The Goblins Fan Forum

Hey folks,
I've been messing around with some world building over the last few days and I was wondering if there was any player interest? I'd be looking for 4-6 players to start as a party (i.e. your backstory should link you to at least one other PC in the group) to embark on some fairly lighthearted adventuring. If there's enough interest I'll give you more information on the setting etc. If not, that's totes fine - I'll just keep it all for my RL D&D group

I expect this will end up being a fairly sandboxy setting overall with lots of room for exploring and dungeon-diving but I'll include some ongoing plot-stuff in the background in case you decide you'd prefer to save the world

I'm a fan of dnd, but it is a bit "post heavy"
How did you think to run combat and such?

I'm planning on using battle grids (updated per round) / descriptions to avoid confusion and most battles should end up being fairly short. I think 5e has done a really good job of streamlining combat to keep the game moving too. Since this will be a text-based game, I should also be able to update pretty regularly through the day (busy work days excluded of course) and keep things moving.

If it works it works, if it doesn't... Well, no harm done We've got a current 5e game on the forum now that's working pretty well though, and theis ran a 3.5e game that was also a lot of fun so it can be done.

Indeed, the whole advantage/disadvantage system speeds things up a ton.
Not to mention other things.

I could be interested in this.
And will look forward to hear more about the setting and pc options.

Even though i know barly anything about 5ed i am interested!

I'm interested, but hesitant to sign up due to unpredictability of my participation.

All right, here's the world setting (high res map; probably best to download a copy if you want to see the details):



A rough description of the major lands follows:

The Wandering Archipelago: The remnants of a continent that was destroyed in a great cataclysm thousands of years ago.The islands now literally float around the ocean, buoyed up by the remains of the magic that ÔÇ£createdÔÇØ them in the first place. As the magic wanes over time, some of the outer islands occasionally sink or run aground revealing the strange undersea worlds that have formed on the undersides of the isles.

The islands form two primary bands: the outermost ÔÇ£Drifting IslesÔÇØ are prone to unusual events, but are still relatively normal while the innermost ÔÇ£Lost IslesÔÇØ are much stranger and more dangerous to casual visitors.

Because they are in constant motion and magical forces are somewhat tricky, travel to and between the islands is largely random. Most people who choose to live there tend to be pretty easy-going. The islands also attract all kinds of magic-workers, all keen to study the powers trapped in the isles, and a renowned University is situated in the Drifting Isles. Because the islands are mobile and weird, they tend to have rather descriptive names since no-one can ever be completely sure which name attaches to which isle. Even then, mistakes frequently happen.

Duskald: The western continent is the ancestral home of the Dwarves whose primary realm extends deep beneath the Dragonsback Ridge. Their coastal settlements enable trade with the rest of the world and produce other goods to supply the Kingdom of Hammarstrand. The inhospitable wildlands to the north are considered highly dangerous and are rarely travelled.

Wesmark: Contains numerous human / mixed-race settlements that mainly take advantage of the continent's bountiful coasts and mineral resources. The largest city is Seahaven which benefits from its highly defensible location, and because it is the easternmost non-mobile landmass which makes it a valuable trading port. Trade through the port is highly seasonal however, and depends on calm conditions to make the crossing through the Devil's Cauldron feasible. Conditions are largely temperate / cold. The southern wastes are permanently cold (tundra).

Estermark: A pleasant continent, Estermark's warm / temperate climate makes it a popular place for humans and halflings to settle, with fertile soils sustained by the many rivers. Creetown, Barrmouth, Salton Cove and Erinston are the major cities of the continent and are highly wealthy. Thieves, smugglers and politicking can be found in abundance here.

In the north, the twinned towns of North and South Kingswalk mark the ends of the "Long Bridge"; an ancient miracle of engineering crafted by dwarves, gnomes or wizards (depending on who you ask). The bridge forms a convenient link between Estermark and Caero, and still provides a trade route with the elvish town of Rhul.

Caero: The majority of this hot continent is covered by ancient forests, with the Gorgon's Head Swamp lying to the north. The vast swamp is a wild and dangerous place, filled with wild monsters, lizardfolk and whispers of dragons. It is also rumoured to contain the ruins of ancient, long-lost civilisations, that are (of course) brimming with treasure and undiscovered wealth.

