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Daishain’s 5e D&D RPG Review

NOTE: This Thread is now only for Reviews of the game. To create a Character: Daishain’s 5e Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing Game Character Creation

In the event enough players express interest, I am announcing the start of a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign for 3-6 players. There will be some mature themes discussed, and death is most certainly a possible outcome. I’ll warn you straight away that some enemies you may encounter will be fiendishly difficult to tackle directly, and others close to impossible. The party will need to come loaded for bear, and choose their battles wisely, often seeking means other than conflict to move forward.

The campaign will be set in Dungeons & Dragons ’s iconic Forgotten Realms setting, home to literary heroes such as Elminster and Drizzt (Who at the time of this campaign are both quite dead), and the setting of various video games such as Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate. In particular, players will be traveling large stretches of the area known as the Sword Coast. The civilized peoples of that area are divided into loosely allied city states, with large stretches of untamable wilderness in between. Huge amounts of established lore can be found for this region, and players are highly encouraged to both make use of it and build onto it.

Players will begin at level four as seasoned adventurers. I would like the majority of the players to be a part of an existing adventurer group with an established reputation and an at least somewhat positive history with the Harpers (Freelance spy organization dedicated to keeping power out of the hands of the wicked. Think of them like the CIA if it was run by Robin Hood types and not tied to any one nation). You will have a chance to work out some of the details, such as past exploits, the name of the group, any intraparty relationships that go beyond simple friendship, the general approach the group has used to solve problems in the past, etc. Note that the players don’t have to represent the entire band, mercenary guilds are fairly common in the setting, and your bunch could be a part of a much larger organization if desired. Your group will have a reputation based both on these decisions and your actions in the game, and that reputation will have some impact on how you are treated by others as you go along.

Players can also be freelancers coming in on their own, but they should have some reason of their own to answer a contract posting by the Harpers. (Immediate suggestions: aside from the obvious motive of money, information and influence can be had by working with that group)
Players will begin in the port city of Baldur’s Gate, the Harpers have sent out a local call for capable individuals to deal with an urgent problem. The offered pay is high, but they’re refusing to give anyone any significant details up front.

Access to a 5E PHB is a minimum. Material from all official sourcebooks is available for use in Character Creation. In particular, the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, Elemental Evil Player’s companion, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide offer new options. EEPC is legally available for free as a PDF, the other two are not. I can impart details from the others so long as the player has a means for me to do so privately.

Material from Unearthed Arcana articles may be available for use on request, pending review and editing. The revised Ranger class is available as it is presented in the UA. On the other hand, don’t bother asking about the Mystic class, as much as I like the promise of it, it is just not ready for play.

I do not use XP, players will level up as I deem appropriate. Leveling will occur at a fairly rapid pace, with the party reaching level 16 or so if we manage to finish everything (Which I expect to take at minimum a year, probably closer to two.)

In the interest of not technically committing plagiarism, it should be known that this campaign is not entirely my work. It was the first campaign I ever wrote or DMed, though it has undergone a large number of refinements in the years since then. Rather than start from nothing, I began with the premade adventure known as the Tyranny of Dragons. By this point somewhere around 90% of the writing is entirely my brain child, but enough of the original stuff remains for the connection to be recognizable, and that portion forms much of the core plotline, making it difficult to eliminate.

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Count me in Daishain. I know you will make a wonderful Dungeon Master. I love the Forgotten Realms setting. I'm not sure what I would play yet. Possibly a life cleric. This sounds like great fun.

Daishain’s 5e D&D RPG Review Reviews RPG & Card Board

Daishain, thank you for choosing to be a Dungeon Master here. I read somewhere that you did not want to be a GM so I am surprised that you changed your mind.

It is a great start to having a Dungeons & Dragons 5e Role-playing Game here. One was needed as many were turned away since the other filled up so quickly. Some questions / comments:

1. 3-6 Players is a small number. What plans do you have for Players who drop out or new ones that come along? Also see: Right Amount Of Role-Players.

2. Do you have your own Players or are you looking for new Players via this site? I am in a number of Dungeons & Dragons groups in other networks, I can let them know but then you might get more that six coming so you might have to do some vetting as many rush to create Characters but do not stay committed.

3. Once you have your two Players when do you plan to start given the proximity of Christmas / New Year.

Review RPG Dragons and Dungeons e Daishains

I said in my intro thread that I didn't have much time left for world building, which remains true. But I'm reusing existing notes here rather than creating something truly new.

1 The number is more of a guideline for the desired number of committed people (I fully expect to take on more than that to begin and let things whittle down from there). I can handle more than 6, I just expect things to get a little strained if pushing too far that direction, as there's a fair amount of combat planned. I'm not sure exactly where I would put a hard upper cap, and will need to feel that out to some degree. Characters whose players drop out will be sidelined, either simply by dying or being left behind, whichever fits the tale more appropriately at the time (Though I'd lean heavily to the latter if given reason to think the absence is involuntary). There are several ways, places, and times for new characters to easily join in, other moments are a little more awkward, but that can be worked out on a case by case basis, I can be rather flexible in that regard.

2 Looking for new players on these boards. I rather expect some people from other existing games would like to join in as Kyrroeth has, and there are a few other people who joined recently and were turned away who may still be looking. Feel free to send people my way if interest turns out to be a little thinner than hoped.

3 Since I'm essentially tacking on an extra component to character creation, the creation of who the characters are together in a band, I figured people would need some extra time to discuss that portion. That will take as long as it takes, but with the holidays added in as well I'm guessing the main portion of play will be starting around New Years.

Edited: daishain on 18th Dec, 2016 - 1:27am

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Daishain, I like your preparedness for this Dungeons & Dragons 5e Campaign. I've sent out notification to all Role-players in-house and externally so you can see what comes from it:

Daishain’s 5e D&D RPG Review

Name: Dragonmonkey

Title: Interested!

Comments: Oh, what are your thoughts on multiclassing? I'm not terribly sure if I want to, but I'm thinking of a character that may lie somewhere on the spectrum between a shadow monk and an arcane trickster rogue. Possibly an elastic AT.

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Daishain’s 5e D&D RPG Review

Daishain, thanks for taking the time and commitment to Dungeon Master on this board.

Color me interested.

My first inclination is to play a Half-Orc Fighter (Champion), but I'd be open to other characters based on what everybody else is playing.

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Dragonmonkey, multiclassing is just fine, and there are no hard limitations in that regard other than those presented in the PHB rules for the same.

However, I do ask that you be prepared to justify such things from a roleplay perspective, and I do reserve a veto power if things get too… wacky in that regard

So for example Arcane Trickster + Shadow Monk can easily be an assassin/spy/cat burglar type who chose to learn a few magic tricks to supplement his already impressive selection of talents, as a brief example.

However, a player would have to talk very fast to justify mixing a Fiend Warlock with any variety of Paladin other than Oathbreaker. Not that I'm just going to say no straight up, just saying that it needs to be a very good story to bring such opposites together

Make sense?

Falrun, glad to have you on board, and nice selection there. You can get some really brutal critical hits going down that route.

Edited: daishain on 18th Dec, 2016 - 2:31pm