Recruiting for a 3.5 D&D campaign on OpenRPG

Arkhandus · Mar 17, 2009

Hello folks. I'm currently the DM of For More Than Glory, a long-running D&D campaign set in The 13 Kingdoms (a Living Greyhawk-style setting hosted on EN World). I'm looking for 2 or 3 new players to join the campaign, which runs each Monday night on the OpenRPG freeware virtual tabletop program. Our games our hosted on the OpenRPG Dev II server (a public server), and each session generally starts around 6:30 pm Pacific Standard Time until 9 or 10 pm (sometimes 11 or 12, depending on the players).

Our group currently consists of:
Spingear "Fleck" Spindlefingers, a gnome transmuter 13/archmage 1,
Szitha, a lizardman cleric 14,
his cohort Szenthrass, a lizardman fighter 8/templar 3 (or thereabouts),
Argus, a human druid 7/monk 3/barbarian 1/ranger 1/fighter 1 (my crazy sometimes-PC, sometimes-NPC, as we rotate DMs once in a while),
and Fahlias Dragonson, a human half-silver-dragon ranger 5/horizon walker 6 (or thereabouts)

We have a mage, a frontliner/archer, a healer, a spare frontliner, and a mixed blaster/healer/frontliner/scout/chaser (yeah, Argus turned out wierd).....

So starting level for a new PC would be 13th, with a few hundred or few thousand extra XP, and roughly average starting gold for that level. I'll give a bit more detail on things if anyone's interested.

Edit: Done running tonight's session..... So here's a little more info.

I can e-mail the T13K Setting Guide PDF on request; it has the details on the setting we use and the extra rules material used in it (some new spells, feats, items, prestige classes, and races, a revised race here and there, and a bit else).

FMTG has been running for about 5 years, though we took a few months' break at one point IIRC as the original DM was too busy for a while. That DM, Emiricol, later had to pass the DM hat to somebody else, and he's too busy with family and work to DM now. I've been one of the few round-robin DMs for FMTG since then; my PC Argus is just less active and less talkative than normal when I'm DMing.

Joining FMTG doesn't require you to take a turn at DMing; it's just something that a few of us have done. We started at level 1 and have fought and RPed our way up to 14th or so (the one or two who had a bit more XP lost a level at one point or another from deaths; everyone in the party has either died once or often come very close. Even familiars and animal companions have died on a few occasions. But we often have a cleric in the group or at least find a temple to get a Raise Dead spell from.

It's not a very deadly campaign; but you have to expect an occasional casualty at mid to upper levels. They've generally been to dragons, giants, or fiends (and once by a vampire, I think). Yeah, we've faced multiple dragons in this campaign; three at once in one case. This just means we've looted a few dragons' hoards, and will probably pillage a few more before we're through. Fahlias is on a quest to find and destroy a powerful red dragon that he has a beef with, but that's only an eventual sidequest. The group has traveled across several countries in the game-world and been to both the Ethereal and Shadow Planes before, as well as the Abyss once.

We don't have a main storyline; we pursue some personal quests of the PCs, and other adventures that we get pulled into or that we run into. The campaign wasn't supposed to be heroically focused; no saving the world or whatnot, just pursuing personal interests, whether it's gold, power, revenge, justice, answers, or whatever. There are political machinations going on in the background, wars, and other events. Still, we tend to find ourselves doing something heroic and selfless half the time, because a few PCs are actually good-aligned while the rest of us have been some shade of neutral.

Argus seeks strength and power. Fahlias has a dragon to slay, once he's gotten strong enough. Fleck is exploring the ways of arcane magic and delving into their secrets, for their own sake, and to help free more of his people whenever possible (many gnomes are enslaved by the hobgoblins of Ulruz, in The 13 Kingdoms, while the rest are scattered). Szitha and his cohort are seeking power, ways to serve their patron god's interests (our party has a bad habit of doing things that help Naeron a bit, and of course we adventurers send a lotta critters to their graves; Naeron devours a piece of the dead's memory and soul), and the spread of Naeron's faith (Naeron is the Death Dragon, the god of death, knowledge, and evil dragons in The 13 Kingdoms; also creator of the lizardfolk and their nation, Paludosus).