Small communities of wood elves, druids and dragonborn still inhabit parts of the ancient forest, and it is rife with magic. Small enterprising groups have attempted to set up trading posts through the woods, and rely on the many waterways to move their cargo to the Highland settlements in the south and along the coast. Traders who risk travelling further into the woods typically return with bizarre tales of a sentient forest, strange creatures and fantastic treasures or fail to return at all.

The great high-elf cities of Caelthor and Maesmenor are found here, but little is known about them. All contact with the elves is conducted via emissaries who live and work in Rhul, and no recorded contact has been made between elves and other races for centuries.

--------------------------------------------

A relatively small pantheon of gods are worshipped throughout the world, though many (particularly on Caero) prefer to worship animal and elemental spirits directly.

If you guys do want to play something here you can choose any of the four major continents to start on. If you want to reach the archipelago, you'll need to do it in-game

I'm a little interested. I'll have to study up on 5e, since I don't know much about D&D in general, so it'll take me some time to get my head around things and I'll probably make some mistakes even after that.

Edit: You seem to have mentioned most of the 5e player races, except Tieflings. Are they out? Or I guess maybe they're counted as one of the mixed-races in Westmark since they're half-demons?

Sounds good, and I always seem to love your settings.

A few questions.
Is this a lvl 1 game?
What are the class/race restrictions (I noted no one had heard from the elves in a long time)
Where are we tech wise? (fear├╗n/classic fantasy, Eberron/a magic stamping take... Or something all different)
And are there anything else a character should consider?

Dlover wrote:I'm a little interested. I'll have to study up on 5e, since I don't know much about D&D in general, so it'll take me some time to get my head around things and I'll probably make some mistakes even after that.

Edit: You seem to have mentioned most of the 5e player races, except Tieflings. Are they out? Or I guess maybe they're counted as one of the mixed-races in Westmark since they're half-demons?

Tiefling are around but much rarer so I forgot to mention them. Anywhere there's humans, you could potentially find a tiefling.

5e is pretty cool and seems fairly straightforward to pick up so that should be OK. Levels 1-3 are designed to guide you into the game and sort out your character creation so we'll start at level 1 and I'm happy to guide you guys through the rules etc. as best I can.

LAYF wrote:Sounds good, and I always seem to love your settings.

A few questions.
Is this a lvl 1 game?
What are the class/race restrictions (I noted no one had heard from the elves in a long time)
Where are we tech wise? (fear├╗n/classic fantasy, Eberron/a magic stamping take... Or something all different)
And are there anything else a character should consider?

Yes, we'll start at level 1 to help guide new folk into the 5e setting.

This depends on where you want to start. If you want to play a party of high elves, you can start in the elvish cities; otherwise you'd have to get there in game somehow. Similarly, high elves wouldn't be found (openly) outside the 2 big elven cities, and they would be rare in Rhul. Wood elves are wanderers and half elves may be curious of their human side so may be found more widely.

This is your standard fantasy setting, so fairly high magic and pseuso-medieval tech. Lord of the rings basically.

For character creation, I'll probably follow spiders character creation method and have you choose someone from a list of randomly pre-created class / race / background mixes. That seems to be working pretty well in his game and stops min maxing in favour of rping and has led to having some interesting folk in the group If you as a group decide to theme the party (e.g. all elves, band of only rogues / clerics / whatever) I can easily tailor the list.

Since you're building a pc for a party, this cc process will be fairly open between players so you can figure out how you know each other pre-game and what your group motivations are. People can still have secrets of course, and how much you know of each other can depend on when / how you all met.

Pre-created characters would probably make starting easier, though I've had a brief look and character creation doesn't seem particularly complicated if you're not looking to be ideal, so I'm happy either way.

As for potential characters, I think dragonborn seem pretty interesting as a race. And since it seems like they're typically fairly focused on their clans, it's a potential theme, if others take interest?
And for curiosity's sake, they seem to be ideal for paladins, right? The attributes that they boost are the paladin's main attributes, so they'd do rather well, unless I'm missing something significant?

