Human Error
*Insert Incoherent Screeching Here*
What Is This?
I've been a DM for a couple years now, however, I have never tried Play-By-Post. I've RPed for many years through text, however, never with a Dice system in play! So I wanted to try this out and see how I like it.
Any and all suggestions on how to improve this and how this is normally done to make things go smoothly is appreciated, however, I've looked into it and have seen how others do it and kinda adapted some of the rules they had in play.
Tabletop Rules
First we can start with combat rules and how I want the flow to work out.
Initiative: I want to stay clear of having a post order if I can help it, so to make initiative easier, we will have group initiative, where the entire player group will add up their initiative into one and that will be their initiative, same will be done for groups of enemies. This WILL be in the players favor, But I follow the rule of "I'm on the players team, not against them." So I'm okay with this.
Combat: While in initiative, I would like players to keep track of their AC, HP, and certain limited use things through post in combat, (just put it in parentheses). I wont be a huge fanatic about this, I will generally trust you that you are keeping track, as long as you trust me as well . At the beginning of an initiative, and maybe sometimes throughout, I will post the AC, and current HP of the beasties you are fighting, so that everything you do during your collective turn can be carried out smoothly. I will resolve what happens afterward in my own posts.
Critical Strikes: So, how I normally do critical strikes, is that when you get a crit, you get the max damage of the initial damage roll. Then you add a die of the same damage number. Ie. If you deal damage with a Shortsword, you would deal (1d6+1) damage to the target, a crit of this would look more like, (7+1d6+1). As we are adding the strength modifier in there twice.
Post Frequency: I would like at least a post or two a day from your side of things, I will attempt to do the same on my end. I understand life happens, cause for sure it will be happening on my end. As well as, in combat and social interactions, if you end up taking a bit too long to reply, I will resolve your turn/conversation myself (To the best of my ability) and move on, just to keep things going.
Rolling for Things: I know sometimes this is a taboo for a dungeon master to do, but I believe in this case it's warranted. There will be cases where I will ask you for a roll out of the blue, or you had instigated something that I believe would require a roll, such as gaining information, or scanning a room for hostiles. In these circumstances, I will roll in my post for this, and I will play out the result of the roll. I will always tell you if I had rolled for your character, and will tell you the result (Number-wise) of said roll.
How I DM Rules: I work under the framework of 'Rules as Intended'.
Amount of Players: I typically work with around 4 players. But I will 100% do less. Would be willing to deal with more, if they were experienced, But I will totally help newbies out as well.
Character Creation
All these things below here will reflect this, but generally, I would want to go in deep with character creation, as help the players along so that I myself would know how your character works. As well as I'm going to have options on what I want to run, module-wise, and adventure-wise, so that may change character ideas.
Stat Array: Simply put, I like high numbers, so we are going to do an enhanced Stat array. 18, 16, 14, 13, 11, 8. With each number being able to be put whichever stats you please.
Available Content: I allow any content that is official WOTC , I allow Unearthed Arcana as well, as well as classes and subclasses from Streams. Homebrew has to be run by me first. The only thing I do not allow, is the Mystic class. (The mystic subclasses from Tasha's are fine though.)
Backstory: Generally, I would want to tie backstories to the adventure the collective decides to run. But having general Idea of a backstory or what you might want to play would be a good start, but not required.
Party Comp: I don't care much for extremely good party comps, as long as you want to play the class you play, that's fine by me, I'm going to be setting up things based on party comp, so don't worry about having your healers, your spellcasters. Stuff like that.
What Are We Playing?
I have a couple of ideas. All of what I'm going to post have their pros and cons, as well as different types of excitement for myself and others.
Curse of Strahd
Under raging storm clouds, a long figure stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of Castle Ravenloft. The vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich stares down a sheer cliff at the village below. A cold, bitter wind spins dead leaves about him, billowing his cape in the darkness.