Currently, we're at the end of one sidetrek in Ceomyr, and about to resume traveling, probably to Lorlynia (the elven nation), and from there we're not sure yet. I have some plot threads going, but whether or not the party does anything with them or just turns to one of their personal quests again remains to be seen. A new PC could be involved in something of their own and drag the rest of the party into it, potentially, or provide a lead on some other opportunity or an adventure hook.

concerro · Mar 18, 2009

Arkhandus said:
Hello folks. I'm currently the DM of For More Than Glory, a long-running D&D campaign set in The 13 Kingdoms (a Living Greyhawk-style setting hosted on EN World). I'm looking for 2 or 3 new players to join the campaign, which runs each Monday night on the OpenRPG freeware virtual tabletop program. Our games our hosted on the OpenRPG Dev II server (a public server), and each session generally starts around 6:30 pm Pacific Standard Time until 9 or 10 pm (sometimes 11 or 12, depending on the players).

Our group currently consists of:
Spingear "Fleck" Spindlefingers, a gnome transmuter 13/archmage 1,
Szitha, a lizardman cleric 14,
his cohort Szenthrass, a lizardman fighter 8/templar 3 (or thereabouts),
Argus, a human druid 7/monk 3/barbarian 1/ranger 1/fighter 1 (my crazy sometimes-PC, sometimes-NPC, as we rotate DMs once in a while),
and Fahlias Dragonson, a human half-silver-dragon ranger 5/horizon walker 6 (or thereabouts)

We have a mage, a frontliner/archer, a healer, a spare frontliner, and a mixed blaster/healer/frontliner/scout/chaser (yeah, Argus turned out wierd).....

So starting level for a new PC would be 13th, with a few hundred or few thousand extra XP, and roughly average starting gold for that level. I'll give a bit more detail on things if anyone's interested.

Edit: Done running tonight's session..... So here's a little more info.

I can e-mail the T13K Setting Guide PDF on request; it has the details on the setting we use and the extra rules material used in it (some new spells, feats, items, prestige classes, and races, a revised race here and there, and a bit else).

FMTG has been running for about 5 years, though we took a few months' break at one point IIRC as the original DM was too busy for a while. That DM, Emiricol, later had to pass the DM hat to somebody else, and he's too busy with family and work to DM now. I've been one of the few round-robin DMs for FMTG since then; my PC Argus is just less active and less talkative than normal when I'm DMing.

Joining FMTG doesn't require you to take a turn at DMing; it's just something that a few of us have done. We started at level 1 and have fought and RPed our way up to 14th or so (the one or two who had a bit more XP lost a level at one point or another from deaths; everyone in the party has either died once or often come very close. Even familiars and animal companions have died on a few occasions. But we often have a cleric in the group or at least find a temple to get a Raise Dead spell from.

It's not a very deadly campaign; but you have to expect an occasional casualty at mid to upper levels. They've generally been to dragons, giants, or fiends (and once by a vampire, I think). Yeah, we've faced multiple dragons in this campaign; three at once in one case. This just means we've looted a few dragons' hoards, and will probably pillage a few more before we're through. Fahlias is on a quest to find and destroy a powerful red dragon that he has a beef with, but that's only an eventual sidequest. The group has traveled across several countries in the game-world and been to both the Ethereal and Shadow Planes before, as well as the Abyss once.

We don't have a main storyline; we pursue some personal quests of the PCs, and other adventures that we get pulled into or that we run into. The campaign wasn't supposed to be heroically focused; no saving the world or whatnot, just pursuing personal interests, whether it's gold, power, revenge, justice, answers, or whatever. There are political machinations going on in the background, wars, and other events. Still, we tend to find ourselves doing something heroic and selfless half the time, because a few PCs are actually good-aligned while the rest of us have been some shade of neutral.

