DM Teknykk and the Elemental Evil (Lost Mine of Phandelver-Princes of the Apocalypse)

[Teknykk]

FG License: Full License, Players Need Full or Lite.
Game System: D&D 5E.

Time Zone: Australian Eastern Standard Time in Queensland (GMT+10).
Day of Week and Time: Sunday and Saturday at 8:30 PM to 12:30 AM.
Planned Start Date: September 5th and 6th.
Planned Frequency: Two Nights per Week.
Term: Long Term or Until Adventures are Complete.

Text or Voice: Text and Voice Required.
Voice Software Used: FG TeamSpeak Server.

Role-Play & Combat Mix: 50/50 Mix is Expected.
Number of Players in Needed: 4 Players Minimum to 5 Players Maximum.
Character Starting Level & Equipment: 1st-Level with Maximum Starting Wealth, Trinket, Faction Insignia, and Uncommon Magic Item.
Character Restrictions: Player's Handbook and Elemental Evil Player's Companion Content Only with Strict Feat and Multi-Classing Rules.

Details: Currently looking for at least two players, though a third is welcome. Would much prefer someone not from an overseas time zone, due to issues that previously arose from former players, mainly due to bad attitudes and times causing less than suitable manners. That said, people who're living in Australia, New Zealand or somewhere within the same kind of time zone are welcome to apply. I'm looking for people who are fully committed to doing two nights a week back to back, can at least role-play their characters to a degree that allows them to feel three-dimensional and willing to evolve with the events happening. Character builds will need to be reasonable within role-play and background.

Players need to understand that this is a world with a story you're part of, not a world that revolves entirely around you. Every player deserves their fair share of input with all situations, and they will have their own background information possibly incorporated if they've detailed them previously. This is meant to be an acting trope of characters who can work together, even if they're good, neutral or evil with varying factions, to understand a greater issue they need to deal with. This is not a one man show where your story is the only one that matters, but that doesn't mean I won't take a little bit of your personal story and toss it in to spice things up, if I can find a way to do it.

People who are rude, bad mannered and generally just act like they own the microphone on voice chat need not apply. I don't expect players to be angels, I am not even against swearing, but I am not interested in obsessive yawners or chewers and the like. I also don't get every rule right, and often seek quick advice from those more experienced, but in saying that, I don't have any interest in people who're exploitative power-gamers, rules lawyers or those who expect anything handed out to them on a silver platter, including magical items, though you may start with one from a small and select list if I decide I want to let you.

The goal of this group would be to run through the Starter Set adventure known as Lost Mine of Phandelver, which is obviously very popular. Once that is done, players will continue on to Princes of the Apocalypse from the Elemental Evil campaign with the exact same characters. This means the early experience may be slightly scaled up to match with the likely level you'll be at the end of the previous adventure, which is level four to six. Both of these campaigns are fairly sandbox-like in their nature, so it'll often be open to players to decide where to go and what to do and have an open mind to casual role-play and tactical and strategic decisions.

I intend to start as early as possible, which at the moment is Saturday and Sunday on the 5th and 6th of September at 8:30 PM until 12:30 AM my time, which is AEST, GMT+10. Please do not apply if you cannot commit to these times and days fully, I have no interest in running a campaign for people who lack enough dedication. If this is at all interesting, you can apply by posting here with your typical character interests or preferences, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If we do not get enough players by the end of this week, I will push the starting date to the next week and continue this way until we have at least four players, or three with me using a fourth as an NPC party member if needed.

Link to Game Calendar Page: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/?id=1520

Leave a reply if you're interested, I refuse to take people who just do a blind request on the calendar without any follow up. You can also contact me via private message here on the forums or through Steam with my handle Teknykk.

Thanks!

[Andrepartthree]

Round of applause.. seriously, just a huge round of applause here ! :)

" Players need to understand that this is a world with a story you're part of, not a world that revolves entirely around you. Every player deserves their fair share of input with all situations, and they will have their own background information possibly incorporated if they've detailed them previously. This is meant to be an acting trope of characters who can work together, even if they're good, neutral or evil with varying factions, to understand a greater issue they need to deal with. This is not a one man show where your story is the only one that matters, but that doesn't mean I won't take a little bit of your personal story and toss it in to spice things up, if I can find a way to do it."

I freaking LOVE this ! :) You just summed up in a nutshell what all RPG'ers should aspire to ! :) I particularly love the "acting trope of characters who can work together" part..

" People who are rude, bad mannered and generally just act like they own the microphone on voice chat need not apply. I don't expect players to be angels, I am not even against swearing, but I am not interested in obsessive yawners or chewers and the like. I also don't get every rule right, and often seek quick advice from those more experienced, but in saying that, I don't have any interest in people who're exploitative power-gamers, rules lawyers or those who expect anything handed out to them on a silver platter, including magical items, though you may start with one from a small and select list if I decide I want to let you."

