3.5 dnd game.

[Jacon]

Hey, So I really enjoyed dnd and I haven't gm a online game for a long time and I would like to try and start up another one again. In the past i've run two separate games. Land of Gorder which lasted for a quite a bit but ended due to me being stressed out at work and players stopped posting, ( Lack of interest I can only assume.) and Ashren which had alot of issues and didn't last that long. Despite this it's been a while and I'd like another go at it.

1: Setting, I was thinking of re using my land of Gorder campaign since I know it so well. Either by using my past setting or a different age of Gorder to make a new experience. Kinda matters on if old players wanna play or not. Alot of my past setting have dealt with things like imperialism and addiction so be prepared to deal with concepts like that. I usually run a low money, high magic item campaign. ( Magic items can be bought or found pretty easily.)
I do alot of homebrewed stuff so i'm not a hard rules lawyer by no means.

2: Character info: I haven't made up my mind but i'm thinking somewhere between third level and fifth to start off with. All classic classes and races are available ( except for gnomes.) Depending on the setting you might have rp pros or cons depending on your race or class. Other classes and race can be chosen as well but i'd have to take a look at them.
I also do a concept of dailies stolen from 4th edition. You can create your own custom daily, encounter, passive, power to fit you character. Since this might be a game breaking concept I reserve the right to change these but I haven't run into that issue yet. Powers have ranged from being able to turn into a bear for a round, being able to turn into mist, having a small healing affect on all allies near to you, to hitting really hard. Magic items also usually have daily powers as well.
Stats will be determined by rolling 4d6 seven times. ( You get a spare result.) Removing the lowest result and adding the rest together. ( For instance I roll 4 5 2 6. I remove the 2 and add 4+5+6= 15. do that seven times.) If you roll shitty you can use a point buy system instead.
I have no problem with opposing alignments. You just have to have a good reason why your working together even if you have different view points. ( Evil rogue vs holy paladin. They can't be fighting all the time.)

3: Me as a dm. I'm fairly into heavy RP and strategy. I'm not a rules lawyer as I don't know all the rules but I have a fairly good understanding of them. I'm not the best at combat, I think my fights are interesting but can get confusing sometimes since I haven't used a graph or anything. I have two solutions to this.
1 Removing small things like A00 ( attack of opportunities.) and flanking to simplify combat. I might use AOOs for things like just flat out running away from a combatant but otherwise I wont use them.
2 Trying to find a program I can use on my computer to create a basic grid for combat. I Have a pretty old mac that doesn't have a paint program so this might be hard but i'm willing to try
I don't usually spellcheck what I write which I might correct but for the most point what I write is eligible with some grammar mistakes.
I'm a fairly kindly and flexible dude. Theirs almost nothing I won't change in my game to make it more enjoyable for the players. The end result for me is that the players should be having fun more than the GM. If you have issues let me know, i'm more than willing to work with you on that. In the past I notice that some fights broke out in my Ashren campaign. I won't take all the credit for all the problems that happened but I noticed that one of my mistakes was trying to rush the game along. This caused some tension with loot. With this in mind i'm making a basic update schedule that should avoid that issue.
I will update once a day UNLESS a player post is missing, than I will wait another day. So players have a deadline of two days before I post.

I'm not sure how many players i'm interested in having. I'll just who's interested to start off.

So hit me with it, any interests and questions for me. Anything I forget to mention?

[Quarg]

Well I think Ashran just sort of got caught in too much character leakage in the end there...but I will throw a flag of intrest in here...

[Tea]

I'll throw in a flag (to borrow the phrase, actually, that's one I haven't heard before) in if you don't mind that I've never played any d&d (I do keep up a pretty informal rp with a friend which I guess is sort of close) (okay, maybe very sort of). So, If you're not going to mind the potential bumbling idiocy and having to explain the occasional thing, I would love to see about joining in.

[Jacon]

Here is a quick description of the setting.


Setting: The setting is a medium sized island ( really two islands separated by a river.) called Gorder. Gordor was a very savage place filled with powerful monsters and strange god like beings. However 100 years ago it was conquered by a nation the empire ( generic, I know.) who have settled the area and starting mining it's rich veins of gems and gold. The natives have divided in their allegiance. Some like the empire for making Gordor a safer place to live. ( Killing powerful beasts, teachings stuff like basic farming.) Others dislike them for banning the worship of their personal gods
( Druids are illegal in the eyes of the empire for heretic worship.) and for treating them like second hand citizens.
Homebrewed stuff:
You will choose a tribe ( or the imperials or an outside fraction depending on your race.) to belong to that will you give some bonus stats or abilities. I haven't played in a while so these stats are up for debate as to what you want.
Examples of tribes.
Heavy-Hands ( Trader based clan.)
Silvermoons ( Wizard based clan.)
Aldrin. ( Generic name for very small clans. Most are farmers.)
Roiga-Tu ( warrior/hunter based clan.)
Shadow touched. ( Secretive clan. Should properly send me a message if you wanna be these guys.)
Grickos. (Goblinoid samurais. Also fairly secretive and you should send me a message if you wanna be these guys.)

