If you have not ventured there yet, I very highly recommend it. It can be a bit hard to get into a game, but if you're willing to DM one, you will have a torrent of people wanting to play whit you :)
I have tired Play By Post a few times before on other forums but the activity is way too low and most games never really get off the gourd or the peter out and die quickly. This is not true of all games of course, but I have only had one really cool fun enduring game over the last 2 years on other forums.
DnDBeyond (as long as you are happy with playing D&D 5e, home brew or other wise) is super active and I am currently DM'ing two games and playing in two run by other DM's.
All of this happened only two weeks after signing up to the DnDBeyond site and browsing the Play By Post thread!
Have I typed DnDBeyond enough yet?
One of the games I am running is a procedurally generated wilderness/dungeon based on the movie Labyrinth.
If you have not seen it yet, do! It's amazing.
I am using the Mythic GM Emulator to create the adventure. It's all random, not planned at all and we are having a blast. It's very old school. Here is my pitch for the Play By Post forum;
Pitch / Setting: The Barons son is kidnapped!
A century ago the Goblin King Cursed the line of Baron Willfrieg VonStross. As is the habit of the fey, the Goblin King offered the Barons great, great sire any favour, if he could adopt and raise the Baron’s heir as his own son in the Goblin City.
Willfreig’s ancestor was no fool and saw the offer for a trap. This infuriated the Goblin King, so he cursed the VonStross line. From that day forth if any member of the family accepted any offer of the Goblin Kings favour it would be granted, and the price would be the current heir.
One night heavy with drink Willfreig lost his wits and in anger at his younger son, jested that he would rather The Goblin king be his farther. The next morning the heir was gone!
You have answered the Barons call and volunteered to brave the Labyrinth that surrounds the Goblin city, fight your way to the Goblin Kings Castle, and rescue the Barons heir.
[Yep, this adventure uses the Movie Labyrinth for inspiration. One of my favourite movies, it reeks of that wonderful Old School chaos and fun.]
Premise: This will be an experiment, a successful one I hope, combining the D&D 5E rules with the Mythic GM Emulator. The idea is to share an adventure with 3 to 5 other players in a Play by Post environment, in a sandbox dungeon, that is randomly generated with group story telling.
Play Style: Play by Post.
System: D&D 5E, combined with Mythic GM Engine.
Player Count: Min 4, Max 6.
Style of play: Old School Renaissance. Even mix of RP, Hack and Slash, in a big randomly generated sandbox-mega-dungeon.
Allowed Content: Core books only. 5E PHB, 5E DMG, 5E MM. Home brew may included in setting and Monster creation.
Character Creation: For that old school feel there are some restrictions on the types of characters available for play. Only Clerics, Fighters, Rogues, and Wizards are allowed. Standard as per the 5E PHB. No multi-classing. Feats option is allowed. Only Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human races are allowed. All characters start at 1<sup>st</sup> level.
Backstory: Only a paragraph of two are required, but if you want to give us a good read go ahead! Backstories may be mined for adventure content.
Experience: All characters start at 1<sup>st</sup> level. Xp gain with instant level up when threshold is reached.
Wealth: As per 5E PHB standard character creation.
Ability Scores: Standard array placed as desired by player. [15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8]
Hitpoints/Health: Max 1<sup>st</sup> level, average or rolled there after, players choice. [with record of roll ofc ;)]
Alignment: Characters must be of lawful good, neutral good, and chaotic good alignments. You are volunteer heroes after all!
Other Notes:
Mythic Gm Engine Notes: My idea is to have this adventure as randomly generated as possible. The core mechanics of game play will be 5E D&D, but for the most part the dungeon master will be simulated with the Mythic rules. I will be a player / party member, and will administer the Mythic Engine side of the game.
Each player may ask a question of the ‘DM’ on their turn, myself included. I will then consult the Mythic GM for an answer. I will then present the results to the party and we can interpret them together. In cases of a ‘tie of opinion’ we will randomly choose an interpretation and move on.
In combat I will default to the DM role for the monsters and NPC’s as well as play my own character.
If this adventure idea gets traction then I will post up some more information on how The Mythic GM works, and how to ask questions for more effective and fun adventures.
Posting Frequency: I anticipate I will be able to manage 4 to 5 posts a week, so a similar availability would be nice for other players. If you are busy and need to skip a post or two that’s fine ofc, RL first and all that :) If you are going to be away for an extended time, please let the rest of us know.
OOC: Please preface all out of character comments with ‘OOC:’
Encumbrance: Semi important. As long as we don’t get ridiculous with weight carried.
Death: In the tradition of Old School, and rogue like dungeons death will matter. There will be no Mulligans or take backs. If you die you die. However if you die due to a mistake in rules application or interpretation then we can roll the adventure back a bit, if only a few posts have occurred before the mistake is picked up.
New Player Friendly: YES! Don’t let being new to the hobby put you off :) One caveat though, you have to make an effort to learn the rules and understand how you want to play your character. Please show an interest in your character, be proactive, and engage with the story and your fellow party members.
Character Names: Please keep them reasonably serious and relevant to the setting and tone of the adventure.
Player Behaviour: My hope for this adventure is that it will be a friendly, fun and inclusive environment. Please keep real world politics and prejudices out of the game, this includes OOC: posting. Very much a don’t be a D*^k rule is in place. I just want to have an interesting and fun adventure with some new friends :)
It went much, much better than I expected based on previous Play By Post forums I had used before.
Within 24 hours I had all of my players and a waiting list of other players should anyone drop out!
I have today Just posted a run down of how I use the Mythic GM Emulator to generate the adventure, its setting, and encounters for my players. I thought I would also share it here should any one be interested in my process.
