Game Overview

Revision as of 04:20, 9 December 2016

• Campaign: Hulks & Husks
• Setting: medieval fantasy
• System: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5e)
• Style: heroic/pulp wilderness adventuring and dungeoneering
• Themes: belief & faith, teamwork, post-war recovery, cold war, xenophobia, artificing, automatons/automata, others themes as they emerge
• Key Inspirations: Pacific Rim (movie), Shadow of the Colossus (video game), Eberron (D&D setting), Dark Sun (D&D setting), some military scifi

Overview: For more than twenty years, the Shangon Empire and the Freelands Republic fought against one another in the Bloodstone War. Armies of unprecedented power and brutality devastated much of the continent and populace of Shango. The Empire was the first to offer a truce--ostensibly in response to its citizens' rising discontent--but rumors suggest more a complicated impetus. Four years have passed in uneasy peace. Deep in the densely-forested neutral zone, Imperial and Republican forces are grudgingly cooperating. Their mission: tracking down and neutralizing the dangerous remnants of both sides' forces, especially the last of the Empire's graven hulks--autonomous, gargantuan killing machines. The PCs are fresh trainees from the Shangon Defense Academy, on their first deployment as prospective members of the Imperial Spearguard. The Spearguard are elite special forces often tasked with extended independent operations. The trainees begin the campaign at a frontier fort in the neutral zone.

Intro Vignette: Meeting a Hulk

Tools:

• Discord for voice & text chat
• New players can fully participate (and taste-test the DM, party, and campaign) with the D&D Basic Rules (free, see below)
• Long-term players will likely want a D&D 5e Player's Handbook ($25 on Amazon) and/or other D&D books
• Gaming dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) or an online dice roller (there are plenty of free options); regarding rolling, I trust my players' honesty
• Tabletop Simulator for tactical combat; prospective players can participate by watching the stream
• Long-term players will need their own copy of Tabletop Simulator ($20 on Steam, $60 for 4 copies) to connect to my server and move your own miniatures (i.e., characters)

Schedule: every 1-2 weeks, Friday night, 9-11:30 pm EST (120-150 minutes; I try to wrap up around 120 minutes and guarantee no longer than 150 minutes); we'll finalize the initial schedule based on who's playing

Adding/Dropping: it's usually OK for a player to miss a session, or to join after the campaign has begun; I try to wrap up each session such that adding or dropping characters is reasonable; I respect Real Life (RL) aggro and schedule conflicts, because I have them, too.

More Details

I tell particular stories in a particular way, so I'm not offended if my style doesn't match someone else's tastes and they bow out. After a few warm-up sessions, I'm hoping to entice at least 3 long-term players (in addition to Aslene) to commit to making most/all sessions. I'm OK with spectators during a session, either to taste-test or just to hang out.

I have extensive experience DMing for a large group (e.g., 6+ players), such as breaking the characters into squads with officers. There's some fun to be had with a large group (e.g., epic fights), but we can reach a point where the fun diminishes, especially if too much time passes between your turns in combat. So if we discover that many guildies want to play, I'm cheerfully willing to explore coordinating with multiple DM's and/or groups in the same global story.

D&D Basic Rules are here: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

including the Player's Basic Rules: http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PlayerBasicRulesV03.pdf

You do not need to read all the Basic Rules before you can play. If you're new to tabletop RPGs or to D&D 5e, you can learn a lot just through playing. This is a newbie-friendly campaign.

I know some gamers have mixed feelings about D&D. The first system I learned was D&D 2e, back in 1989. Subsequently, I've played and DMed in other systems (e.g., Shadowrun, White Wolf, many others), as well as built my own. D&D 4e was a mess. But I like 5e enough to choose it for this campaign. The rules are accessible, the d20 tactical combat system is balanced and can be run at a reasonably-fast pace, and I like the support for meaningful RP and character development (not just stats). We'll start with vanilla 5e. If we keep going, I may bring in some of my homebrew/house rules (e.g., FATE-like aspects), and I'll welcome discussion with players about bringing in supplemental books/rules/spells/etc. or their own homebrew ideas.

I'm DM Cinero, and I hope I'll see you on the battlefield.