You can create your own tribe if you want and come up with some background stats and perhaps even powers. ( example Silvermoon tribe might get 1+ to int and -1 to strength. They have innate skill with magic so you might be able to cast a single o level spell per day. +1 to arcane and use magic device checks.)
I can teach the basics of dnd. So to start off with your gonna wanna choose a race ( Human, elf, half elf, orc, half orc, halfling, dwarf etc.) and a class ( Bard, barbarian, wizard, fighter, paladin, rogue, sorcerorer, monk, ranger, cleric and druid.) Their are more races and classes you can take but those are the basic ones. If you wanna about a certain class/race let me know.

[ChuckDaRighteous]

I might consider this. Its been a while since I've done a DND game and I have that itch.

On the subject of learning DND, if people do want to learn more a couple years ago a friend of mine gave me some of the DND books in PDF format. I can send a copy to whoever wants them. I have the main 3.5 books plus a lot of expansion books. Not to undermine your teaching skills, Jacon but it sometimes help to have the material in front of you.

[Tea]

Setting: The setting is a medium sized island ( really two islands separated by a river.) called Gorder. Gordor was a very savage place filled with powerful monsters and strange god like beings. However 100 years ago it was conquered by a nation the empire ( generic, I know.) who have settled the area and starting mining it's rich veins of gems and gold. The natives have divided in their allegiance. Some like the empire for making Gordor a safer place to live. ( Killing powerful beasts, teachings stuff like basic farming.) Others dislike them for banning the worship of their personal gods
( Druids are illegal in the eyes of the empire for heretic worship.) and for treating them like second hand citizens.

I'm going to take a guess and say a medium island is too big to be a small island, but not big enough for continent status.
Since we have other races running around, are most people human with a minority of non-humans?
Should I hold off on setting questions for now? I don't want to ruin any plans you have for worldbuild-er-developing.

On the subject of learning DND, if people do want to learn more a couple years ago a friend of mine gave me some of the DND books in PDF format. I can send a copy to whoever wants them. I have the main 3.5 books plus a lot of expansion books. Not to undermine your teaching skills, Jacon but it sometimes help to have the material in front of you.

I've been trying to pick things up without having to ask too many redundant questions, but having at least a basic book on hand would probably be useful, not, of course, that I'm not still going to think up questions for the Great Teaching Skills to have a go at....but I can foresee having to explain everything getting real tedious real fast. (Righteous, I think I would love to take up that kind offer; this would be via e-mail? (I'll pm you over the address tomorrow when I get can get at the computer, if you do not mind))

And on that note, I've been poking around the internet fiddling around with a couple of character generators just to test a couple of class-race combinations. At this point I'm just messing with some ideas, and, apparently today it was orcs. So, just to throw a few things out there, exactly how detrimental/paradoxical would an orkic cleric be? (orkic, orkish,...orkish just sounded too uncertain with itself, but it's probably more correct) I'm trying to see what possibilities there are for trying to make the orc a bit more able to get on with whatever other people chose to be, they seem cool, but,...a wee bit antisocial. (For the record, I''m going to hold off on any actuall decisions until things get more underway, I'm just, for lack of a better word, running a few ideas around and seeing what I pick up. I'm also going to try to go for something a bit more on the standard side (albeit, perhaps an odd combination), for the self-proclaimed learner, it seems better than hitting off for anything more obscure and not having any idea what I'm doing)

[Jacon]

If you can get the books and start the process yourself I would do so. If you have any questions you can send them to me. I have a fairly decent knowledge of the books.

Humans, Gobliniods, ( Goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears.) and halflings make the majority of the natives although theirs a few sprinkling of other races ( Gnolls, Lizardfolk, trogs, Bolly wogs, hill giants.)
For the imperials humans are the majority. They also have allied dwarves ( They are from a different kingdom than the imperials and are the blacksmiths of Gordor.)
and Orc foot soldiers.


Orcs are a interesting race in this setting. They are a native to a different island where they lived in clans either raiding each other or building boats to raid others. Eventually things came to a head with the imperials and the orcs and the humans tried to invade the island and conquer them. It failed miserably and the orcs slaughtered the entire army that tried to breach their shores. After this the imperials switched tactics and started trading with the orcs while they developed a alchemist drug called Rose. They started to trade this drug to the orcs which made them incredibly strong and durable ( Think steroids almost.) sadly they never found out the withdrawal effects until half the island was hooked. If they stopped taking the drug 90% would die. The empire started forcing the orcs to become their shock soldiers paying them in Rosa and so now thats where they stand.
You could be a orc cleric easily and it's choice if your addicted to rosa or not. If you are you will gain a strong stat bonus to str and con and a extra daily to do extra damage but you will also be addicted to rosa and it's hard to get unless your an imperial lap dog.
Or you don't have to. Choice would be up to you.
Their are gods orcs worship, you can either make one up or use one of these two.
Grummsh: The orc god. I don't his domains but his pretty bent on conquest and ruling other inferior beings.
The great bear: A tribal god who brought fire to the orcish people. Huge bear that pretty much does what bears do. ( eat salmon and sleep.)

[Theis2]

Feel free to message me aswell if you need some help creating characters or something.