Lightning splits the clouds overhead, casting stark white light across him. Strahd turns to the sky, revealing the angular muscles of his face and hands. He has a look of power, and of madness. His once handsome face is contorted by a tragedy darker than the night itself.
Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind's howling increases as Strahd turns his gaze back to the village. Far below, yet not beyond his ken, a party of adventurers has just entered his domain. Strahd's face forms a twisted smile as his dark plan unfolds. He knew they were coming, and he knows why they have come, all according to his plan. He, the master of Ravenloft, will attend to them.
Another lightning flash rips through the darkness, its thunder echoing through the castle's towers. But Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind, or perhaps a lone wolf, fills the midnight air. The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.
Difficulty: This module is HARD, Strahd is always throwin' things at you, and there is a very high chance of failure. I would only feel comfortable running this if I had experienced players, If a newbie wants to play this game, I don't mind, but I will warn you, this is not an easy module to succeed.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: I've heard so much about this AMAZING module, but I've never ran through it, player or DM. I've always been a fan of a good gothic horror, and who the fuck doesn't like a badass Vampire lord.
Details: Characters will at levels 1-10. All classes have their time to shine in this module, it's all about how you play it. A balance of classes in a group is very helpful for this setting, as it is HARD.
Dragon Heist
Welcome to Waterdeep, the Crown of the North, where a wondrous tales of urban adventure is about to unfold. Our story begins with the gathering of adventurers at the Yawning Portal Inn and Tavern. Volothamp Geddarm, the famous explorer and raconteur, has a quest for them, one that entangles the characters in a bitter conflict between two nefarious organizations. If the adventurers complete his quest, Volo rewards them handsomely. Yet a much greater prize lies hidden somewhere in the City of Splendors, waiting to be claimed.
Difficulty: This module can be easier or harder depending on the mindset of the players. This takes place in a city with a TON of opportunity, But the city also is very strict with crime. So it all depends on the player.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: I've played through Dragon Heist, and I enjoyed it myself, but with how Dragon Heist is, it is nearly impossible for two games to go the same way, even if you are just following the module. This module also easily sets up for future adventures, which is always cool to me.
Details: Characters will be in levels 1-5 throughout this module. All classes completely shine throughout this module, considering most of it is done within the confines of Waterdeep. Waterdeep is a brilliant place for a setting to center around, as there is so much in the city to play with.
Storm King's Thunder
To Fight Giants, You Must Be Giant
Ages ago, giants and dragons waged war across the Savage Frontier. These battles are long forgotten by the human civilizations of today, but ancient relics remain. And now, the land shudders once more with the thunder of giant footsteps.
Hill giants raid farms for food and livestock, as stone giants lay waste to settlements in their path. Frost giants plunder coastal towns, as fire giants gather slaves. Cloud giant castles drift across the sky, casting ominous shadows on the cities of the North. But no threat compares to the wrath of the storm giants, who stand betrayed.
Puny adventurers must rise to the challenge, gather their strength, unlock the power of ancient runes, and take the fight to the giants' doorsteps. Only then can they discover a hidden evil fomenting a war between giants and small folk. Only then can they forge an alliance to end the war before it begins.
Difficulty: The Story for this module is relatively straightforward. The difficulty comes from the sheer amount of deadly encounters, You are fighting Giants, These things are extremely difficult to make encounters for, because of that, this becomes a very deadly adventure.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: Giants. Giants are cool... I've also only heard good things from this.
Details: Characters will be levels 1-11, The main thing that is important is that one person knows how to speak Giant. Other than that, most classes should have their chance to shine. In my opinion, I think Rangers should have a heightened chance to shine in this Module, compared to other modules.
Lost Mine Of Phandelver
All of these options are cool, and I would be fine with playing any of them. But if we would like more of a sandbox type. I have a homebrew setting as well, that I can explain to those who want to hear about it.
