DnD, but Free-Form

[danex]

Quote

Your story begins on the Island Nation of Cazzord, the trade center of the world. Located on a relatively small island, the sprawling city covers every inch of it, from coast to coast, with some buildings even built on pikes above the water. The entire city seems like it's spilling out into the ocean, with some entire sections built entirely on floating rafts. The city also has an extensive underground, the island is split into what is known as Topside and Underside. Basically, if they could build somewhere, they have. Every inch of available space is used, making the city incredibly cramped. It isn't necessarily unpleasant though, the cool sea breeze and open skies keeps things feeling clean, and the city has a very efficient trash collection service. Even Underside feels clean, despite being underground. 

Cazzord is the only major island in the Gregorian Ocean, the massive sea that separates the 3 major continents. As such, it makes sense that it would become the trade center it has. The technology is fairly advanced, mainly relying on pully and gear systems powered by the rushing ocean currents to power various mills and other such devices. There isn't a very large magical presence in the city, but it exists if you know where to look. 

Let us set the opening scene. We're down at the Silver Docks, the port that mainly hosts smaller, individual trading vessels. The company chartered ships tend to use the Gold docks or other such areas. A decent sized ship is just pulling in and weighing anchor. The ship sports 3 tall clean masts, with a massive blue flag whipping in the air above the center one. The figurehead appears to be a massive lobster, isn't that peculiar. The gold painted lettering on the side of the ship reads "The Blue Cremling". It finishes docking and the passengers begin to disembark. Let's meet them now...

Yay new rp

its ya boi

Dannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnex

I've been listening to a lot of Critical Role recently (I'm on like ep 30 of campaign 1 atm) and now I want to run a campaign. So I am. This one. Right here. Welcome. 

RP is going to be reversed for this btw, RP goes in quote boxes, everything else goes outside. You're probably going to have multiple quote boxes per post, alternating between RPing out your actions and explaining them more explicitly outside them. I'll be using quote boxes for in-world descriptions, flavor text, and npc RP/interactions. 

In case it wasn't obvious, the party is going to be the group of passengers getting off of The Blue Cremling. (Cremlings don't actually exist in this world, I just thought it was funny and sounded cool.) So yeah, thats basically it, get character making. I'll probably work with each of you to edit your characters a little bit, its not gonna be like most RPs where you just make whatever you want and then that's it, I want to make sure all these characters are integrated well into my world. But yeah, post your first draft of a character, and we'll move from there. Lets have the character sheets have all the general stuff, Name, Race, Class, Appearance, Personality, Alignment. Anything else y'all think of. Keep the backstories very vague, I'll flesh em out with each of you individually. Maybe in PMs. Do try and think of a reason they've come to Cazzord though. Or they could be a crew member of the ship. Or whatever. They're your characters. 

Speaking of races, this world has all your classic fantasy stuff, so go crazy do whatever you want. Also, I intentionally haven't created the entire world yet, I'm leaving a ton of room so I can add in things that you guys want. Just keep the power level pretty low, make your characters analogous to lv 1 dnd characters. 

Eventually I might make this less-ffrp and more of an actual "game" with numbers and stats and stuff, but for now its fine. 

feel free to ask questions about Cazzord OOC, it doesn't need to all be flavor-text and RP, we can have normal talk too. Have any of yall played townscaper? Thats the sorta vibe I was going for with Cazzord. There is more actual land than that, but thats the vibe.

aaaaaaand yeah thats it, get character making. this is gon be fun 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Danex

[Channelknight Fadran]

wut

[danex]

1 hour ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

wut

yes

 

ok but actually whats the question

Edited September 20, 2021 by Danex

[Shard of Reading]

Okay, this sounds fun. This is the first thing on the shard that I've done with a time commitment that I've done in a while, so it'll take me a while to get used to posting regularly again.

Now, Character

Name: I'll edit this in soon.

Race: Elf

Class: Thief

Alignment: Lawful good

Appearence: Lanky, tall, reserved.

Personality: Shy around people that they don't know, but if your friends with him, he won't shut up. He calls himself a thief and thinks of himself as a robin hood sort of character, but he actually doesn't really know much. He can move quietly, and has a bit of mediocre skill with picking locks, but that's it. He came to Cazzord to try and learn more about thieving. 

@Danex what do you think? I don't have some vague ideas about backstory, but nothing concrete at this point.