I'm sorry to hear about the real-life-Sheldon-from-the-Big-Bang-Theory players you've had to endure... I've gone through that myself as a GM years ago, ashamed to say I reacted VERY poorly and reduced myself to their level in my responses in a way that I sincerely regret now looking back at it.. it's all too common I'm afraid... it's pretty simple really, stop and THINK about how your actions affect the other players and GM in real life first! Sure attacking your fellow PC for lethal damage may be something you indignantly insist on because you feel it would be "in character" for you... but no matter how many pages of text-explanation you can give justifying it ... how's that player going to feel whose character you just attacked for lethal damage? How's the GM going to feel for that matter when the conflict between players derails the campaign the GM worked so hard on?

All my spare time is going into the aforementioned campaign though , as a "lurker" on FG I do stop by and make comments on threads from time to time hope you don't mind :) ... the comments in this case are meant to provide praise for what my humble opinion is worth, well done! :) If you can collect a group of players who actually take the time to role play well and effectively with each other in a mature, positive, reasonable way that respects the feelings of others (hard but it IS possible, hit and miss sort of thing, happens eventually when you game with enough people :) ) .. for what my humble opinion is worth I think you're going to be a great GM running a very fun and very entertaining campaign :) ... Best of wishes to you with this! :)

[GenSmicer]

This should be a great one for EU people too, at least if you can do the afternoons for saturdays and sundays(12:30 to 16:30 or so GMT+1). Sadly it would clash with my current Saturday game.

[Qedian]

As someone who played in Teknykk's games before (and will be playing in this one), he's a pretty chill and cool guy. He's good at adding in story that both helps breathe your own character a bit of life while allowing you to share and develop your roleplay with the party as a whole.

[Teknykk]

Thanks for the comments Andrepartthree, it's nice to have someone pop in and say such things, I'm not going to tear someone's head off for derailing my thread for a moment. To reiterate what Qedian said, yes I'm typically a relaxed person that allows a fair bit of a freedom, there is a limit to that though, and sadly some players exploit it until I start stomping my feet. Generally speaking, I have two great players with me who're sticking with it, Qedian is one of them, Krisakth is another, who're here with me until they tell me otherwise, and are quite dedicated to seeing things though. Sadly, the last campaign I simply felt I needed to kill off because it got too messy due to all the issues we had.

As for EU folks or anyone else overseas, I'm not entirely against it, just for everyone's sake it's often easier on the group if they're as close together as possible. If you're American and joining, or someone close to that time zone, you're generally jumping in at the very early hours of the morning, which means your terrible morning manners might leak over into the voice chat unless you're a graveyard shift kind of person. For those in other parts of the world, it really depends on their time zone too, and how well they can communicate. I'm fairly open an reasonable, just trying to avoid more issues in future, that's all really.

[GenSmicer]

Eu people aren't in the early morning when you play, but in the afternoon, so they must be very heavy sleepers to be still having morning manners happening though :p. And as it is, EU people just have a hard time finding a game they could fit into their timezone, since most I seen would end up somewhere in the midnight hours or way past those.

And one of the games I play in is with australians mostly :p. Works well for me since it's fitting perfect in my timezone :p.

[Teknykk]

Yeah I imagine most EU players wouldn't have issues in a group like mine, as long as they could communicate with us well enough if they're not from the UK or another typically native English speaking area. Folks on the other side of the world though tend to wake up at early hours, and that comes through chat. I wasn't originally against people joining me who woke up at early hours, but it's clear was a bad idea to let it happen. So in future, I'll just want people who have been awake long enough to not have these kind of issues. That said, I've not had any experience with EU folks, so I'd be pretty open to them joining as long as they agreed with what was previously said.

[Irie]

Me and a friend of mine are interested in running with you. We're both EU times, so it's gonna be around midday - afternoon for us (gonna double check the hours).
Some info on us: I'm a long time rpler. Ran very long and very rp heavy shadowrun and vampire campaigns, but it's been a while since my last dnd adventure. My friend has some experience in E3.5, but obv it's been a while. We both are more or less new to E5, run half of a campaign, but it was canceled due to DM rl problems. So if you don't mind some unexperienced ppl, we'd be interested in joining.

[Teknykk]

Would be more than happy to have you and your friend Irie, if everything above suits you both and you can attend each day at the same times. If you could both add me on Steam via my handle Teknykk, we can talk more and I can work towards getting you both ready with your characters and the like this week. If we still have time during this week, we may start actually playing also, but I'd at least like to get Character Creation done for everyone. I like to spend a bit of time with my players helping them through it and having it done without importing, because Fantasy Grounds seems to have some issues with importing 5E characters.

I can't promise I'll be the perfect DM, but I do my best and try to get a solid mix of role-play and fighting in each session. Most of us are still somewhat learning all the 5E systems and Fantasy Grounds, so it's fine if you don't have a lot of experience. But yeah, if you like, add Teknykk to your Steam friends list together, and I'll talk to you both and see about getting you ready for the adventure. While you're at it, sign up on the calendar link I provided in the first post above, that'll help me see what kind of times you'll be running at with us.

