New campaign! (2014)

Well!  It's been a long time since I've posted here.  Since there will be a few new players, the first session (date to be determined) will mostly be a character creation day with maybe a small practice quest.  The first few meetings thereafter will probably also be simple, possibly unrelated to the two campaigns I intend to run (Ravenloft and one of my design based on the Symphony X album: The New Mythology Suite (V).

All the old campaigns are tagged with Contor/contour.  The new one will be tagged as The Power of Five or tpo5.

So as far as ground rules go, here are a few tips and recommendations with building your character for this world:

* Any default race and class for D&D 3.5 is fine.  If you want something other than what is listed (for instance a drow), as me and I'll try to compromise.
- (i.e. someone has asked to play a drow.  Since a majority of drows are evil, it would disrupt the flow of normal events so I settled on allowing a half-drow/half-other race so every NPC that sees him won't instantly distrust the group, thus limiting Role-playing oppourtunities.)

* I would prefer non-evil characters, but if you insist, I will insist that they be intelligent evil characters (i.e. they don't slaughter the innocent for fun discounting that every city will then probably hunt them down to kill them).  Intelligent evil characters might not even appear to do anything evil until a particularly significant moral choice presents itself (i.e. choosing to destroy a great evil and WILLINGLY not caring that it also will kill many innocents in the process).  Keep in mind that a neutral character might also choose to do this, possibly with more reluctance and a good character would almost not consider it.

* Similarly, Chaotic characters are fine, but chaotic does not mean insane.  Chaotic simply means a disregard or even completely opposing lawfulness.  For a truely chaotic alignment, think anywhere between a typical teenage punk anarchist wannabe to a civil activist opposing what they perceive to be a great social injustice.

* As it was a problem in previous campaigns, I don't expect it to be as much of a problem now since practically everyone playing is above the age of 20.  D&D is a team game.  Even if there is a Lawful Good PC and a Neutral Evil PC, that does not mean they should be at each others' throats the whole campaign.  That being said, a good inner party conflict is a great thing to have story-wise.  The main thing to avoid is outright attacking a follow party member (in game).

* For new players:  If you don't know how to make a new character or even play, that's what the DM (dungeon master) (me) is for.  I'll answer absolutely any questions you have so don't be afraid to ask.

* For returning and new players:  Feel free to make use of the forums as we did with the last campaign:  http://yomic.proboards.com/ .  Your accounts should still be active (I had to get them to email me my username since it's different than the display name).

* For people who know how to make characters and want to get a head start, create your character at level 4.  This'll help get new players acquainted with D&D while not being too boring.

* Finally:  Go to the forums above and go to the new "Post your Character here" thread under Yomic's Campaign.  This will just serve as a reference and possibly serve to inspire me to create content based around your character.

Sorry for the large post!

Campaign details:

* Part 1:  Side-quests and possibly minor sub-plots related to part 3 (levels 4-6)
* Part 2:  Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (levels 6-9).  This is a vampire
* Part 3:  The Power of Five (levels 9-???)
* Part 4:  I'll make something epic up, probably dealing with Time or the Planes if we're even still playing this long.

Character Stats Creation:

* We are using a point buy system so people who know what to do use this as a guide.  I'll help new people out on the first day of the campaign.

Assign your six stats.  You get 30 points to spend.  Each number has a cost, negative numbers give you points back:
Stat#:  |  Point Cost:
3 | -5
4 | -4
5 | -3
6 | -2
7 | -1
8 | 0
9 | 1
10 | 2
11 | 3
12 | 4
13 | 5
14 | 6
15 | 8
16 | 10
17 | 13
18 | 16

For example, a character with the stats of Str(8),Dex(10),Con(12),Int(18),Wis(12),Cha(12) spent 0+2+4+16+4+4=30 points.

New forum links of import:

New Character Thread
New Campaign Discussion and Schedule Discussion