[+Invocation]

Alright, I'm intrigued. Couple quick questions though: what's the setting like, what's your policy on homebrewed material, and is it 5e DnD? (I'm assuming that last one is going to be a yes because of the CR reference, but I figured I'd double check.)

[danex]

2 hours ago, Shard of Reading said:

Okay, this sounds fun. This is the first thing on the shard that I've done with a time commitment that I've done in a while, so it'll take me a while to get used to posting regularly again.

Now, Character

Name: I'll edit this in soon.

Race: Elf

Class: Thief

Alignment: Lawful good

Appearence: Lanky, tall, reserved.

Personality: Shy around people that they don't know, but if your friends with him, he won't shut up. He calls himself a thief and thinks of himself as a robin hood sort of character, but he actually doesn't really know much. He can move quietly, and has a bit of mediocre skill with picking locks, but that's it. He came to Cazzord to try and learn more about thieving. 

@Danex what do you think? I don't have some vague ideas about backstory, but nothing concrete at this point.

Seems pretty good.

Let's change the class to "Rogue" just for consistency with dnd. Means the same thing essentially. 

It seems like his alignment might be closer to chaotic good if he's a robin hood type person. Maybe a neutral good. I don't think you can be lawful good while literally breaking laws. 

Any thoughts on what type of elf specifically? Like a wood elf or smthn? Or we can leave it as just a basic elf, whatever you want. 

Cazzord doesn't have that large of a criminal world. Obviously it has crime, but it's not very extensive. So it doesn't make a ton of sense that he'd come here to try and learn to be a better thief. Maybe he could be planning some sort of heist or job. Cazzord has some very very rich areas, after all, its the center for all ocean trade. Hmmmm but if he's really inexperienced he probably wouldn't be planning his own heists...

ooooh, maybe another PC could be a more experienced thief who you're training with. Or I could make that an NPC. The experienced thief could be planning a job and is using it to train you. idk just an idea. 

As for his backstory, lemme flesh out the elves of this world a lil bit more and then we can insert him into that. We'll need to think of a reason an elf would turn to crime, usually elves are a prosperous race. 

1 hour ago, Invocation said:

Alright, I'm intrigued. Couple quick questions though: what's the setting like, what's your policy on homebrewed material, and is it 5e DnD? (I'm assuming that last one is going to be a yes because of the CR reference, but I figured I'd double check.)

The current setting is Cazzord. Read OP above =P
This entire thing is honestly a form of homebrew, so i guess my policy is very lenient
It is loosely based on 5e, yeah. Like I said, this is gonna be a very very very watered down version of it. Like, almost no numbers will be involved at all. gotta keep it relatively free form. I'm not completely sure how I'm gonna handle combat, but i'm sure it'll work out. =P

[Shard of Reading]

Oops. I meant chaotic good. I don’t know why I wrote lawful. Also, for the exact race of elf, I was thinking something like legalos, or like a half elf. Maybe half elf would make more sense....

Unless someone is willing to play as my mentor, I think we should go with an NCP. 

Also spell check is a jerk. It took me like 3 tries to stop auto correct from switching off legalos

[Channelknight Fadran]

Y'know... I've always kinda wanted to play as a tradesman. Being a dwarvish blacksmith could be fun!

[danex]

1 minute ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Y'know... I've always kinda wanted to play as a tradesman. Being a dwarvish blacksmith could be fun!

Cazzord does have a fairly large dwarf population Underside. There aren't a ton of craftsmen in Cazzord, most people living here are fishermen or merchants/stock traders and things along those lines, but there are some craftsmen who provide services for those merchants and tradesmen. They usually don't participate in all the trading and shipping that goes on themselves, they sell their products to the citizens of Cazzord, not to the entire market. Most of the trade that occurs is trade of materials and crops and things like that anyway, very few people ship finished products. too expensive.

speaking of population, here's some quick demographic info for Cazzord. About 40% of the population is human, 30% halfling, 20% dwarf, 10% other (elf, gnome, dragonborn, etc.)

2 hours ago, Shard of Reading said:

Oops. I meant chaotic good. I don’t know why I wrote lawful. Also, for the exact race of elf, I was thinking something like legalos, or like a half elf. Maybe half elf would make more sense....

Unless someone is willing to play as my mentor, I think we should go with an NCP. 

Also spell check is a jerk. It took me like 3 tries to stop auto correct from switching off legalos

lol ok, chaotic good it is

half-elf is a good idea, easier to explain why he'd be a thief. 

sounds good, I'll write it up

now that we're in the nitty gritty of your character, I'll shoot you a PM. 

