Hi everyone. Please bear with me as I am new to PBP format. I was hoping to run through a playtest of a campaign idea I have. I need 4 players, each of which needs to create a 1st level character. The 4 volunteers will be required to prepare a 1st level character for the first part of a small story arc. If it runs well, I will see about continuing it.
The initial arc will probably not last longer than a week, though maybe I'm miscalculating the speed of PBP. I will post every 24 hours, giving everyone else that time to put up their responses.
Each player can use the standard point buy systems for character generation. The only disallowed races are dragonborn, Tieflings and Drow. Variant humans are allowed (and feats) variant background variants are allowed. You must submit your Character, including equipment details 24 hours from now. I will then post the first part of the arc. The players will then have 24 hours to discuss the actions they each wish to take to a maximum of 3 each. I will then make some rolls and publish the results of those actions and the next arc. For simplicities sake in this "experiment", I will try to accurately publish all the rolls I've made.
The only other rule I'd like to enforce is that you should make sure your character can work reasonably well amongst the other party members.
Here is the setting, you'd be in a city known as Is'Merith (Pronounced IMeri). It's a large desert city, population 400-500k. It has a long history over several thousand years drenched in war and as a result, the city had been demolished and rebuilt several times. Running along the side of the city is a saltwater canal just over 70 miles long, 300 feet wide and 50 ft deep, created by wizards 2000 years prior to allow ships to transport constant waves of food in and various mining goods out. Outside of the city in the desert are extensive mines that are still allowing the wealthy to prosper despite the fact that they feed the masses, house them and provide free medical services. However, they also provide the opportunity to earn currency in exchange for work.
The city is divided into 3 sections. Firstly, the centre, occupied by the wealthy and the nobility. To enter here, you can enter as anybody, but the toll is 500gp every time a non-resident enters (official residents of the centre however can come and go as they please.) Surrounding the inner circle is the second section of the city,over a dozen areas of varying wealth all bordered of with toll gates where all people who have developed a skill and have purchased a lease on a business reside with partner and up to one child. If these residents have any more than one child, they must either send the other/s to the orphanages in the undercity (the third section), or they must renounced their lease and go back underneath as a family, the parents never to return.
The undercity region is divided up into several regions too. Again, everyone down here is fed, housed and watered free of charge by the nobility (via the church), but any time they are free to work in the mines. Many wish to earn some money in order to save up and pay to complete training as an apprentice in some craft, which they do in the evenings after work, others spend their money on entertainment, alcohol, drugs and prostitution. Some put money into getting accommodation that actually has water grates above them that provide them with sunlight during the day (not so much for their benefit, but their children. Others go with the cheaper option and go to the churches of Pelor the sun god, where they climb the steps to roofless towers 60ft above the city, praying for an hour after dawn and an hour before sunset. They then descend to be fed and watered by the church before going on with their day. Most of these people below choose to work for different reasons. Those who steal are basically incarcerated and forced to work the mines at a quarter of the standard wages until they've paid for the equivalent of whatever they stole, but with a minimum 3 month sentence.
People are free to leave the city at any time. If you are a local, you've never heard from those who do choose to leave again, whatever their fate might be. You've heard there are monsters in the deserts.
If you choose not to be a local, you will have likely approached this city with caution, knowing the above, but with the Is'Merith's reputation for how well they pay, you probably couldn't refuse. The city has been recruiting outsiders for years as mercenaries. If you are a cleric or paladin, maybe they made a significant donation to your church and your superiors sent you. I have reasons each class might come, but will not necessarily reveal them unless someone plays one.
There are no class restrictions per se, but only barbarians, fighters, rogues, bards and monks may have originated locally, though this is not a requirement. Upon arrival (by boat), outsiders all receive the right to travel everywhere in the outer circle free and anywhere below free, though there is a 10gp toll travelling down below. Outsiders also have to cover their own accommodation (top or bottom, they pay a flat rate of 2gp per day), though this includes meals and guards. They must eat and sleep separately to locals at all times.
On the other hand, if you are a local, whatever your beginnings, you will have gained access to the upper level and can now travel freely travel between the outer circle and the area below. You yourself have either earned or schemed your way into a position of comfort above. Your accommodation in the outer circle is paid for you along with free food, however if you stay in accommodation in the lower levels at your own risk.
Whether you're a local or an outsider, you carry your identification papers everywhere, so don't lose them whatever you do.
Regardless of your beginnings, you've been hired to investigate some strange happenings in the undercity, where about 50k of the cities total population reside. There have been reports of disappearances, disease and people going crazy along with rumors of creatures skulking in quiet abandoned parts of the city.