I'm not sure I got time to participate in more games even though I want to. I might get some more time soon though in case you need more players.

[Quarg]

I am thinking of porting over the character from Ashren mainly because I didn't get to play with her much....

[Jacon]

That would be fine but their is no real big elf society. Elves are really just humans with pointed ears and longer life spans.
You can make up a tribe that similar to your previous background though

[ChuckDaRighteous]

If you can get the books and start the process yourself I would do so. If you have any questions you can send them to me. I have a fairly decent knowledge of the books.

BTW, are there any books you don't accept, or things which you throw out in favor of house rules? I know a few DMs who don't like Unearted Arcana's variations. I like to build not normal characters, but I'd like to know if something besides gnomes are banned before building a character.

@Tea, yeah that's fine, do you just want the main 3 books to get you started or do you want all 50+ books in my file to fully immerse yourself.

[Quarg]

That would be fine but their is no real big elf society. Elves are really just humans with pointed ears and longer life spans.
You can make up a tribe that similar to your previous background though

Well I was thinking of transmuting her to a pointy eared imperial but I don't know enough about the imperials really...

[Jacon]

As long as you don't overshadow your fellow players you should be fine with whatever you choose. Just run anything really unusual by me first but I should be ok with it.

Imperials:
The imperials serve the emperor who they believe is chosen by their gods. Most imperials are human and lived on the continent of Olberdan. They have huge mines of steel and iron so almost every soldier in the army is clad in at least breastplate unlike many other armies. Imperials are lawful by nature and consider themselves civilized over many other smaller kingdoms. Their nobles are often lavished with fashionable robes and jewelry while the common foot soldier lives comfortably and the peasants are almost never without food at least in the homeland.
Many imperials believe their way of governing is superior and some natives agree since the imperials have established safe roads from monsters and protection over towns. However imperials have more rights than the common native ( They are allowed to wear metal armor and use metal weapons unlike many tribals who need permits to do so.) and sometimes they lorde this over the natives causing grudges between the two. The imperials have also banned the religion of the natives as heresy so druids and worshippers of the old gods either keep it hidden or live in the woods.
Thanks to their well trained and equipped armies and the aid of their addicted orc foot soldier the empire is one of the biggest nations in the world. However due to several wars they have withdrawn several legions of imperial soldiers from Gordor leaving it strained to keep up with their formal protections of towns and road and leaving it vulnerable to a revolt

[GathersIngredients]

I would be interested in joining/playing (again).

Assuming I would get a spot, I'm not sure if I would want to play Quentin & Ciela again, though. I think mage is unnecessary complicated for a D&D newbie. I'd probably prefer something a bit simpler, like a fighter, ranger or whatever?

[Nerre]

is it possible to reuse chars from earlier and abandoned games?

[Jacon]

I haven't decided how many players I will have. Anyone who hasn't played with me before are automatically in though. I will let everyone else know soon.

Just throwing this out there, I have setting set that I've played on the forums before but I've also considered the setting where the empire first landed on Gordor where everything is still filled with hostile tribes and strong monsters. Think very conquistadors and Aztecs with magic. I'm even tinkering with the idea of adding flintlock pistols to the setting. Would their be a interest in this setting or are you happy with the one already set. ( The new one might be useful if I have players from my previous gordor play wanting to join,)

You can play whatever class you want. Fighters are very basic ( But very good at combat.) so if you want some variety barbarians/monks/rangers and paladins add something to the basic fighting classes.

You can reuse characters if you want

[Nerre]

Thanks for the information!

[Tea]

I look away for a bit and suddenly things get even more interesting.
So, here's the next batch of questions:
Are the half-orcs in the same proverbial boat as the orcs as far as their role in the empire?

And, speaking of boats, I take it there's an imperial navy, but what is the empire's view on maritime trade?

Meanwhile, currently considering a half-orc (most likely barbarian, but really haven't decided on any class yet) with a seafaring background (not sure if he's just the dock hand or more of a merchant/pirate crew member) or something more in the human rouge or ranger vein.

[Jacon]

Half orcs are basically the same. Considered freaks by both races though but accepted. Rosa still affects them. ( Sidenote about rosa. As a general it only affects orcs. It's fetal to take for other races though their is a small chance 90% that it will affect them as it does orcs.)

Their is a imperial navy and they are very invested in the maritime trade. The empire has multiple smaller kingdom allies with whom they trade with including a dwarven nation.

[nikohl]

If there's room, could I bring Etta back in?

[Jacon]

Yes you could.

I'll be making the final list of players in a little bit when I get some time.

[Nerre]

I would love to bring Kaliss back. Not necessarily as a lizardfolk, other more barbaric races with a tribe culture would do as well.

[Jacon]

decided on four players for now. Rolled some dice, Tea and Chuck got in automatically, Quarg, and Nikhol are the other two. If I open another slot I will let you guys know.
Let me know any character concepts you have. I'm pretty open to any ideas. Also let me know any questions you have.

Sidenote I forgot to mention but for you stats you can remove two points from one stat and add it to another.

[Quarg]

So which world are we setting this in??

[Jacon]

I'm gonna go with the conquistadors setting. Try something new for all of us.