 

Also, this is for everyone, I decided that, at least for character creation, we should do things by the book. So if you already know how to make a DnD 5e character, do that. Use the 27 point cost method of assigning ability scores. If you don't know how I'll do it with you.

This way I'll be able to make slightly more informed decisions about the result of your attempted actions. You won't need to keep a character sheet or even update it or anything, I just want it here at the beginning. 

[Channelknight Fadran]

I meant it'd be fun if I played a private shop blacksmith.

[+Invocation]

7 hours ago, Danex said:

The current setting is Cazzord. Read OP above =P

Yeah I saw that, thanks, but I was talking more like general tech level of the world, because "fairly advanced" means something different to everyone. I'm mostly trying to figure out what the gun status is, which I guess I should have been more clear about, so that's on me.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Invocation

[Mage]

Okay, real quick question before I start my character. Can I be the captain of The Blue Cremling? And be a Bayle Doman style trader/smuggler? If not then I'll just be the captain of another ship. I don't want to mess up the story, but that would be a good way to quickly get my character involved.

[danex]

3 hours ago, Mage said:

Okay, real quick question before I start my character. Can I be the captain of The Blue Cremling? And be a Bayle Doman style trader/smuggler? If not then I'll just be the captain of another ship. I don't want to mess up the story, but that would be a good way to quickly get my character involved.

I do have a plan for him already, sorry. You could be the first-mate if you want. Or the captain of your own ship. (except we'd have to then explain away the ship somehow. having an entire ship at their disposal at the very beginning of the game would be a bit OP for the party. especially considering that I'm planning on there being a lot of sea travel here at he beginning). 

5 hours ago, Invocation said:

Yeah I saw that, thanks, but I was talking more like general tech level of the world, because "fairly advanced" means something different to everyone. I'm mostly trying to figure out what the gun status is, which I guess I should have been more clear about, so that's on me.

No electricity, gunpowder does exist but it is rare. Guns themselves do not exist yet. Canons do. This Wikipedia page is a good rule of thumb for current tech. It isn't exactly right, but it's close enough. 

The closet thing to a "gun" would be a ribauldequin, which does exist in a very early form. Not in Cazzord though. 

Cazzord is "fairly advanced" just because it makes very very efficient use of water wheels and mills and stuff like that. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Danex

[Mage]

12 hours ago, Danex said:

I do have a plan for him , sorry. You could be the first-mate if you want. Or the captain of your own ship. (except we'd have to then explain away the ship somehow. having an entire ship at their disposal at the very beginning of the game would be a bit OP for the party. considering that I'm planning on there being a lot of sea travel here at he beginning). 

It's all good. How about I was captain of another ship, then my ship sunk for one reason or another. I was the only survivor and was picked up by The Blue Cremling and the captain there made me first-mate because I already had ship experience.

Now that we have the backstory, on to the character.

Race: Goblin

Class: Fighter (if you can think of a better class for a sailor let me know. Shard of Reading is already being a rogue, so it probably would be better not to have two)

Alignment: Neutral Good

Personality: Sarcastic, but quiet. Basically cracks jokes under his breath and then cackles his head off. Very blunt, so people that don't know him think he's mean, but he just says what's on his mind (sometimes only loud enough for him to hear though)

[+Invocation]

12 hours ago, Danex said:

No electricity, gunpowder does exist but it is rare. Guns themselves do not exist yet. Canons do. This Wikipedia page is a good rule of thumb for current tech. It isn't exactly right, but it's close enough. 

Alright, fair enough, thank you!

Name: Eltin
Race: (Scourge) Aasimar
Class: Sorcerer (preferably Giant Soul origin, but if that doesn't work, just tell me)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Appearance: Tan skin, green eyes, golden hair. Tall and broad.
Personality: Driven toward his goals, but prone to listlessness without one.

[danex]

41 minutes ago, Invocation said:

Alright, fair enough, thank you!

Name: Eltin
Race: (Scourge) Aasimar
Class: Sorcerer (preferably Giant Soul origin, but if that doesn't work, just tell me)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Appearance: Tan skin, green eyes, golden hair. Tall and broad.
Personality: Driven toward his goals, but prone to listlessness without one.

hmmmm yes Aasimar I know what those are.

