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Apolyton D&D: SF's PBEM.
This is the thread for those interested in playing in my Play-by-Email RPG. System knowledge is optional, as long as you're willing to learn. However, I am looking for time commitment. Ideally, you should check your email daily to play in this game. I'm not saying you'll actually have to respond every day, but things get slow otherwise. Vacations are fine, as are sudden bursts of schoolwork. But in general, if we want the game to move, you should check your email a good bit.
I will be accepting four players only. It's possible I might take 5 in event of weirdness. But otherwise, it takes too long to get a consensus on the next action. Note that this is not first-come first-serve; if you already see 4 people having posted, feel free to express your interest anyway. There are a few people who have priority if they want to play (well, okay, 2); after that, if there are still too many interested, I'll roll dice in true D&D fashion. Unfortunate, but sometimes that's the way it works.
In any case, if you're interested, please post answers to my little poll here as to what kind of game you want. Also post your email address, AIM, and ICQ number.
Most importantly: Campaign type. I have two ideas:
1) In a seemingly healthy kingdom, you are this year's band of recent recruits into the equivalent of the army's "Special Forces." Perhaps you were noticed as unusually clever in basic training, perhaps your father was an aristocrat and pulled some strings, perhaps you are a special observer from the Elven nation sent as a diplomatic gesture. So instead of lying around the barracks training and waiting for a non-existent war to start, you get to be sent out on interesting missions your superiors believe might aid your training. Obviously, more is at work underneath the surface, and how you solve your various missions might determine how important events go... This would use my own world setting, which I'd be happy to describe and flesh out.
2) A more standard "Adventurers unite!" kind of deal. By the odd workings of fate, a company of young (or old?) adventurers is forced together, and after their initial problems are dealt with, discover they enjoy adventuring together and scour the land in search of evil (or good?) to stop, treasures to find, maidens to romance, blah blah blah. This will need more party chemistry to insure that it works (as in, unlike the army where you might be ordered to work with someone, if you're free and hate a comrade, explaining why you keep with the party is hard), and the freeform nature makes it a bit harder to GM. It's more likely this would use an established setting (like the Forgotten Realms) to aid in providing things to do.
As you can tell, I have a slight preference for #1 (Soldiers), but I can do #2 (Adventurers) as well.
2. Format. I'd prefer to do this PBEM, but I wouldn't be averse to the occasional IRC game for a dramatic battle where you want to micromanage character actions. And if for some reason no one wants to do PBEM after all, then I suppose we could try it fully IRC.
3. Length. How long do you expect to want to play this? Remember, short campaigns can generally be extended if people are enjoying it, but if you ask for a long campaign and people quit halfway through, then it's dissapointing and the plot doesn't resolve. We'll say 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year are the default length options.
4. Alignment. Do we want a generally Good party, Mixed, or Evil? Good and Evil kind of speak for themselves- in a Good group, everyone should have a Good or Neutral alignment and generally not complain too much for reckless altruism. Evil alignment group, evil & neutral characters who don't have a problem with being hired by slave drivers, etc. A Mixed group is possibly the most interesting and the most dangerous- people who can go either way. It allows the most character growth- if halfway through, the Mixed group realizes the true threat to the land (or whatever) and becomes Good, it's pretty cool. However, if you have a Noble Knight & a crazy murderer, you just have the party fall apart.
5. Edition. I'd far prefer to run this in straight 3rd edition (As in straight from the PHB. No supplements.), but if there is a great demand for 2nd edition, so be it. If you want to see 3rd edition online, see
I'll try and post examples of how a PBEM generally runs soon.
Once we decide the setting and who's playing, we can start with character creation, hopefully.
I will be accepting four players only. It's possible I might take 5 in event of weirdness. But otherwise, it takes too long to get a consensus on the next action. Note that this is not first-come first-serve; if you already see 4 people having posted, feel free to express your interest anyway. There are a few people who have priority if they want to play (well, okay, 2); after that, if there are still too many interested, I'll roll dice in true D&D fashion. Unfortunate, but sometimes that's the way it works.
In any case, if you're interested, please post answers to my little poll here as to what kind of game you want. Also post your email address, AIM, and ICQ number.
Most importantly: Campaign type. I have two ideas:
1) In a seemingly healthy kingdom, you are this year's band of recent recruits into the equivalent of the army's "Special Forces." Perhaps you were noticed as unusually clever in basic training, perhaps your father was an aristocrat and pulled some strings, perhaps you are a special observer from the Elven nation sent as a diplomatic gesture. So instead of lying around the barracks training and waiting for a non-existent war to start, you get to be sent out on interesting missions your superiors believe might aid your training. Obviously, more is at work underneath the surface, and how you solve your various missions might determine how important events go... This would use my own world setting, which I'd be happy to describe and flesh out.
2) A more standard "Adventurers unite!" kind of deal. By the odd workings of fate, a company of young (or old?) adventurers is forced together, and after their initial problems are dealt with, discover they enjoy adventuring together and scour the land in search of evil (or good?) to stop, treasures to find, maidens to romance, blah blah blah. This will need more party chemistry to insure that it works (as in, unlike the army where you might be ordered to work with someone, if you're free and hate a comrade, explaining why you keep with the party is hard), and the freeform nature makes it a bit harder to GM. It's more likely this would use an established setting (like the Forgotten Realms) to aid in providing things to do.
As you can tell, I have a slight preference for #1 (Soldiers), but I can do #2 (Adventurers) as well.
2. Format. I'd prefer to do this PBEM, but I wouldn't be averse to the occasional IRC game for a dramatic battle where you want to micromanage character actions. And if for some reason no one wants to do PBEM after all, then I suppose we could try it fully IRC.
3. Length. How long do you expect to want to play this? Remember, short campaigns can generally be extended if people are enjoying it, but if you ask for a long campaign and people quit halfway through, then it's dissapointing and the plot doesn't resolve. We'll say 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year are the default length options.
4. Alignment. Do we want a generally Good party, Mixed, or Evil? Good and Evil kind of speak for themselves- in a Good group, everyone should have a Good or Neutral alignment and generally not complain too much for reckless altruism. Evil alignment group, evil & neutral characters who don't have a problem with being hired by slave drivers, etc. A Mixed group is possibly the most interesting and the most dangerous- people who can go either way. It allows the most character growth- if halfway through, the Mixed group realizes the true threat to the land (or whatever) and becomes Good, it's pretty cool. However, if you have a Noble Knight & a crazy murderer, you just have the party fall apart.
5. Edition. I'd far prefer to run this in straight 3rd edition (As in straight from the PHB. No supplements.), but if there is a great demand for 2nd edition, so be it. If you want to see 3rd edition online, see
I'll try and post examples of how a PBEM generally runs soon.
Once we decide the setting and who's playing, we can start with character creation, hopefully.
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