X Marks the Spot

Game Description

An Ad Placed in the Korranberg Chronicle

Xen'drik! The dark heart of Eberron's equatorial belt, once home to an ancient empire of giants that ruled for centuries with unparalleled magical might! Land of impenetrable jungles, fetid marshes, and blistering deserts—where money falls from the sky in the form of rare Siberys dragonshards! Who knows what strange treasures await those brave enough to explore this impenetrable wilderness in the name of Knowledge?

The Wayfinder Foundation, in cooperation with Morgrave University, is proud to announce the Lorrin d'Wermyr Memorial Xen'drik Exploration Prize Fund! Explorers to the lost continent can now apply for generous subsidy funding for the travel portion of their expedition from the trust, which will select recipients based on applicable skills—no prior experience necessary! Further, when you return from the wilderness, our Stormreach office will be to happy negotiate the licensing rights to any or all maps, charts, or explorer's journals that we feel might enrich our collection of lore about this strange land. You might even earn an invitation to the prestigious Wayfarer Foundation itself!

What are you waiting for? The mysteries of Xendrik await you and your fellow applicants. Start exploring today!

The Wayfinder Foundation is not responsible for any loss or injury—mental, physical, or metaphysical—suffered during any expedition attempted or completed using funding from the Lorrin d'Wermyr Memorial Xen'drik Exploration Prize Fund, including but not limited to bodily injury, parasitic infestation, financial insolvency, psychic oblivion, planar dislocation, poison, chronic fatigue, feelings of insignificance when compared to the scope of the cosmos, gout, erections lasting longer than 4 hours, thoughts of suicide, thoughts of regicide, bacterial infection, really really bad bruises, ability score damage, or death. Especially death.

"X Marks the Spot" is a game of exploration and discovery set in the world of Eberron—specifically in the shattered continent of Xen'drik. The campaign will have a sandbox feel, focusing on exploring wide swathes of territory and finding whatever is there to find. Quests will be there to find, but there will not be an overarching plot—the game will focus on the characters and how they choose to explore Xen'drik.

The game will start with the party getting dropped off on the shores with their supplies and mapmaking gear, to be picked up in 60 days at the same spot. The more they explore, the higher a price their maps will fetch and the higher their prestige with the Wayfinders will rise. And of course, they get to keep any treasures they find, though the academics from Morgrave will be on hand to purchase any culturally significant historical artifacts. After the first expedition, the party will be free to spend time in Stormreach before heading out again.

Characters can (and should) come from all walks of life on Eberron. The most important thing they need, though, is a sense of adventure and a curiosity about what's over the next hill.

The System: This will be a 3.5/Pathfinder mash-up; the exact house rules are available here. The short version is that this will be 3.5, with Pathfinder skills, CMB/CMD, and some classes.

Applications: Create a new thread to work on your character in the Character Lab forum. There will be 6 players picked; experience with either 3.5 or Pathfinder is preferred, but no experience with Eberron is required. In order to be considered, players will need to provide a paragraph each for Appearance, Background, Personality, Goals, and a little About You, as well as a rough character sheet. Exact details like equipment or spell selection can be nailed down after I choose the players, if you prefer. Further, you will need to participate in the Pre-Game Roleplaying thead, even if it's only one post describing how you keep to yourself. I need to be able to see how you write in an actual roleplaying scenario.

Character Application Requirements

Appearance: Even if you have a picture, a few sentences describing your bearing and demeanor would be nice.

Background: Should be short and sweet. The main question that needs answering is: Why are you leaving the safety of civilized lands to dive into the jungles of Xen'drik? Feel free to use anything you know about Eberron in your background, I'm not changing anything major about the setting. If you don't know much about Eberron, feel free to use generic place-names and we'll help you fit your story into Eberron somewhere. Bonds to other applicants are nice, but be prepared to downplay them if the other player doesn't get in.

Goals: What is your character hoping to accomplish? This can be a mix of things you'd like to do during the campaign and things that you'd like to do someday after you retire, like "I want to open an inn someday." These goals should be compatible with the general motif of exploring Xen'drik; if your goal is to overthrow the Inspired, you need to come up with a way that diving into the jungle will help that, because this campaign won't be going to Sarlona. On the other hand, I will work to include any goals that can be achieved by delving into ancient ruins or darkest jungles, so this is basically you're chance to tell me what sort of stuff you'd like to see. In fact, feel free to include a few "out of character" goals—things your character would never want but you, the player, would. Always wanted to fight a dragon? Your character probably doesn't, but go ahead and mention it!

Personality: Give me a quick sketch of how your character acts and reacts, especially to personal conflict. Include one declarative statement about human nature (well, sentient-being nature) that your character believes to be true. Example: "Deep down, everyone is a selfish jerk," or "In the end, we must rely on others to get through life."

Character Sheet: Character creation guidelines can be found here.

About You: Tell me about yourself and your feelings about games (no personally identifying information, though). What are some things you love/hate in a campaign? How would you describe your playstyle? Anything that can give me an accurate idea of what it is like to play with you would be helpful. Be accurate rather than telling me what you think I want to hear; if we're not on the same page, it's better for everyone if we know it now!

Pre-Game Roleplay: The roleplaying thread represents the ship that is bringing you upriver to your drop-off point. There are dozens of adventurers on board with you; they will be organized into teams by the Wayfinder Foundation representative and deposited in different spots. The characters that get into the game are Team A; everyone else who roleplays but doesn't get in are on Teams B and C; we won't follow their expedition, though they may show up again as reserve players.

Acceptance: First and foremost, I am looking for players who have a fun, interesting character that I want to spend time with. An entertaining fool is better than a dull maestro. Your character should have a look and feel that is memorable and jumps off the page. Er, screen. I will also be judging based on writing style and compatibility with other players' characters. Things I won't be judging: the technical proficiency of your character build, and whether or not someone else has the same "role" in the party as you do.

About Me: I've DM'd on and off for a long time, and I've run several campaigns in 3.5 before. I've run Play-by-Post before, too, but not for a while and not on Myth-Weavers. As a DM, I prefer to give players the tools they need to be awesome, not to ram my prewritten storyline down their throat. I also try not to be especially authoritarian, given that I don't really feel that being the DM gives me the right to talk to you, the player, like you're a small child. We're all adults here, and if we have a disagreement, we can work it out like adults. Yes, I have the final word on rules disputes, but that doesn't mean you can't ask questions or make suggestions. I also recommend reading the Play Procedures thread, which describes how we'll handle some common problem issues in PbP gaming.

The Tone: What I'm looking to create is something akin to a classic action-adventure movie, like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Jason and the Argonauts. Sure, there will be plenty of action, but there will also be character—I want to see the setting of Xen'drik as a background for your characters to clash with my characters (and each other, and the environment) and see what makes them tick. Action doesn't have to mean one-dimensional; high stakes action can bring out what your character really values. In short, I want this game to have it all: great roleplaying, great action, great problem-solving, the works.

The Dice: Generally, all GM dice will be rolled out in the open, or at least in a thread that you could check if you wanted to. I won't fudge or hold back on monster die rolls; if a character gets killed, that's part of the story. I'm sure the team will miraculously happen to run into another similarly-leveled adventurer soon enough. The only dice rolls that will be truly hidden will be things like random encounter checks, weather checks, etc. Which there will be a lot of—I'm creating expansive random tables for this game and will generate most of the map and what's in it semi-randomly.

Posting Expectations: I'd like this game to move quickly, but I also understand that we all have other things to do. Posting about 5 times per week, even just a quick combat turn, would be great. Posting more would be better, but since there will be days where I won't be able to post I can't expect that of anyone.