This is based on the 4th and 5th encounters, and the fourth setting in the dungeon thus far;
Post #11 The Black Oak-
Creating an encounter in a procedurally generated adventure/dungeon
with Mythic GM Emulator, my brain, and the internets.
After the battle in the
courtyard, and the trip through the walled gardens and streams with
the aid of Bort your new friend, I felt that a change of
terrain/scenery was probably very likely given the chaotic Fey nature
of the Labyrinth. So I took out the Mythic GM Emulator and started
rolling!
Chaos Factor: 6
Random event? [8] No
Q1: Do the companions enter a
new biome?
Odds Very Likely: [59] Yes
I had some ideas for biome type,
based on my recollection of the movie Labyrinth, and some stuff I had
kicking around in my head, that I thought would be cool/fun for all
of us.
Q2: Is the next biome ruins?
Odds 50/50: [72] No.
Q3: Is it a Wood?
Odds 50/50: [09] Exceptional
Yes.
So this was some kind of special
Wood. I decided to go with a Haunted and magical wood, that was a
danger because of the many deceptions and illusions layered
upon it by the Goblin King Himself.
It occurred to me that the
Goblin King being a cruel and capricious Fey of the Winter Court
would very much enjoy seeing how the Wood he had glamoured broke down
the minds and bodies of any who dared challenge his rule and entered
it.
Thus..
Q4: Would the Goblin King come
see the companions struggling along in his creation?
Odds Likely: [33] Yes and Random
Event! (Because I rolled a double [33] that was also below the
threshold of the Chaos factor of 6.)
The Random Event Focus needed to
be determined: [59]
Consulting the table it was a PC
negative Event.
For the Event Meaning Action:
[08] Oppose
For the Event Meaning Subject:
[13] War
My
interpretation was that the Goblin King would Confront the group in
some fashion. Thinking that He may be a bit tough to give a
meaningful encounter at this stage of the adventure I posed another
question to the Mythic GM…
Q5:
Does the Goblin King confront the players through proxy?
Odds
Very Likely: [47] Yes.
So
he would use the forest and its creatures to attack/challenge the
companions for his own twisted amusement.
So
I went to Google and looked for some ideas and random encounter
generators for a Haunted/Fey Wood. I found and excellent free d100
one that for the life of me I cannot find again. Of course!
I
ended up rolling a few times for atmosphere and a few for the actual
encounter.
The
atmospheric results were things like strange clumps of flowers
carpeting the ground. Thick canopy blocking all of the light. A sense
of unease and being watched all the time.
The
results that made up the encounter were;
Strange
glowing Moths, a haunted grove, and strange lights in the distance.
I
thought of these large glowing moths that lived in the Wood. How did
they eat, breed, what was their life like?
It
made sense to me that they glowed to attract prey. I gave them
strange hypnotic patterns to hold their prey once attracted. This was
so the larvae that lived in the leaves at the base of the huge dark
oak they called home, could have the chance to attack and feed upon
any unfortunate creatures that happened along.
I
set the DC for the enchantment at 15 [in retrospect it was too high
in my opinion. All but one of the group failed in the first round, so
I started panicking and quickly revised the damage done by the grubs.
I retconned it from 1d4+1 per attack to 1d4 for the first attack,
followed by 1 damage per round there after (much like a stirge
feeding). I did this fearing a TPK. Next time I would set the DC at
around 12, I think.
The
group eventually broke the enchantment with co-operation, better
rolls, and a good dose of fire!
The
order of play/combat/initiative was very free from in the first part
of the encounter, I think I may have been trying to do too much with
the game, considering the nature of online play by post and the lack
of maps and play aids I am using.
As
we entered the next phase of the Dark Oak encounter I formalised
initiative a bit more, so that everyone knew when to act. In
retrospect this also was not the best solution, as I think the flow
of play slowed and almost halted due to real life, confusion due to
changing initiative resolutions, and it just being a sub optimal way
of doing it.
We
are now going forward with the initiative variant where either the
NPC or Party act, with the order of the action within the ‘side’
being unimportant. As long as players let other players respond after
they have so that everyone gets a fair time on the stage, we should
be golden :)
I
had the Goblin King be a mocking, eerie presence out in the darkness
of the wood, hoping to give the group a chance for a bit of RP with
the combat and skill challenge. The Goblin King taunted and was in
turn taunted back.
Q6:
Is the Goblin King angered and thus will he retaliate?
Odds
Likely: [63] Yes. The Winter Fey are fickle, moody, and easily
angered to rash action.
The
Goblin King decided that a backhanded reward would be ironic
punishment for the insolence directed at him. So he promised to light
the way forward for the companions by summoning some of the other
luminous residents of the wood.
I
love Will-O-Wisps but they are too powerful in numbers that would
bring drama and meaning to a combat for the group of six characters.
They were seven, but one has disappeared form he game and the story
due to inaction on the players part.
Not
much has been said about this in or out of character, the nature of
online play I suspect :)
Still
wanting to have a Will-O-Wisp style monster I modified the Monster
Manual Template (something I do with just about all of the NPC’s
and Monsters I use in my games. Keeps us all on our toes :P)
Thus
Corpse Candles were borne!
They
are much like Will-O-Wisps but do less damage, cannot go invisible,
are a bit slower, and have an area effect attack when they die. Just
something a little different :)
I
was a bit concerned that they would still be too much of a threat for
the group, but through the usual good tactics, RP, and RNG we all
made it through. Though I think the AC of the creatures was too high
and may have been a bit frustrating for some of the companions. I
will adjust it down for future use.
They
group then fled the fire and went on to a safe area for a good long
rest and some much needed XP and loot!
The
adventure continues...