Argus seeks strength and power. Fahlias has a dragon to slay, once he's gotten strong enough. Fleck is exploring the ways of arcane magic and delving into their secrets, for their own sake, and to help free more of his people whenever possible (many gnomes are enslaved by the hobgoblins of Ulruz, in The 13 Kingdoms, while the rest are scattered). Szitha and his cohort are seeking power, ways to serve their patron god's interests (our party has a bad habit of doing things that help Naeron a bit, and of course we adventurers send a lotta critters to their graves; Naeron devours a piece of the dead's memory and soul), and the spread of Naeron's faith (Naeron is the Death Dragon, the god of death, knowledge, and evil dragons in The 13 Kingdoms; also creator of the lizardfolk and their nation, Paludosus).

Currently, we're at the end of one sidetrek in Ceomyr, and about to resume traveling, probably to Lorlynia (the elven nation), and from there we're not sure yet. I have some plot threads going, but whether or not the party does anything with them or just turns to one of their personal quests again remains to be seen. A new PC could be involved in something of their own and drag the rest of the party into it, potentially, or provide a lead on some other opportunity or an adventure hook.

I may try to get in. I just downloaded OpenRPG about 2 hours ago, and I don't exactly know how it works. If you can send the info to my email, and any houserule I should have a character ready fairly soon.

kilroo · Apr 14, 2009

I saw where you had mentioned this game on another forum and managed (after finding a couple more places) to find my way here...I'm interested in applying for a spot in your game. There seems to be something of a dearth of interesting and lasting mid-to-high level games around, and yours is one of the first I've seen in quite a while that looks interesting and is in a remotely feasible time slot for me (more on that later).

Little bit about myself. I'll start with the (potentially) bad, as I prefer to put possible deal-breakers out for inspection immediately:

I am, by disposition and habit, something of an optimizer. I want to go ahead and set that out to begin with, because I know you said on the Gleemax forum that you are not looking for optimized characters. However, I do not think I am the kind of optimizer who would be problematic. I humbly request that you not reject me out of hand on those grounds without finding out more about my approach to the game.

The other (and to my mind, bigger) potential problem is the timing. I'm on the east coast of the US, and I work 8-5. If you normally play until between 9 and 10 Pacific, that's within the realm of what I might be able to manage. If the "sometimes 11 or 12" happens frequently enough that having one player who simply can't stay that late, then unfortunately I probably can't swing it even if I would otherwise be accepted.

I also know nothing about the 13 Kingdoms, but I don't really consider that a problem so much as something I should go ahead and mention, because I can, in fact, read. I'm actually pretty good at it.

Now that I've outlined the difficulties, let me try something a little more positive.

I mentioned that I am something of an optimizer. I am not, however, a hack-and-slash-obsessed mindless munchkin. I do not like playing a character with no depth or a character with too much power. I am at least as exacting with myself about my characters' personalities as I am about mechanics. I also will not play a character unless I can reach a point where the DM and I are both comfortable with him. I've found that optimizers tend to be associated with those people who argue and sulk about rulings. I am a firm believer in a DM's right to rule how he pleases. If I think something has been misruled, I will make my reasoning clear at the appropriate time, and if the DM sticks with a different ruling, then I will simply make a note of it and abide by it.

I can offer further explanation of why I don't think my tendency toward optimization should be seen as a problem if necessary; I'll quit rambling about it for now.

The character I am currently considering to be my strongest candidate for this game would be a trap-monkey/secondary spellcaster. Mechanically speaking, I do not think the character would be problematically powerful; if it looks like it might be a good fit, I will explain what I have in mind in greater detail. I do have some other possibilities to suggest if this one looks like a bad fit; my second candidate would be an idea I only just started revisiting and would be something of a trap-monkey and movement specialist, and the third would be more of a trap-monkey (again)/tank. Yes, I do sometimes play non-trap-monkeys. No, I don't do it often.