Final Stuffs
You can reply to this thread if you are interested, or you can DM me personally on this site, or you can add me on Discord (Human Error#4107), if you have other people wanting to join as well, that's fine by me as well.
There are a couple of things I would like you to include.
What I can call you
Your Experience with D&D 5e
Your Experience with Tabletop games and Play-by-post.
Which module/modules you would want to play
What you are looking for in this
What type of character would you be comfortable with playing, whether it is class-wise, alignment-wise, or something else.
Anything else you think I should know about yourself, or something else.
That should be everything.
And now. I wait as I watch youtube and eat pretzels.
Have A Wonderful Day!
I've been a DM for a couple years now, however, I have never tried Play-By-Post. I've RPed for many years through text, however, never with a Dice system in play! So I wanted to try this out and see how I like it.
Any and all suggestions on how to improve this and how this is normally done to make things go smoothly is appreciated, however, I've looked into it and have seen how others do it and kinda adapted some of the rules they had in play.
Tabletop Rules
First we can start with combat rules and how I want the flow to work out.
Initiative: I want to stay clear of having a post order if I can help it, so to make initiative easier, we will have group initiative, where the entire player group will add up their initiative into one and that will be their initiative, same will be done for groups of enemies. This WILL be in the players favor, But I follow the rule of "I'm on the players team, not against them." So I'm okay with this.
Combat: While in initiative, I would like players to keep track of their AC, HP, and certain limited use things through post in combat, (just put it in parentheses). I wont be a huge fanatic about this, I will generally trust you that you are keeping track, as long as you trust me as well . At the beginning of an initiative, and maybe sometimes throughout, I will post the AC, and current HP of the beasties you are fighting, so that everything you do during your collective turn can be carried out smoothly. I will resolve what happens afterward in my own posts.
Critical Strikes: So, how I normally do critical strikes, is that when you get a crit, you get the max damage of the initial damage roll. Then you add a die of the same damage number. Ie. If you deal damage with a Shortsword, you would deal (1d6+1) damage to the target, a crit of this would look more like, (7+1d6+1). As we are adding the strength modifier in there twice.
Post Frequency: I would like at least a post or two a day from your side of things, I will attempt to do the same on my end. I understand life happens, cause for sure it will be happening on my end. As well as, in combat and social interactions, if you end up taking a bit too long to reply, I will resolve your turn/conversation myself (To the best of my ability) and move on, just to keep things going.
Rolling for Things: I know sometimes this is a taboo for a dungeon master to do, but I believe in this case it's warranted. There will be cases where I will ask you for a roll out of the blue, or you had instigated something that I believe would require a roll, such as gaining information, or scanning a room for hostiles. In these circumstances, I will roll in my post for this, and I will play out the result of the roll. I will always tell you if I had rolled for your character, and will tell you the result (Number-wise) of said roll.
How I DM Rules: I work under the framework of 'Rules as Intended'.
Amount of Players: I typically work with around 4 players. But I will 100% do less. Would be willing to deal with more, if they were experienced, But I will totally help newbies out as well.
Character Creation
All these things below here will reflect this, but generally, I would want to go in deep with character creation, as help the players along so that I myself would know how your character works. As well as I'm going to have options on what I want to run, module-wise, and adventure-wise, so that may change character ideas.
Stat Array: Simply put, I like high numbers, so we are going to do an enhanced Stat array. 18, 16, 14, 13, 11, 8. With each number being able to be put whichever stats you please.
Available Content: I allow any content that is official WOTC , I allow Unearthed Arcana as well, as well as classes and subclasses from Streams. Homebrew has to be run by me first. The only thing I do not allow, is the Mystic class. (The mystic subclasses from Tasha's are fine though.)
Backstory: Generally, I would want to tie backstories to the adventure the collective decides to run. But having general Idea of a backstory or what you might want to play would be a good start, but not required.