Whatever you choose to be, have fun.
Good luck Adventurers!
The initial arc will probably not last longer than a week, though maybe I'm miscalculating the speed of PBP. I will post every 24 hours, giving everyone else that time to put up their responses.
Each player can use the standard point buy systems for character generation. The only disallowed races are dragonborn, Tieflings and Drow. Variant humans are allowed (and feats) variant background variants are allowed. You must submit your Character, including equipment details 24 hours from now. I will then post the first part of the arc. The players will then have 24 hours to discuss the actions they each wish to take to a maximum of 3 each. I will then make some rolls and publish the results of those actions and the next arc. For simplicities sake in this "experiment", I will try to accurately publish all the rolls I've made.
The only other rule I'd like to enforce is that you should make sure your character can work reasonably well amongst the other party members.
Here is the setting, you'd be in a city known as Is'Merith (Pronounced IMeri). It's a large desert city, population 400-500k. It has a long history over several thousand years drenched in war and as a result, the city had been demolished and rebuilt several times. Running along the side of the city is a saltwater canal just over 70 miles long, 300 feet wide and 50 ft deep, created by wizards 2000 years prior to allow ships to transport constant waves of food in and various mining goods out. Outside of the city in the desert are extensive mines that are still allowing the wealthy to prosper despite the fact that they feed the masses, house them and provide free medical services. However, they also provide the opportunity to earn currency in exchange for work.
The city is divided into 3 sections. Firstly, the centre, occupied by the wealthy and the nobility. To enter here, you can enter as anybody, but the toll is 500gp every time a non-resident enters (official residents of the centre however can come and go as they please.) Surrounding the inner circle is the second section of the city,over a dozen areas of varying wealth all bordered of with toll gates where all people who have developed a skill and have purchased a lease on a business reside with partner and up to one child. If these residents have any more than one child, they must either send the other/s to the orphanages in the undercity (the third section), or they must renounced their lease and go back underneath as a family, the parents never to return.
The undercity region is divided up into several regions too. Again, everyone down here is fed, housed and watered free of charge by the nobility (via the church), but any time they are free to work in the mines. Many wish to earn some money in order to save up and pay to complete training as an apprentice in some craft, which they do in the evenings after work, others spend their money on entertainment, alcohol, drugs and prostitution. Some put money into getting accommodation that actually has water grates above them that provide them with sunlight during the day (not so much for their benefit, but their children. Others go with the cheaper option and go to the churches of Pelor the sun god, where they climb the steps to roofless towers 60ft above the city, praying for an hour after dawn and an hour before sunset. They then descend to be fed and watered by the church before going on with their day. Most of these people below choose to work for different reasons. Those who steal are basically incarcerated and forced to work the mines at a quarter of the standard wages until they've paid for the equivalent of whatever they stole, but with a minimum 3 month sentence.
People are free to leave the city at any time. If you are a local, you've never heard from those who do choose to leave again, whatever their fate might be. You've heard there are monsters in the deserts.
If you choose not to be a local, you will have likely approached this city with caution, knowing the above, but with the Is'Merith's reputation for how well they pay, you probably couldn't refuse. The city has been recruiting outsiders for years as mercenaries. If you are a cleric or paladin, maybe they made a significant donation to your church and your superiors sent you. I have reasons each class might come, but will not necessarily reveal them unless someone plays one.
There are no class restrictions per se, but only barbarians, fighters, rogues, bards and monks may have originated locally, though this is not a requirement. Upon arrival (by boat), outsiders all receive the right to travel everywhere in the outer circle free and anywhere below free, though there is a 10gp toll travelling down below. Outsiders also have to cover their own accommodation (top or bottom, they pay a flat rate of 2gp per day), though this includes meals and guards. They must eat and sleep separately to locals at all times.
On the other hand, if you are a local, whatever your beginnings, you will have gained access to the upper level and can now travel freely travel between the outer circle and the area below. You yourself have either earned or schemed your way into a position of comfort above. Your accommodation in the outer circle is paid for you along with free food, however if you stay in accommodation in the lower levels at your own risk.
Whether you're a local or an outsider, you carry your identification papers everywhere, so don't lose them whatever you do.
Regardless of your beginnings, you've been hired to investigate some strange happenings in the undercity, where about 50k of the cities total population reside. There have been reports of disappearances, disease and people going crazy along with rumors of creatures skulking in quiet abandoned parts of the city.
Whatever you choose to be, have fun.
Good luck Adventurers!
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