*one google later*

okay now I actually know what they are, kinda. Seems like they're descended from gods or smthn along those lines? I haven't thought much about the gods of this world, guess I need to now. I think I want to create my own pantheon(s) and not just use the dnd ones. Also, everyone forget everything you think you know about other planes n dimensions n multiverses n crap, I've made my own system for that. probably not gonna be relevant for a long long time, but yeah it's different from the set dnd stuff.

also seems like Aasimar have wings? sometimes? Does Eltin? 

any ideas for a backstory? I haven't done anything with aasimar in my world at all (obviously, since i didn't even know what they were), so your backstory will do a lot to determine how I put em in. 

ok what else, uh, Giant Soul origin Sorcerer, yep I know what that is too.
*a second google later*
ok, that probably works. I think I'll need to change the lore of it a bit to fit in with some other stuff, but the buffs and spells and stuff seem fine. maybe. i kinda skimmed it. 

1 hour ago, Mage said:

It's all good. How about I was captain of another ship, then my ship sunk for one reason or another. I was the only survivor and was picked up by The Blue Cremling and the captain there made me first-mate because I already had ship experience.

Now that we have the backstory, on to the character.

Race: Goblin

Class: Fighter (if you can think of a better class for a sailor let me know. Shard of Reading is already being a rogue, so it probably would be better not to have two)

Alignment: Neutral Good

Personality: Sarcastic, but quiet. Basically cracks jokes under his breath and then cackles his head off. Very blunt, so people that don't know him think he's mean, but he just says what's on his mind (sometimes only loud enough for him to hear though)

ok, that works. so you want to have your ship just barely sunk? you could have the wreck be something that happened a long time ago and then you became friends with the captain and are just still with him.

hm, a goblin PC, ok. 

you could be whatever class you want, don't think of it as being a sailor first and then a [class], think of being a [class] first and then a sailor. If you did want to mainly focus on the sailor part of the character, fighter does seem like a good pick. Or you could just choose something completely different like cleric, and say that it's just the other half of his personality or smthn.

ooooh also, and this is for everyone actually, how old are y'alls characters. nobody's given me an age. 

[Shard of Reading]

I was thinking fairly young, like just out of college age. I don’t remember how aging works with half-elfs. 

[+Invocation]

6 hours ago, Danex said:

also seems like Aasimar have wings? sometimes? Does Eltin? 

Eltin does not, Fallen Aasimar and Protector Aasimar are the two that get their wings with race feature stuff, Scourge Aasimar just kind...vomit searing light like the energy-bending in ATLA except radiant damage.

6 hours ago, Danex said:

ok, that probably works. I think I'll need to change the lore of it a bit to fit in with some other stuff, but the buffs and spells and stuff seem fine. maybe. i kinda skimmed it. 

Understandable.

6 hours ago, Danex said:

any ideas for a backstory? I haven't done anything with aasimar in my world at all (obviously, since i didn't even know what they were), so your backstory will do a lot to determine how I put em in. 

The backstory I had in mind was mostly simple: his parents were humans both carrying a dormant bloodline to some giantish deity/deity's servant and that being is helping guide Eltin toward full realization of his abilities. The specifics are lacking, I'll admit, but there's plenty of room to conform to anything you put in, or I could bang out more details if you want me to.

[danex]

2 hours ago, Invocation said:

Eltin does not, Fallen Aasimar and Protector Aasimar are the two that get their wings with race feature stuff, Scourge Aasimar just kind...vomit searing light like the energy-bending in ATLA except radiant damage.

Mmmk, no wings. 

the stuff I'm finding on aasimar says that they usually have some weird characteristic, often involving the eyes. like them being a solid color or smthn. Is that what you meant when you said he has green eyes, or does he just have literal normal green eyes? If he has normal green eyes, does he have any strikingly weird trait like feathers or anything? 

3 hours ago, Invocation said:

The specifics are lacking, I'll admit, but there's plenty of room to conform to anything you put in, or I could bang out more details if you want me to.

That seems pretty good, we can work with that. I'm mainly focused on just trying to insert the race as a whole somehow. I have no idea how their society works or anything. Do they even have societies or are they usually just, spontaneously born from humans? How common/rare are they, should I make some Aasimar cities or would that be way too many? If two Aasimar have a child, is it 100% also going to be an Aasimar? It's surprisingly hard to find the answers to these questions online, i've been trying. 

Back to Eltin specifically, do you have any ideas for why he'd be travelling to Cazzord? 

[+Invocation]

35 minutes ago, Danex said:

the stuff I'm finding on aasimar says that they usually have some weird characteristic, often involving the eyes. like them being a solid color or smthn. Is that what you meant when you said he has green eyes, or does he just have literal normal green eyes? If he has normal green eyes, does he have any strikingly weird trait like feathers or anything?