Party Comp: I don't care much for extremely good party comps, as long as you want to play the class you play, that's fine by me, I'm going to be setting up things based on party comp, so don't worry about having your healers, your spellcasters. Stuff like that.
What Are We Playing?
I have a couple of ideas. All of what I'm going to post have their pros and cons, as well as different types of excitement for myself and others.
Curse of Strahd
Under raging storm clouds, a long figure stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of Castle Ravenloft. The vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich stares down a sheer cliff at the village below. A cold, bitter wind spins dead leaves about him, billowing his cape in the darkness.
Lightning splits the clouds overhead, casting stark white light across him. Strahd turns to the sky, revealing the angular muscles of his face and hands. He has a look of power, and of madness. His once handsome face is contorted by a tragedy darker than the night itself.
Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind's howling increases as Strahd turns his gaze back to the village. Far below, yet not beyond his ken, a party of adventurers has just entered his domain. Strahd's face forms a twisted smile as his dark plan unfolds. He knew they were coming, and he knows why they have come, all according to his plan. He, the master of Ravenloft, will attend to them.
Another lightning flash rips through the darkness, its thunder echoing through the castle's towers. But Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind, or perhaps a lone wolf, fills the midnight air. The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.
Difficulty: This module is HARD, Strahd is always throwin' things at you, and there is a very high chance of failure. I would only feel comfortable running this if I had experienced players, If a newbie wants to play this game, I don't mind, but I will warn you, this is not an easy module to succeed.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: I've heard so much about this AMAZING module, but I've never ran through it, player or DM. I've always been a fan of a good gothic horror, and who the fuck doesn't like a badass Vampire lord.
Details: Characters will at levels 1-10. All classes have their time to shine in this module, it's all about how you play it. A balance of classes in a group is very helpful for this setting, as it is HARD.
Dragon Heist
Welcome to Waterdeep, the Crown of the North, where a wondrous tales of urban adventure is about to unfold. Our story begins with the gathering of adventurers at the Yawning Portal Inn and Tavern. Volothamp Geddarm, the famous explorer and raconteur, has a quest for them, one that entangles the characters in a bitter conflict between two nefarious organizations. If the adventurers complete his quest, Volo rewards them handsomely. Yet a much greater prize lies hidden somewhere in the City of Splendors, waiting to be claimed.
Difficulty: This module can be easier or harder depending on the mindset of the players. This takes place in a city with a TON of opportunity, But the city also is very strict with crime. So it all depends on the player.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: I've played through Dragon Heist, and I enjoyed it myself, but with how Dragon Heist is, it is nearly impossible for two games to go the same way, even if you are just following the module. This module also easily sets up for future adventures, which is always cool to me.
Details: Characters will be in levels 1-5 throughout this module. All classes completely shine throughout this module, considering most of it is done within the confines of Waterdeep. Waterdeep is a brilliant place for a setting to center around, as there is so much in the city to play with.
Storm King's Thunder
To Fight Giants, You Must Be Giant
Ages ago, giants and dragons waged war across the Savage Frontier. These battles are long forgotten by the human civilizations of today, but ancient relics remain. And now, the land shudders once more with the thunder of giant footsteps.
Hill giants raid farms for food and livestock, as stone giants lay waste to settlements in their path. Frost giants plunder coastal towns, as fire giants gather slaves. Cloud giant castles drift across the sky, casting ominous shadows on the cities of the North. But no threat compares to the wrath of the storm giants, who stand betrayed.
Puny adventurers must rise to the challenge, gather their strength, unlock the power of ancient runes, and take the fight to the giants' doorsteps. Only then can they discover a hidden evil fomenting a war between giants and small folk. Only then can they forge an alliance to end the war before it begins.
Difficulty: The Story for this module is relatively straightforward. The difficulty comes from the sheer amount of deadly encounters, You are fighting Giants, These things are extremely difficult to make encounters for, because of that, this becomes a very deadly adventure.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: Giants. Giants are cool... I've also only heard good things from this.
