lists of abilities; no sentence fragments. It's okay to submit only one pitch, but would be better if you do more. Ideally, I would like to see three to five character pitches, after which I will pick the best one for a more in-depth focus. Each character pitch should be around 200-300 words long.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Here are some answers to some questions you might have.
What is the Big Picture?
The Dark Lord is on the rise, and a band of heroes must meet the great challenge of defeating him. It will not be easy, for it seems the Enemy has learned from the last defeat, and seems even now on the verge of total victory. Many kingdoms have already fallen, and the agents of the Enemy have already infiltrated supposed safe harbours.
Yet, there is some hope, for the descendants of the Silver Company have not yet all been slain. Perhaps they can take up the mantle and defeat the Dark Lord once and for all.
Unlike most epic fantasy settings, magical effects are common, due to the planar intrusions, but
magical spellcasting is rare. Therefore, low-level effects like potions can be crafted by special craftsman, but knowledge of magical spellcasting is locked away in the Towers of High Sorcery or in the Lost Cities. Mail coats are the extent of most of the armor that people are capable of crafting, outside the craftsmanship of the elves and dwarves, or the Union perhaps. This game owes a lot to Tolkien and the Nordic sagas he was inspired by.
If you'd like more information on the campaign setting, please send a request for access, and I'll be happy to grant access to the setting documents. :)
Who are the players supposed to be?
The players are the descendants of the Silver Company, a band of heroes that once defeated the Dark Lord in generations past. For some reason, the Enemy is now seeking them, hunting them.
What is known about the members of the Silver Company has become so mired in myth and legend that it is difficult to say what is true and what is mere fable.
Yet, most everyone knows these grand tales.
How it was the humble Inga who finally slew the Dark Lord with the Brightblade of legend.
How Perelain finally pierced the secrets to the Lost Cities of Elvendom and captured an elfstone for herself.
How Magius threw open the doors to the Towers of High Sorcery, sharing the knowledge of magic with all. Yet when he died, the doors shut closed once more, depriving the world of their secrets.
How Mugin son of Muninn became King Under the Mountain, but met an untimely end.
How Sigurd stole the Crown of Stars from the Goblin King and returned it to the Elvenking in order to save his beloved Estrid.
And while Irian is the only living member of the Silver Company, even their whereabouts remain unknown.
These tales and more everyone knows. Yet more has been forgotten than is told in story and song.
What do you mean by "home-brewed system"?
The system I'm using is more about using a quick resolution mechanic, to get the mechanics out of the way of the story and the fiction. Rolling a d20 with bonuses and penalties versus a specific target number is pretty easy to reason about.
If you are more interested in optimizing your build, killing everything in sight, and gaining treasure, this is probably not the game for you. Nor are we going to go into lengthy combats every time, with round by round blow-by-blows. That's not the point of this game.
I'm far more excited about exploring interesting characters in a fantastical milieu. :)
So this is freeform?
No. It's far more involved than simply freeform or even guided freeform or even freeform with rolls thrown in. We're using the
Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition ruleset, with many of the class features, spells, et cetera from that system, but home-brewed to be able to play a game about good versus evil.
Luckily, there's a handy
Reference: System document if you're curious.
What about game balance?
I take a more nuanced approach to balance than is espoused in D&D. Remember that this game isn't about combat per se. As long as every character has something interesting to do, I don't see a really huge problem. Often in stories you have an ensemble cast of characters with widely differing skillsets. You can have Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn in the same company and the same story.
Style
I expect players to think about their characters' inner life and thoughts and feelings and be descriptive about such in their posts. Some players have only posted their outward physical actions, which is fine for some games, but not the ones I run. I'm interested in character arcs and narratives and emotional pay-offs and so forth.
Lay out your character's backstory gradually. The tendency of most players is to get it all out at the beginning, sometimes in the first post. I've had some players whose first posts were their entire backstory, with 1000 words or more.
Don't do that.
Not only is it contravention to the posting guidelines, but we're just getting to know the characters, the world, the story. The less you spill, the more that is retained. Leave us wanting more, instead of wanting to skim.
Collaboration
I expect players to be open to collaboration in the fiction. I'll rein you back if I feel you come up with something that contradicts the world, but players should generally be open to suggestions from other players and the GM. We're all in charge of the fiction together. You can write for another NPC, just as much as I can. Someone else can even chime in and move other characters around if their idea makes for a more interesting story.
I'm even okay with player characters moving other player characters, with each other's permission, of course. Comfort levels may vary, but if I was playing Doc Brown, and another was playing Marty, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for me to move Marty in such a way:
quote:
"Great Scott!" said Doc Brown.
"What is it, Doc?" Marty said.
If you do move another PC or NPC, be sure to be open to making edits if someone says you're doing something to make them go out of character.
Regarding Romance
I'll leave it up to the players whether they'll engage their characters in a romance. Personally, I prefer for romance to arise organically in the story, as opposed to something that is forced or the "point" or the main driver of a game.
Nice as romance is, my aims and interests do not revolve around romance, but instead are concerned with the overarching narrative and the character arcs I'm trying to build in complicated webs between the characters. Romance can play its part, and maybe even a vital part for some arcs, but keep in mind that it's only one part amidst many others. o
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:28, Sun 07 Aug 2022.
