Looking for players to join my San Jose CA, Bay Area game (Planescape)

Hey, I'm Ryan and I DM a 3.5 Planescape game in the South Bay (Santa Clara area) or East Bay (Livermore area).

I'm looking for 1 to 3 new players to join our group so we can get more game time in (we don't play as often as I'd like). I try to shoot for at least 2 Saturdays a month (from about 1PM-Midnight) but that's just not happening...curse my players for having personal lives! Also, if you have a place to play, we are willing to meet there if the environment is presentable. That might help if the distance is a problem for you, but it must be either South or East Bay (no farther north than Fremont).

The ideal player would be:

Between 20-30 y/o
Enjoy roleplaying, character growth, and being creative
Have a sense of humor, very laid back, social, & enjoyable to be around
Have good hygiene & won’t be annoying
Drinking is cool if you can handle your alcohol but no drugs around us
Not a rules lawyer but willing to help out with rules when it's needed
Put the storyline first and mechanics second
Non argumentative (unless it's reasonable of course...I'm not always right & I don’t know everything)
No experience needed but willing to learn & read on your own time
Doesn’t think of outside game discussion/research as “homework” or boring
Able to attend most sessions & can handle playing for many hours in a day
Doesn’t live a controversial lifestyle


About us & the campaign:

We live in the South Bay (Santa Clara area) & East Bay (Livermore area)

DM - me, 27 y/o – 3 years on & off DM’ing experience & 2 years player experience
Player 1 – female (my gf) 22 y/o – 1 year player experience
Player 2 - male 33 y/o & his 2 sons – 2 years player experience
Son 1 - 16 y/o – 6 month player experience
Son 2 - 14 y/o – 6 month player experience

We are all very down to earth no-nonsense people. Overly sensitive personalities probably wouldn’t fit into our group. We like to laugh and joke about everything and we are the type to get along with other fun & friendly people.

Our problem is that when the father can't show up, I'm out 3 players because his sons can't show up. I'm thinking about making his sons alternate players who will join a session only if you or the others can’t show up. I try to keep the game at least 4 players large, & no more than 6 (but even 6 is pushing it). The more players the less I can focus on individuals.

I run a Planescape 3.5 campaign set pre Faction Wars and a bit of Forgotten Realms fluff mixed in. The players are all 6th lvl. I do allow races from any other WoTC setting as long as we have the book for it. I stick mainly to WoTC products to use in my game. I run published adventures (mostly converted older editions) but I tweak them to fit our game. I also run side quests occasionally for individual players and I usually make those up. As a DM I’m always trying to improve my skills in roleplaying, storytelling, & knowing rules. We’ve been playing fairly steadily for the last year and it had been such a long time since I played before that I’ve had to get back into the groove of things. That’s why I’d like to play more often than we do because I don’t feel that I’m getting enough practice at DM’ing.

My style is a mixture of everything. I love story twists, romance, some vileness, humor, & creative characters. I try to include all forms of adventures taking place in all forms of environments. I love variety! I build off of the players, so when they are thinking outside the box & playing extremely well it helps me play even better and provide a better game. We don’t use accented voices when playing but I may use voice patterns sometimes to give the impression of who you’re interacting with (using accented voices weirds me out). Magic shops are rare but you can find potion vendors in most towns or merchants willing to buy your items (they may even have random items for sale that they’ve bought from other adventurers). I don’t stick to the rules guidelines all the time so characters may be more powerful in some areas and weaker in others due to equipment I’ve handed out or lack thereof. I do try to be fair though and will compensate for any problems. I try to use an equal amount of roleplaying & combat (along with traps/puzzles) but I'd like more players that like to roleplay a lot to balance out the group more.

I use a slower level progression XP chart that is more like the 1e/2e progression. This is because I like the feel of living your characters lives & bonding with him instead of just maxing him out and becoming epic lvl quickly and rolling up new ones. I give roleplaying XP and adventure completion XP along with encounter XP. So I’d like players who are long term and would like to make new friends. Besides this, I don’t use many house rules at all.

I’m a little hesitant about meeting someone simply to play D&D with so I guess I’m just testing the waters here. This is because I’m the type that always has the “strange” person approach me in public & strike up a conversation. I’m a completely normal guy so I don’t know why this type flocks to me. I’m also worried that I’ll meet someone that I won’t feel comfortable playing with and I definitely don’t want to be in an awkward position & hurt someone’s feelings by telling them that they won’t fit in. If my game sounds good and you think you'd be a good fit, and I haven’t scared you away, then shoot me an email and we can first get to know each other online. Then if we get good vibes from one another, we can go from there. Feel free to ask me ANY questions too. I’m a very understanding and respectable person and I’d like to make you feel as comfortable around us as we’d like to feel around you. Thanks for reading my huge message!

email:
oryan1977 at yahoo.com

Sounds like an interesting game, and my kind of group. Unfortunately I don't think I could commit to another regular gaming group without really upsetting my wife. There are one or two threads on here with people looking for Bay area/south bay games though.

