Denalz

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

Thanks for the general encouragement. I'm pretty excited to give this a try.

I like the potential options for backstory you've presented so far. Keep us posted.

When you say you're going for a pentakill, do you mean you want to dispatch all five faction leaders? That feels like a seriously difficult undertaking but I'm all for letting you give it a try assuming you can think up a compelling motivation for such a gargantuan feat. And no need to be secretive OOC unless you want to be.

As for the sidekick, I'm not opposed to letting you keep it if we can't find a fourth player (and assuming no one has any balance/fairness objections).

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

That sounds good to me. And thats a great personal quest to go with that class. I think we're at the stage of session zero where we are posing our back stories and trying to find connections between party members. Have you read my posts on page 1? I put a "Drakkenheim History in Brief" hider in there that will give you a very quick rundown of the settings history. Should be useful it crafting your backstory.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

Yeah I think an artificer would be perfect for that role. I only mention apothecary because that class puts me in mind of a "medical artificer" in terms of flavor. In terms of mechanics it plays more like a reskinned warlock that gets more and higher level spell slots. But it's totally up to you.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

@rush99999 I think we might need to drop the sidekick thing since we potentially have three players now. Unless of course you had a narrative reason for wanting one. In that case we can talk about it and see what the best option is.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

Hey Lurking! Yeah I think having you on could be great. With three players we'll be getting close to running the adventure as intended. Artificer could be a great class choice for Blighted Landscape. Might I direct you toward checking out the Apothecary class as well?

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

Thanks for posting your ideas, @Guardian Angel Haruki.

I am happy to attempt playing here on RP Guild. I feel I must give the disclaimer though: I've never attempted a tabletop game via play-by-post before. I'll admit I'm slightly intimidated by both of your post counts as I want to be able to give you guys a good experience in line with your expectations but I'm not exactly sure how this will play out in regards to my post lengths and ability to answer back in a timely fashion (particularly over the weekends). If you guys are okay giving this a chance anyway, with the understanding that it might not be for one or all of us, I'm happy to give it a try. If you'd rather not invest your time into session zero and getting started on a full blown game that may not see completion, I understand that too. I just want to be upfront.

Now, assuming you guys want to continue, have you thought up some backstory? Do you guys prefer to keep your backstories private from each other until you have a chance to roleplay your secrets? Or would you rather brainstorm here? I do think I want to insist on at least a loose connection between your PC's prior to the game's start as that will go a long way towards your character's mutual cooperation.

I am still in the process of reading the module for Drakkenheim (there are two full sized books so it's a lot to get through) but I think the game offers two basic narrative options for getting started...

1. The PC's can start as caravan guards on their way toward Drakkenheim. This will give you guys a chance to get paid a bit of coin (which might be useful as the prices in this campaign are typically much steeper than in the DMG) as well as perhaps ease you two into a tenuous alliance if your previous connection was flimsy.

2. The characters can start in the village of Emberwood which is the last stop outside of Drakkenheim and the place where adventurers rest/refuel between expeditions into the city. In this case the two of you will need to already have a strong connection and reason to adventure together or you'll need to come up with a plan to roleplay one before your first foray into Drakkenheim. As a side note: you cannot take long rests inside the city. I mean, you can, but you do not regain hit points or spell slots. So Emberwood will be serving as your home base.

@rush99999 Do you have any inclination for which faction leader(s) your PC wants to kill? Feel free to PM me or use hiders if you want to be secretive. I'm happy to help you decide if needed as I think I have a pretty firm grasp on the politics of the factions and their leaders at this point.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

Yes, I'd love to hear what you're considering, Haruki. Once we know maybe we can all throw out some ideas for a connection between the two of you?

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

@Guardian Angel Haruki That's awesome! I think you and Rush already know each other unless I'm mistaken. @rush99999 I assume you're okay playing in a group? If not let me know and I'll see what I can work out. As for me, I think it might be easier to run for a group as opposed to a single player as Drakkenheim is optimized for a group of 4.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

Firstly: There's an option to either start at level one or level three. If it's okay with you I think it would be better to start at level 3 in this case.

Secondly: Yes, that's fine. Probably for the best.

Thirdly: Would you rather play mostly narratively or would you prefer to do traditional dice rolls and such?

Fourthly: Do you have a preferred platform? I tend to like google docs or, if you want to do rolls, maybe discord?

Dungeons of Drakkenheim 5e (I'll DM)

I also wrote up a very rough summary of the lore in this world for the players of my in-person game. Feel free to read it if you'd like an idea of how the history/religion/politics all play together in this setting without having to do all the reading I did. Feel free to ask questions.

Drakkenheim History in Brief

Basically, a long time ago (a thousand years plus), the world was ruled by incredibly talented sorcerers who had crossed their bloodlines with dragons. They set themselves up as gods and outlawed magic use by anyone but themselves. They were oppressive tyrants. This time in history was known as the time of the Sorcerer Kings.

Eventually these kings had a warlord of theirs rise up against them. She was a woman named Tarna who was said to be chosen by The Sacred Flame (the faceless/nameless god of a new, lawful good monotheistic religion). Her mission was to put an end to the Sorcerer Kings. Because Tara had been known as a ruthless warlord, but was turned into a holy warrior, she received the title of “The First Paladin” and her redemption story lended itself to the creed of the Sacred Flame which is that “any light, no matter how small, can lead a soul out of darkness.“

Tarna was martyred and sainted after a 12 year rebellion against the sorcerer kings. After which the people of the continent (where Drakkenheim is based) rose up in repeated rebellions that eventually led to the Sorcerer Kings losing their grip on power and fleeing the continent across the sea to unknown lands. The continent then split into the regions/countries known today, united most strongly by their shared religion of the Sacred Flame which had been instrumental in bringing about the demise of the sorcerer kings. The “old gods” while still worshipped by a few, are mostly fringe and archaic deities who have fallen silent towards mortals…if they ever spoke at all.

Fast forward to several hundred years ago.

The Scared Flame is a dominant force on the continent and their new “pope” has started issuing edicts to hunt down and oppress all mageborn children in fear of a time when the Sorcerer kings might return to power. In response, a secret society of adult mages banded together forming what would later be called “The Amethyst Academy” to protect mageborn children from identification and oppression. This secret society waged political and eventually open war with the church of The Sacred Flame until, finally, after 4 decades the two sides settled on a treaty and new set of laws called “The Edicts of Lumen”. These edicts were a series of compromises between mages, the church, and the common (magicless) man meant to balance power between them without oppression of any one side.

The edicts of Lumen keep any mageborn person from holding lands or noble title. The edicts allow the Amethyst Academey to take charge of all (incredibly rare) mageborn children and train them in magic until adulthood when they are released back into society (usually as noble advisors).

The balance of power between the church and the Amethyst Academy is tenuous, in danger of tipping at any given time. Both sides are seen to be hypocritical and underhanded in the way they treat the spirit of the Edicts of Lumen…constantly threatening to take over at the other’s expense.