Thistledown

Just popping in to say I'm still here. Just had a buttload of work the last two weeks and in the middle of a heatwave last week was completely wiped by the end of my workday. Ideas have been mulling in my mind, which is usually how my creative process goes...things have to rattle around a bit in the brain before they fly out my fingers...

What say you ? I apologize if I/we have thrown you for a loop, though tossing stuff out is sort of the definition of brainstorming. That said, YOU have to be excited about the prospect as well...how do you feel about a pulp style of game? Think Indiana Jones, The Mummy, The Shadow, even King Kong/Skull Island would fall under this genre.

I'm fond as well! Just trying to be inclusive...I think if you look at the major settings, they have room for many cultures, just like the real world. Faerun for example has traditional medieval fantasy, the arabian nights in Zakharra, and Asia over in Kara-tur, even some Indiana Jones savage jungles in Chult! Since we are going with a heist (tomb raiding?) type, of thing, why don't we take a queue from Indiana Jones and make it a globe-trotting type of game, bouncing to and fro to various exotic locales. This is one of the reasons I LOVE Eberron, especially with the Lightning Rail, and Airships, but there's no reason not to cherry pick those elements into a bespoke setting. Such a "pulp" setting would allow for a very nice juxtaposition of a "drifter from the far west" teaming up with a "genie from the sands", and many other archetypes, and also incorporate the magicpunk/clockwork stuff... How about it...go full on fantasy Pulp style DnD? I think that would nail all of the above!

Honestly...and I'm curious what thinks about this, but what if we went the opposite direction of making the game much more wild west/steampunk centered...in that way my character bringing the middle eastern mythology then becomes the exotic outsider? I think I might actually enjoy that even more...

Are you super into the Arabian setting? I'm not married to it, if it would help open up the concept for our card sharp cowboy to be incorporated. I'm not sure *exactly* how to meld wild west with Arabian Nights, but I can't help but feel like there could be something there, especially since both tend to be desert based... The only reason I suggested Arabian to begin with is because my character is going to be the wayward son of a Dao Lord, so he brings some of that Middle Eastern flavor with him just from being a genasi/djinn. Though I'm still somewhat tempted to do the dragonborn variation. Will try to make a final decision by this weekend so I can get more thoughts and a build sketch on paper as it were...

Fair nuff! How do you feel about integrating some of the heists in Keys from the Golden Vault? If we're going straight homewbrew setting, that makes it even easier to just pull in pieces, like the aforementioned Lightning Rail. I'm definitely keen on incorporating clockwork and steam/magic-punk, including firearms! I played in a 3.5 fantasy wild west game back in the day over on the Giant's playground, though the Wild West/Fantasy tropes presented are probably far too "un-PC" for 2023 audiences: Humans and dwarves were the "European" settlers/conquerors in the "new world", with the "Indians/Native Americans" being wood/green elves, orcs and goblins being the manual labor slave class from the "dark world" continent, and the "Chinamen" tropes of the Wild West era (exotic merchants and opium dens) being "oriental" styled gnomes and halflings, half elves and half orcs facing prejudice from "miscegenation", etc... so yeah... 🙄. Probably wouldn't fly now, that ideas of races having distinct cultures is considered problematic, but to an extent those tropes are endemic to, and perhaps even best explored through wild west stories.

I'm thinking that if we keep it in Forgotten Realms or possibly Eberron it makes less work for our DM. The former has the AN built in already, and the latter can be easily spun into a WW flavor, what with the Victorian elements and Lightning Rail...!

Well it's nice to see the creative juices start to congeal into a rich pudding!

Well I am going Djinni Warlock. And it's possible to keep an Arabian Nights style setting with the Heist idea. I'm sure there's a way to fuse these disparate elements into an elegant whole.

Shouldn't it be Visions of Oerth? 😅

Hmm... feeling something. My character concept is moving towards a heist type of rogue (that is the archetype not the class). what if your card sharp and my djinni team up for Ocean's 11 style shenanigans? Were you wanting an explicitly wild west setting? I'm wondering if there would be some way to meld the flavors of a wild west character and an arabian nights style character (Ocean's 11 had a very multicultural cast). (Hereafter abbreviated as SKC) might even consider incorporating some of the modules from Keys from the Golden Vault book (which I have in PDF format but have not so much as thumbed through). Could keep it set in FR, since Zakharra is built in, but could also see this being very fun with an Arcane/Eberron magicpunk type setting, since my Djinn is from the Elemental Planes either way... Thoughts?

Signing in! Off to work now, but will be back later with more info and to brainstorm our campaign! I'm open to solo play, and sometimes that's even better for sandbox, though having other players to banter with and play off of is usually even better!