Unfortunately I don't think I could commit to another regular gaming group without really upsetting my wife.

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I hear ya. I was asked to join another guys group and although I'd LOVE to be a player in a game, my gf would kill me if I dedicated any more time to D&D

.....unless.....we get your wife and my gf to be involved in their own hobby together, then they'll forget all about us. Wait, I know better than that....

I'm Partially interested,

where do you guys usually play?

How intensive to 3.5 rules is your group? ( I have likes and dislikes of 3.5 but I have pretty much all of 3.0 excluding about 3 books or modules, so I'm not to interested in making a huge re-investment into 3.5 yet. )

What kind of player mix are we looking at? (mainly clerics, fighters, wizards, a bent towards everyone being elves? I've been in groups that centrelize characters, but I want to find out what your group composition is like...)

There are a couple of more netral spots I can think of to provide to play at, if necessary but lets talk about that when and If I'm in.

Another question, what is planescape like? I'm use to hombrew worlds and while I have heard of planescape I haven't heard much.

where do you guys usually play?

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I usually drive everyone to my friends house in Livermore (we carpool there). We don't really want to play there anymore because his wife adopts cats and finds homes for them, so they have several cats in the house that like trying to be involved in our games We've talked about just playing in my apartment in San Jose, but I have 2 other roommates and was worried about getting in their way. But we've played there a few times so far. We're really up for going anywhere to play if it's a hospitable environment and between San Jose and Livermore.

How intensive to 3.5 rules is your group?

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Well I use the 3.5 PHB, DMG, and MM. I use all the 3.0 books that havn't been converted to 3.5 yet, like the class guidebooks or whatever. If there's a 3.5 version of the WotC book, I use it first, then I fall back on the 3.0 books. If you have specific questions about rulings, let me know and I'll tell you how I do it. Like I mentioned, I'm not big on rules lawyering, I just need to be consistant. Plus I still learn new rules all the time. I care more about the PC's being in a situation more than making sure the rules for the situation are being used exactly how the book says to use them.

What kind of player mix are we looking at?

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Oh I LOVE variety. I can't stand having everyone playing similiar races or classes. I use almost any race from the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms settings and a few Darksun/Planescape races that fans have converted to 3e. I use almost anything you can find in a WotC book. The only thing is that I'm not big on custom built races or Savage Species races. The race just has to fit in well with the group. My players right now are:

Aasimar Cleric (going for the Dragon Disciple PrC)
Half-Elf Sorceress
Tiefling Rogue
Half-Giant Fighter (from Darksun)

I try encouraging them to concider prestige classes. I like the characters to be unique.

what is planescape like?

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Oh man I could go on forever about the setting. It's a plane travelling campaign. Most people think you need to be high level to travel the planes but that isn't true (those people are Primes which planars call Clueless). The setting is based around the city Sigil which is a gateway to any place in the multiverse (if you can find the portals). Every environment in Planescape is unique with strange magical conditions, cities, and even stranger people. It's possible to have a drink with a fiend in a bar, conduct business with a celestial in his home, or buy cookbooks from a Mind Flayer in a market.

It's different depending on who is DM'ing because everyone likes to focus on different aspects of the setting. There's factions (guild type groups) in Sigil that give DM's lots of adventure opportunities (there's a PS adventure called Faction Wars). There's the Bloodwars which is an ongoing war where Baatezu (Devils) fight against Tannari (Demons) and it's possible for PC's to get involved in that. Some DM's focus on PC's interacting with gods, or entire races on their home planes. There's even a PS module where PC's visit a city built on a dead gods carcass in the Astral Plane. In my game, I like to run published modules and just stick the module somewhere on one of the planes. Then I tweak the adventure to fit into being a plane walking adventure. I don't know how much you know about the planes in D&D but I'd be more than glad to rant about it if you wanted to email me with questions.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect in my games, we are currently travelling on Baator (Hell) to recover a stolen Holy Sword. Then I'll be running an adventure on Elysium, a plane where everything is perfect and good. Other places I'd like to send PC's is the Elemental Plane of Water, Carceri (a plane full of prisons), the Underdark (from Forgotten Realms setting), Beastlands (a jungle plane with animals that are larger than normal), and I'd like to do a bit of tundra & sailing based adventures. You'll also run across just about any type of creature from the Monster Manuals depending on where you visit. So PS is like a normal setting with a whole lot more added in and it includes every setting all in one.

If you'd like to talk privately with any other questions just email me at oryan1977 at yahoo.com You could tell me more about your D&D experiences also.

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