I've not looked, but from the top of my head I think you're right partly that's why I like spiders way of choosing the characters - you as a player still get to roll your stats and assign them and choose your life history / personality etc, but you don't get to choose the "best" mix of race / character / background to max out your stats.

I'll leave this post up for the rest of today, but it's looking like we have LAYF, burns, dlover and wears as our starting 4. Wears - I'm sure we can work around your schedule, and figure out something for if / when you can't post (e.g. an incurable curse that blips your PC in and out of existence could be fun ic, and give you a way to come and go if you're out of spoons).

If anyone else wants to join in, I'll take up to 2 more players, but otherwise feel free to start talking about your group. I'll be around today to answer any questions.

Oooo, ooo!

I'm interested, and open to whatever the rest of you want to do as far as starting stuff.

thinkslogically wrote:I've not looked, but from the top of my head I think you're right partly that's why I like spiders way of choosing the characters - you as a player still get to roll your stats and assign them and choose your life history / personality etc, but you don't get to choose the "best" mix of race / character / background to max out your stats.

To clarify for some of the others, I made lists of race, class and background, and randomly built 'characters' with a selection from each column. Rock Gnome/Paladin/Urchin or Human/Wizard/Noble for example. If we narrow our starting parameters, Thinks can exclude certain races/etc. from the lists she generates.

That sounds awesome...
I'm up for most things you guys would like..
But if we go with one race or one class for all, I'd like to avoid the following:
Halflings/gnomes/drow
Monks/warlocks
The above have either become to much klich├®, been to ridiculous in some editions or to overpowered to hold my interest for to long as a player.
If we play mixed classes amd races I have no restrictions and will find a spot that fits in the group.


I'd, suggest starting in Caero for the adventure hooks or Wesmark for the humans/mixed races...

are monter races going to be a thing? Edit: and where did you find the pdf for the races and stuff?

What pdf? They are in the Player's Handbook.

Starting in a land with variety of races and the like sounds good.

Arch Lich Burns wrote:are monter races going to be a thing? Edit: and where did you find the pdf for the races and stuff?

No, I don't have the new book Let's keep things simple and stick to what's in the Player's Handbook.

EDIT: Once you guys decide on the type of group you want, I'll get you a list of PCs to choose from.

If you want to start in Caero, Rhul would be the only city you could start in as a mixed group, but you could definitely choose to start in the smaller towns of Hightown (a trading outpost) or in N or S Kingswalk (where the big connecting bridge is).

You can start anywhere in Estermark, Wesmark or Duskald pretty much without restriction, though your PC's level of cultural comfort / acceptance may vary a bit depending on where you begin.

thinkslogically wrote:
Caero: ... Small enterprising groups have attempted to set up trading posts through the woods, and rely on the many waterways to move their cargo to the Highland settlements in the south and along the coast.

thinkslogically wrote:...

If you want to start in Caero, Rhul would be the only city you could start in as a mixed group, but you could definitely choose to start in the smaller towns of Hightown (a trading outpost) or in N or S Kingswalk (where the big connecting bridge is).

How would you guys feel about a mixed group that are partners/employees/hirelings of a trade venture coming in and out of Hightown on Caero?

Spider: To me that sounds good, protection for hire is a nice entry for adventure....

Me me me

How about a group of pirates who float about on their mighty dingy, plundering merchants, etc.

hehe

All right, you've got the last spot badge. Setting up could take a while since were scattered across all the time zones, but I'm totally happy to go with whatever you guys want to do - these are all perfectly feasible ideas.

If we are all on board with a mixed band vs. "all halfings, etc.", would it make any sense to pick from a list of characters and see if something coalesces? Eg, a bunch of us are sailors and soldiers, vs guild artisans and entertainers?

Or are you wanting to narrow options based on our starting point?

Nope, if you guys are fine with a mixed group the I can get you a list . I was really just waiting to give wears, burns and dlover a chance to have a say first in case they have their own epic idea

I'm good with Spider's suggestion on the trade venture group.