I'm pretty sure I've started rambling already, so I believe I shall cut myself off here. If you decide I seem like I might be a good fit, then I look forward to discussing the possibilities further with you.

ScionJustice · Apr 15, 2009

I've got nothing to do now on Mondays either so if there's still an open slot I might as well join Mondays game.

Arkhandus · Apr 15, 2009

Thanks for expressing your interest!

ScionJustice, lemme know what kind of character you're considering for FMTG. Did I or Dragonwriter/Dragonson already send you the Setting Guide?

Kilroo, we do usually end by 9 or 10 pm Pacific. Leaving around that time is fine if you have other things to do, like sleep before work. A trap-handler is fine, just be aware that we don't do a lot of dungeoncrawling; it does come up, and there are traps, it's just not one of the most common things we do. So try not to overspecialize in that area.

Anything not in the Core Rules (and no, the entire SRD is not Core Rules; if you visit the Hypertext SRD, only the material on the left side of the main page is Core, the stuff in the middle and right are material from other sources), or in the T13K Setting Guide, is only allowed on a case-by-case basis (per individual rules bit; don't ask if you can use a whole supplemental book, but instead ask about the few specific feats, spells, items, or whatever that you're planning to use from it) with DM's approval.

Non-Core classes are unavailable in For More Than Glory (although non-Core Prestige Classes are okay, if the DM, which is currently me, approves the particular prestige class you want to use). No variant rules are in use for T13K (so Unearthed Arcana is out of the question). So, in other words, you'll need a level of Rogue or an appropriate prestige class to get Trapfinding, if that's a class feature you want, since Scouts and Ninjas and Factotums and such are a no-go.

Prestige Classes must be tailored by the player or DM to fit the setting; there are no generic PrCs in T13K. We can work this out at some point if you choose a prestige class that isn't already covered in the T13K Setting Guide or in the current group. I can e-mail you the Setting Guide PDF (dunno when the T13K website will be functional again, Emiricol's been too busy the past few years), but I'd need an e-mail address. I don't suggest posting it on the forum; spambots scouring the website may get it then. You should be able to click on the e-mail icon next to one of my posts, or on my profile, to send me an e-mail and then I can send the PDF in a response e-mail to that.

Either start discussing your character concept and what classes etc. it'll need to work, or wait until after you've e-mailed me and gotten the setting guide PDF. I can give some info myself, but it is best to just read the appropriate sections of the PDF to make your character-creation decisions.

ScionJustice · Apr 15, 2009

I was thinking about playing a druid, hopefully a druid that is the shapechanger from the PHBII. Yes, I already got the PDF on the kingdoms.

Arkhandus · Apr 15, 2009

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, variants are not used in FMTG, since it's a standard T13K campaign. My Sunday game is different because it's set in a different time period and specifically called out as non-canonical, ergo any wierdness in Fot14K won't have any effect on other T13K campaigns nor the T13K timeline or setting. Fall of the 14th Kingdom exists in its own little bubble of a possible-past-Aerde. But not FMTG.

ScionJustice · Apr 15, 2009

Then I'll just play a sorcerer bard.

Arkhandus · Apr 20, 2009

Kilroo? Still here?

ScionJustice? Anything done on your character sheet yet?

kilroo · Apr 23, 2009

Arkhandus said:
Kilroo? Still here?

ScionJustice? Anything done on your character sheet yet?

Um...

Well, theoretically, I sent you a message through the email link on your profile. Unless I lost a reply somehow, I haven't heard back. The gist was that I would like the setting information but it is going to take longer for me to get a character candidate ready than I'd thought once I've been over the setting material, because I had miscalculated my free time for the next couple weeks. I can try sending you another message to get you my email address if you never got the first one.