Hello, I’m Richard, 33, from the UK, and have DM’d for nearly 6 years and am looking for a new group. Lack of time and diverging interests (I want serious, darker DND; they wanted chaotic, light-hearted DND and 2 hours a week) meant we parted ways, and I’m looking for a new group of 3-5 players. This is a homebrew world.
About the game world:
Aurelis is a homebrew world formed by me smashing Forgotten Realms, World of Warcraft, and my own ideas into a blender, with fair amounts of stealing from Dragon Age, Fate/Stay Night, and Northern Lights. Broadly, it is the age of exploration fantasy. Plate armour, horses, ships with cannons, pistols and muskets, and the rise of organised religion conflicting with traditional pantheon beliefs. Netherese Empire fell, and since then, while large empires formed to the south and west, a large region struggled with all the monsters, instabilities, and remains fragmented. Level 5 characters are considered serious figures; above level 7 is extremely rare. Map for reference:
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It has 17 species split into 30 different groups – I’ve worked hard to try and ensure no-one are humans in fur-suits, and instead have distinct mechanical, narrative, and biological differences. All elves are addicted to magic and must sate this addiction in different ways; Kanami only feel emotion through their Netherese masks; Riksha have primal urges they desperately try to keep under control, for example. Here is a snapshot of them – currently, I’ve drawn 20 of the images here:
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Story-wise: I have lots of story threads I’m happy to explore, so it would depend on which part of the world. I want places to be revisited, with the player’s family, friends, and rivals all in reach, with reused characters and their progressions, so I want a local region instead of a huge globe-trotting adventure. Rime of the Frostmaiden is an excellent frame of reference for the scale I want.
The story might get fairly dark. Some NPCs have been tortured, there’s a doctor who discovered CPR by drowning a bunch of people and refining his approach, slavery is a thing in parts of the world (but not morally grey), and monsters aren’t going to pretend children don’t exist. Happy to discuss lines (e.g. my last group was “you can involve kids, just don’t describe it”). Some will be less than others – Rashemi is more light-hearted than Pierowall for example – but it’ll be on the table.
Val Chateaux, an enormous city and region with a stark divide between the rich and poor, filled with intrigue and revolutionary ideas.
Rashemi Sea: Travel around on a ship, discover islands, deal with the factions surrounding you.
Rhaaz-Mar. If set here, it would be during a succession crisis, based on The Anarchy in English History. Land filled with eaglefolk, slimefolk, addicted elves, turtlefolk, and foxfolk.
Silver Cordillera: A federation of states brought to its knees by a recent invasion, adventuring in an about-to-unravel kingdom.
Aravor: lots of city-states using adventurers as they are too weak to send armies outwards.
Aurilbard: Definitely Not Icewind Dale, I’d happily run a campaign based on Rime of the Frostmaiden here.
Pierowall is basically Dragon Age 2’s Kirkwall, Upheaval is a chaotic region you can run survival exhibitions into, Rhakoti is basically Ptolemaic Alexandria, all could be the centre of a campaign.
I have plenty of threads, but would rather weave them into the stories of the players so it's collaborative!
Changes I’ve made
I find DND a wonderful system with a huge number of flaws due to WotC’s lack of attention, and I’ve spent the last few years trying to fix them. I've run and tested most of these rules already; all I've done is streamline them from my previous game:
Different Skills. There are 20 different skills, deleting rarely used ones and adding new ones – so Performance and Medicine are out, for example; religion and history merged into Lore, and I've added skills such as Mastermind and Discipline. Skills have listed examples, DCs, and expected outcomes for things they can do, to try and remove the Mother May I part of non-casters – you can play as normal, but you have those to hold my feet to the fire on what your skill lets you do. Skills are much more impactful. Tools, which I call professions, are much more impactful too, especially during travel and downtime (but still ignorable).
New Charisma Skills. All the charisma skills are out, replaced with Charm, Inspire, Pressure, Manipulate, and Network. Everything is a form of persuasion in conversation – HOW you do it should be more important. Your charming rogue, manipulating spymaster, eloquent senator, and commanding captain should all feel different in how they persuade you.