Hey thanks! How does starting at level 7 sound, and go from there? If we get 10 levels out of it, that gets us through level 16, before the level 9 craziness kicks in. Though if we were going to go to at least 17 there's a strong temptation to go straight genie warlock for that delicious Wish. Any preference for setting/theme? I have one version that is tailor made for a horror game, potentially set in Ravenloft, or the Grim Hollow setting, with a strong Lovecraftiaan influence, a la Bloodborne/eldritch horror. Tempting considering we're going into Spooky season but also that's a flash in the pan so we shouldn't count on the season to carry us for a campaign. Plasmoid Great Old One-Lock. The I have a version more suited to an Arabian Nights/Zakharra style game, more high fantasy. Earth Genais Genie-Lock A variation on that version using Dragonborn that could fit any high fantasy setting, or even a Spelljammer type situation. Gem Dragonborn Genie-Lock. Probably in that order in terms of preference. Out of the 3, I'd say I have the strongest hook for the horror version, but that's definitely the kind of game where everyone needs to be into sustaining a grimdark feel. Of the two Djinn-locks...its hard to choose!  

Hey that would be awesome! Thank you! Likewise, I'm about anywhere from 4-6 weeks out from being a new father, and I'm a solopreneur, so I completely get the time constraints. I'd rather someone just keep in touch about what's going on than ghost. For my part if I can get in at least one or two good posts per week at this stage of life I consider it golden. I used to be able to post once or multiple times in a single day but that's just not realistic anymore. Speaking of which I have to get to my Sunday chores right now, but I'll be back later to brainstorm more with you as I have at least 2 different types of characters I'd like to try out and one of them has a few possible variants depending on what setting and theme seems most appealing to you. Glad I didn't give up on this thread too soon! For anyone else who may be interested, check out Treantmonk's variants. I'm definitely going to go with some flavor of Warlock. We may also consider his Feat and spell fixes...

Ah I see, you were speaking specifically about AL, not 5e overall. My thing is since coming to 5e from 3.5, I discovered Treantmonk's variants/class and race fixes, which are objectively better. For example, vanilla Dragonborn in 5e (my favorite race), REALLY need a few tweaks like Darkvision and better breath weapons (Fizban's was an improvement but not quite good enough). On top of that I think BG3 had some good implementations, folding the Hexblade subclass into Pact of the Blade for example. I want to be able to play with these tweaks/fixes, but have not been able to find a DM or game willing to allow them, despite not being "broken". It has been frustrating to find that the 5e crowd seems much more dogmatic about what is printed in the books, and less comfortable with using what is there and then molding it taste.

I come from LONG experience with 3.5, so I'm rather used to being able to work out customizations and use homebrew. And frankly 5e definitely needs it in several places. So yeah I consider it a limitation. I suppose if you aren't super comfortable with understanding how rules and balance work or being able to mold encounters precisely to the abilities of your players it would be considered a feature. Apparently 5e brought in a lot of new players to the hobby, which is great, but probably also many of those are more casual, and unable or unwilling to tweak things to taste...

Seems like it wasn't so hard before. And I've seen others make requests and get picked up. Upon further reflection, I think part of the reason I prefer to request games is because I rather enjoy having a lot of agency as a player in sandbox settings, and most games advertised tend to have a rather narrow focus, or the group dynamic makes it difficult to have as much agency. The latter is also why I prefer to have a group of players where we hash out our party dynamic and shared goals and interactions to set the stage at the outset, rather than a bunch of random applications where the party and its goals gets decided post hoc.

Kinda disappointed with the (lack of) response for this. I've heard that 5e supposedly brought more people than ever to D&D, but even now it seems FAR easier to find willing DMs to run 3.5, who are willing to customize/allow homebrew/tweaks. Not sure why that is exactly. Tons of new players but nobody who likes to DM?

Am I correct in the impression that AL games don't allow any homebrew/variants/customization tweaks or is that dependent on individual DMs?

Bumping back to the first page...

My initial question is seeking a DM who understands the game well enough to accommodate. TM runs games all the time with his variants and house rules for his patreon subscribers and doesn't seem to have any of the issues you're afraid of. If anything it's even more balanced and more fun. I disagree 5e can't handle modding. If anything it's RIPE for tweaks to classes. Here's a simple one: all sorcerer subclasses with expanded spell lists get them automatically known, just like Aberrant Minds and Clockwork Souls. Doesn't break anything, just gives more options, and brings them up to par with all the other casting subclasses that get expanded spell lists. I don't see your point in even replying if you're just going to sh*t on the idea. I've known plenty of DMs who have no issues working with player tweaks and requests. If that's not you, fair enough, it's a big forum...🍻

With respect, I humbly disagree. The mods I'm talking about are entirely for classes, races, and maybe feats. Super easy to keep track of, and I've been playing in homebrew friendly campaigns in PbP for decades. A class tweak like, eldritch blast is now a class feature rather than a cantrip (closes some exploits in fact), or giving dragonborn recharge dice for their breath weapon isn't some Herculean task of bookkeeping. You just have a DM/group agree at the beginning, make a note of any tweaks in play and you're off on the adventure.

Yeah, if you go to the pdfs I linked, within each one is a link to a YouTube video where he gives his rationale for everything. He's been a stalwart in the online D&D community for years and I think his approach is very balanced, fixing things that needed it and occasionally nerfing things. I don't agree with him always 100% so I'd make a few further tweaks but overall love his stuff. I consider his warlock and sorcerer variants to be more or less definitive.

Ah, keep in mind that using italics like you did in your initial reply to add emphasis could be interpreted through text as being...snarky.

Ideally I'd be able to find a new "home group" for PbPing, where we all write well together. That would be awesome. It's been a long time...