Details: Characters will be levels 1-11, The main thing that is important is that one person knows how to speak Giant. Other than that, most classes should have their chance to shine. In my opinion, I think Rangers should have a heightened chance to shine in this Module, compared to other modules.
Lost Mine Of Phandelver
More than five hundred years ago, clans of dwarves and gnomes made an agreement known as the Phandelver's Pact, by which they would share a rich mine in a wondrous cavern known as the Wave Echo Cave. In addition to its mineral wealth, the mine contained great magical power. Human spellcasters allied themselves with the dwarves and gnomes to channel and bind that energy into a great forge (called the Forge of Spells), where magic items could be crafted. Times were good, and the nearby human town of Phandalin prospered as well. But then disaster struck when orcs swept through the North and laid waste to all in their path.
A powerful force of orcs reinforced by evil mercenary wizards attacked Wave Echo Cave to seize its riches and magic treasures. Human wizards fought alongside their dwarf and gnome allies to defend the Forge of Spells, and the ensuing spell battle destroyed much of the cavern. Few survived the cave-ins and tremors, and the location of Wave Echo Cave was lost.
For centuries, rumors of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around Phandalin, but no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine. In recent years, people have resettled the area. Phandalin is now a rough-and-tumble frontier town. More important, the Rockseeker brother, a trio of dwarves, have discovered the entrance to Wave Echo Cave, and they intend to reopen the mines.
Difficulty: This is an EASY adventure, this is meant to be a starter adventure for any newbie DMs or players alike. It still has its own challenges and dangers, but it is your bread and butter of Dungeons and Dragons. And I have my own fun with using this Module.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: This is my first time playing D&D under this medium, Play-by-post. And this module is the simplest thing while still being interesting. As well as this adventure sets up very nicely for future adventures wherever needed.
Details: Characters will be levels 1-5 here. All classes, All Races are good here, there isn't anything too special about this module, unless we decide to make something special about it.
A powerful force of orcs reinforced by evil mercenary wizards attacked Wave Echo Cave to seize its riches and magic treasures. Human wizards fought alongside their dwarf and gnome allies to defend the Forge of Spells, and the ensuing spell battle destroyed much of the cavern. Few survived the cave-ins and tremors, and the location of Wave Echo Cave was lost.
For centuries, rumors of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around Phandalin, but no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine. In recent years, people have resettled the area. Phandalin is now a rough-and-tumble frontier town. More important, the Rockseeker brother, a trio of dwarves, have discovered the entrance to Wave Echo Cave, and they intend to reopen the mines.
Difficulty: This is an EASY adventure, this is meant to be a starter adventure for any newbie DMs or players alike. It still has its own challenges and dangers, but it is your bread and butter of Dungeons and Dragons. And I have my own fun with using this Module.
Why Do I Want To Run This?: This is my first time playing D&D under this medium, Play-by-post. And this module is the simplest thing while still being interesting. As well as this adventure sets up very nicely for future adventures wherever needed.
Details: Characters will be levels 1-5 here. All classes, All Races are good here, there isn't anything too special about this module, unless we decide to make something special about it.
All of these options are cool, and I would be fine with playing any of them. But if we would like more of a sandbox type. I have a homebrew setting as well, that I can explain to those who want to hear about it.
Final Stuffs
You can reply to this thread if you are interested, or you can DM me personally on this site, or you can add me on Discord (Human Error#4107), if you have other people wanting to join as well, that's fine by me as well.
There are a couple of things I would like you to include.
What I can call you
Your Experience with D&D 5e
Your Experience with Tabletop games and Play-by-post.
Which module/modules you would want to play
What you are looking for in this
What type of character would you be comfortable with playing, whether it is class-wise, alignment-wise, or something else.
Anything else you think I should know about yourself, or something else.
That should be everything.
And now. I wait as I watch youtube and eat pretzels.
Have A Wonderful Day!