Oh I meant like his eyes look like a solid chunk of emerald except they're functioning eyes.

35 minutes ago, Danex said:

That seems pretty good, we can work with that. I'm mainly focused on just trying to insert the race as a whole somehow. I have no idea how their society works or anything. Do they even have societies or are they usually just, spontaneously born from humans? How common/rare are they, should I make some Aasimar cities or would that be way too many? If two Aasimar have a child, is it 100% also going to be an Aasimar? It's surprisingly hard to find the answers to these questions online, i've been trying. 

There are generally not enough aasimar to have cities full of them, since normally beings on that level that are also willing to imbue a bloodline with their power are...rare, but if you wanted to say that there were enough, that's DM choice. Two aasimar will not always make an aasimar, but it's more likely than otherwise, and they can also be randomly born whenever a deva (or any similar being) decides "hey I'm gonna make this fetus have Main Character Syndrome." Their society is mostly just normal human stuff, but they tend to be glorified a lot because of their whole "blessed by the heavens" thing going on.

35 minutes ago, Danex said:

Back to Eltin specifically, do you have any ideas for why he'd be travelling to Cazzord? 

I was thinking he was getting urged by whichever being aasimar-ified him in the first place (I still need to plan for what the deal is with that) via dream communication that there was something happening in Cazzord that could use his attention as a way to give him a purpose because he'd recently been lacking goals and that never goes well for him.

 

If I'm making it too difficult on you by choosing an Aasimar for my race, I can swap, it's no biggie.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Invocation

[danex]

8 hours ago, Invocation said:

Oh I meant like his eyes look like a solid chunk of emerald except they're functioning eyes.

Cool, that's what I thought. Just checking. 

8 hours ago, Invocation said:

"hey I'm gonna make this fetus have Main Character Syndrome."

lol

8 hours ago, Invocation said:

I was thinking he was getting urged by whichever being aasimar-ified him in the first place

so, in his case, his aasimar-ness isn't genetic, some god actively chose him to be born an aasimar? But then his Giant-Soul-Sorcerer-ness is genetic, and also comes from that same God/Servant of that God? I think that's right. Cool.

8 hours ago, Invocation said:

(I still need to plan for what the deal is with that)

I started working on some ideas for a Pantheon, so I could probably do most of that if you want. I'd just need to know like, what are some of the base ideals/principles/morals that you had in mind for Eltin. What sort of god would he follow?

8 hours ago, Invocation said:

If I'm making it too difficult on you by choosing an Aasimar for my race, I can swap, it's no biggie.

Naw, this is cool. Forcing me to think about Gods n stuff a lot earlier than I thought I would have to. Well, I guess if anyone wanted to be a cleric (which I recommend) or a paladin I would've had to think about it then too. 

Lets see, besides ability scores and proficiencies (ima do those in PMs), what am I missing for Eltin... uhhh Age. How old were you thinking? 

[Mage]

19 hours ago, Danex said:

ok, that works. so you want to have your ship just barely sunk? you could have the wreck be something that happened a long time ago and then you became friends with the captain and are just still with him.

hm, a goblin PC, ok. 

you could be whatever class you want, don't think of it as being a sailor first and then a [class], think of being a [class] first and then a sailor. If you did want to mainly focus on the sailor part of the character, fighter does seem like a good pick. Or you could just choose something different like cleric, and say that it's just the other half of his personality or smthn.

ooooh also, and this is for everyone , how old are y'alls characters. nobody's given me an age.

I'll PM you with the rest of the details and also the 27 point ability assignment.

[Channelknight Fadran]

....but what if I like rolling for stats?

[danex]

4 hours ago, Mage said:

I'll PM you with the rest of the details and also the 27 point ability assignment.

 

1 hour ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

....but what if I like rolling for stats?

oop, just realized I never said this in the actual thread, only my PM with reading

I changed my mind on that, the "6 sets of 4d-drop-the-lowest" method is more fun

so we are rolling

well, I'm the one doing the actual rolling

but yeah same thing

[Shard of Reading]

13 minutes ago, Danex said:

 

oop, just realized I never said this in the actual thread, only my PM with reading

I changed my mind on that, the "6 sets of 4d-drop-the-lowest" method is more fun

so we are rolling

well, I'm the one doing the actual rolling

but yeah same thing

And I got an 18...