[tee_rex]

I am very interested in this. I am an American (EST time zone), so this would be 6:30 AM for me. However, I am a night owl (work evenings), and I used to (for several years) raid/play during Oceanic/Aussie time zones with Aussies. They were the friendliest and most chill group of people I've ever played with. The time zone is not an issue for me, and I can assure you I am not a grumpy/ill mannered person. I would actually still be awake when this starts. I usually go to sleep around 4-5 hours after this start time.

I am new to Fantasy Grounds. Earlier tonight was my session, and it was a ton of fun. I currently only have the free license, but would be willing to upgrade. I'm new to 5E, but have experience in 3/3.5/4 and a little Pathfinder. I'm not at all a min/maxer or rules lawyer. I want to roleplay, but I am still getting a feel for that.

I don't have Steam, but I will send you a PM shortly and will sign up on the calendar. I would be happy to discuss this with you over voice chat, too.

I actually have a character and background written up that is a Half Orc Barbarian. I ended up scrapping it for my other group (too many tanky melee types) and went with a wizard instead. I will send that to you also for your consideration, because I would love to smash stuff.

Hope to hear back from you, but I totally understand your reservations about overseas players.

[Teknykk]

Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm adverse to Americans themselves, just typically it's a getting up time for them and I've learned my lesson from that. Night owls are a different sort of the thing though, so I'm willing to consider it for the moment, until I see who else applies to join us. Basically the sessions will run for four hours straight each day, two days in a row, and I expect everyone to turn up on that time or shortly prior to and sometimes shortly after. If you can't attend both days at these times, I'd rather not have anyone like that in the group. My goal is to get as much out of this as possible each week, even if it goes a little slower because of people who are newer to the system.

That said, I will keep you in mind and be happy for you to attach your created character here so I can download a copy and look over it, as well as read anything you send to me via private message. All my players will require a Full license though, sadly, I have no interest in paying for an Ultimate license unless it gets a massive discount, more than half price for me to even remotely consider paying for it. So if I do accept you, you will have to upgrade off your own pocket, or do a subscription, whichever works for you. I will let you know if I've decided to get you to join us as soon as I know the entire group makeup, as I currently need to await some responses from the two European folks showing interest.

[tee_rex]

Okay, sounds good to me!

Both days and times would be perfect for me, and I would absolutely be able to make them every week. Just let me know. I'll purchase a full license if/when you give me the green light.

I PMed you, and sent part of my character's background story. I have no idea how to attach a file/character sheet, though, so I'll poke around and see if I can figure that part out.

[Teknykk]

Yeah, attaching only works in public threads for some reason. But I've got it now, so you're welcome to edit it out if you wish. It certainly looks quite interesting for a Half-Orc so far, but I'll wait for the pending responses first before I give the "green light". I'm considering it though, so I will let you know as soon as I have the remaining details.

[Kadin]

Ahoy, I'm the friend of Irie and definitely interested in joining this group. Adding you on steam right after this post. Beyond what Irie said, I think you're really well spoken and I like the mix of combat/RP style (too much RPing can get tiresome, too much rules/combat tends to get tedious. I like a healthy mix). I'm still shaky on the rules, so I may need some refreshers, but I have a 5E Player's Handbook handy so I'll try to catch up as quickly as possible.

Looking forward to joining, if you'll have me.

[Teknykk]

Hey Kadin, no worries, more than happy to have you both as long as you can commit to and attend both days at the allocated times. You should be able to see a conversion of it when you look at the calendar entry I have in the original post, but I'll get you to both tell me your time zone so I can do a conversion myself just to make sure we have the times down solid, because apparently the calendar can get it an hour behind or ahead for some people. Regarding the mix, yeah I do prefer to try and get a reasonable mix of combat and role-play in when I can, but seeing as it's official adventures, sometimes you may get a tad more of one or the other, depending on where you're at in the adventures.

Happy to have you both, and I'll be on Steam now to chat if need be.

[Irie]

Um... I'm having trouble purchasing the license. It won't accept the credit card my paypal account is bound to. Any tips?

[Teknykk]

Hm, I've had issues with my Cards and Paypal before. Only way I could fix it, was go into my Paypal, remove it from the account, and then pay for something with the Card, then add it back to the Paypal account afterwards if wanted.

[Roldom]

Hey, I know I'm a little late but whats the chance of me being able to jump on board with this?

I'm in Perth so only GMT +8 but the times you suggested would be great me.

I'm happy with which ever team speak you guys use, my only problem is that I'm currently waiting for my house to be finished this November, which means I only have a crappy dongle from optus. The signal strength is fine but it means I have to use hamachi to connect to my games, at least until Nov when I can get real internet again :)

I would love to do a campaign from the start (or near start now I guess) and I am happy to create a Char to help shore up any holes in your current party.

Ive played a bit of 5E before face to face but never on FG so I am a bit new, If you would like me to send more info feel free to reply to me on this or message me on my steam ID, which is Roldom22.

[damned]

Roldom as a player you don't need to get a Successful connection test. You shoould be fine connecting from your Optus Dongle without Hamachi. You will only need Hamachi if you are going to be the GM.

[Roldom]

Awesome :) that makes things a lot easier for me in the future.