Social Pillar has Actual Rules. I have a social system because I wanted that side to be interesting. It was designed so that players could just roleplay while I have a system to track rolls – my previous players’ review of it was glowing and asked for it to return.
All of the above is a long way of saying “I like Skill Challenges and I use that system for everything outside of combat”
New (optional) Classes. I have WoW-inspired custom classes, which my players playtested and enjoyed (the Agent [WoW's rogue] had 3 years of weekly playtesting). You’re welcome to disregard and use base 2024 classes, except for cleric and sorcerer, which don’t jive in my world enough. Martial classes in particular will feel outshined by mine, though. There are custom spells, lots more choices, 2 masteries per weapon, and for martials, 5th-level-spell equivalent techniques at level 9. I’ve tried to ensure every common trope, from blood magic to
Piety. There is a piety system, but going from -10 to +10, because +50 seems like a lot of tracking. Each tier (+2, +4, +8) has its own choice of 4 rewards. Believing in a god is non-negotiable, but you can have a patron be the thing tracked instead, even for non-warlocks.
No resurrection, no revivify – people die when they are killed.
There are critical successes and failures, and I’ve split exhaustion into exhaustion and stress, which go up to 10.
I have a simplified inventory system using bulk, so you have to choose what you’re taking, taking primary inspiration from Darkest Dungeon.
My drive file of everything is here, which I continue to transfer onto Foundry:
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What I want from players
I want players who want and engage in a serious world, making serious decisions. People who want to see chaos or have the dice make their decisions for them are valid, but not the group I want to play with.
Players who want difficult fights. I am very good at monster and boss design, which take cues from WoW bosses. Expect telegraphed attacks, movement, soft enrages, and using the environment. In my 6 years, I have not lost a single player character, but they are often difficult and require them to think and engage with it. I subscribe to the Brennan Lee Mulligan’s approach to difficulty, which is: I want your characters to succeed, but I’ll be damned if you don’t earn it. I am much less interested in fights that aren’t a challenge and don’t tie to the story.
Players who care – or their characters care – about civilians dying. Avoiding this should be significant motivation, and when in combat, avoiding it should be a significant mechanic to consider.
People who turn up week after week on time.
Communication! Almost all problems can be resolved through good communication.
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hat players will get from me:
Someone who will do everything to help tie your character into the world, and will collaborate with you to do so. I’m willing to rejig my world to make your idea work – want a Kanami character from a noble family, but none exist in this region? I’ll change or add a city to make it happen.
You will almost certainly get your character drawn eventually down the line if you want an anime-style avatar.
I am very good at making encounters and boss fights; good at threading storylines together, and according to my previous players, at designing things. Mechanically, you should have a good time at least!
I will ensure, with your support, that your character and NPCs you make are tied to the world and story, even if not immediately apparent.
Campaign information:
The campaign will be from level 2-10. I am comically bad at judging timespans, but it would be three acts, and I’d expect around a year long? I’d also be willing to run my take on LMoP, which I’ve run before and goes off the rails swiftly, but still ends at level 5.
There will be combat, travel, downtime, and social encounters in fairly equal measures.
Weekly games – I can do any weekday between 7 pm-12:30 am CEST. I would want 4-hour games, but I’d settle for 3.
We will be playing online on Foundry and have a Discord server, as that has automated a lot of my nonsense. I only got it a couple of weeks ago, so automated things might not do as I expected in the first couple of weeks; please bear with me here!
18+ please.
I have no expectation of experience level – just willingness to learn (most of the drive isn’t required reading either!). I was reminding my last players they have 2 attacks 4 years into that campaign, so I am patient and helpful if you’re making the attempt!
Please message me:
What days/timeslots you are able to do.
What sort of campaign you’d be expected in – whether that’s a theme like survival horror, intrigue, sailing – or a part of the map – and what you don’t have interest in. We’d discuss further at session zero.
Why you’re messaging me – what in particular grabbed you?
Experience
Anything else I’ve missed - happy to answer questions!
I hope you have a good day! I know I've frontloaded a lot here, but I'd rather everyone have a good idea of what to expect.