u/girlizia

The Gods have grown silent... people's faith hangs by a string - one many are all too eager to cut loose. But the tapestry of fate is not so easily undone - at least not by mere mortals...

But forces stir in the lands beyond... from the depths unknown to the twilight past the horizon. In these dark times, all mortals must make a choice.

Some will cling to hope, guided by clerical promises... others will reject divine platitudes and seek guidance elsewhere, for better or worse... and there are even those who'll brave their own path, thinking the misfortune of others their opportunity - but trampled corpses make for a hard time climbing, and the fall is no better...

In these dark times, all mortals will make a choice - or believe themselves capable of such autonomy, at least. For few mortals ever thread the loom, being but pawns moved around the board, in a game they don't even know they are a part of.

But you... you shall learn the game, and you shall play it - with joy or resentment, one can't wait but foresee... whatever path will you choose, dear stranger? The strings dangle in front of you, your welcome to the divine theater - will you join the performance, or will you cut yourself loose? Make your choice, and regret later...

Signed - Fate's Chosen

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Taelyn (27M), a year and a bit ago I started my first ever campaign as a DM, which was a blast but fell through recently given irl complications with some of the OG players. But, second time's the charm as they say! I'd like to create a friendly and engaging environment for enthusiastic people to knock themselves out role-playing or knock some baddies out through combat! I value openness, expect decency, and offer a safe and welcoming space for us to build a story together.

I'm looking for players available on Sunday afternoons, around approx. 3pm to 7pm UTC+2/CEST. This would be on a biweekly basis - though with the possibility of switching to weekly early on when prep is abundant (or when we have to cancel a biweekly session we can hopefully re-schedule it in a week, not 2). We would play on Foundry with discord for voice chat.

My intention is to record the sessions and upload them (or clips of them) to my Youtube channel (@BenevolentGM - not exactly a big one, got 27 subs lol) - both to immortalise some memorable moments that may arise, but also to have material to show any newcomer if we do lose a player (though hopefully it won't come to that - I am proud to have maintained 4 of the 5 OG players for over a year in my previous attempt at the campaign). Though note that this footage would only be the foundry and our voices, no video cameras or anything like that - but I do expect players to have solid quality mics.

I must also specify I'm looking for experienced players (nothing against newbies, I actually had 2 as OGs last time - but both of which ended up not liking Pf2e as a system and thus eventually leaving, plus the combat difficulty of the campaign is quite high, and I don't want to slow down a recorded campaign to explain system mechanics - hope you understand). Oh, and only emotionally mature adults - in part due to some of the dark content in the campaign, but also cause I'm no good as a baby sitter nor a therapist.

Oh, and I try to avoid AI in anything in my campaign (recon it's worth noting in this day and age).

The Campaign Proper

My setting is mostly medieval fantasy - though sometimes more grim dark ages, others bordering renaissance fantasy, and some even borrowing from more classical periods. Since part of the appeal is a world steeped in mystery and lore - I, unlike many other DMs, shall not disclose much of it at all from the get go (though the cryptic monologue at the beginning may hint at parts of the plot, wink wink). Instead of hitting you with an exposition filled lore document, I want to limit what players know to what little their characters do, and let them discover the world and it's secrets organically, through conversation, exploration or research.

Lore aside, the campaign aims to alternate between being combat heavy and role-play heavy (only apply if you enjoy both! - on occasion you may do almost exclusively combat for a few sessions, others you'll go a few sessions only doing RP) - depending on whether the party is faced with a grueling gauntlet of monsters (some encounters being quite unique, as I'm using some from the BattleZoo books), or hanging out at a town hub getting to know some of the many recurring NPCs - all of whom I've taken the effort to give some meaningful dialogue interaction, quirk, hidden quest-line or something that binds them to the world and makes them feel alive. I want players to care for them - be it wanting to protect them or absolutely hating their guts, there's all sorts after all.

As for genres, though events in the world are often nestled between the grim and the apocalyptic (it's definitely not for the faint of heart) - I must warn I love me some comedy - which imho keeps the campaign from being outright depressing - but I know it's not for everyone. For the most part the comedy is situational and in universe, with some of the NPCs and contexts being more light-hearted or silly. For a comparison if you're familiar - think the Divinity Original Sin games or Baldur's Gate 3, which often oscillate from grim-dark adjacent plotlines, goofy talking animals, and a bit of dark comedy here or there. Aside from comedy, every now and then I also aim to surprise players with genre switch ups to keep things fresh - and I'm not averse to experiment and take risks, even if I don't always nail the landing for everyone. So I would appreciate if applying players have diverse tastes in genres and styles of play, and an open mind to roll with the metaphorical punches.

Speaking of open minds - linearity. Admittedly, sometimes my world and story can be very linear - other times, very sandbox-y. Depends on the region, the plot, the stakes, the urgency, etc. But once again, I would love players that are down for both. As a DM, my strength is thorough prepping - it allows me to provide a great experience, with twists and choices and all, while compensating for my main weakness of not being the best at improvising. I'm not a theatre of the mind style DM - I'm the 'spend hours choosing music tracks for every map and combat, having a map for every planned location, having some basic dialogue or identity for every NPC, etc'. Point being, I'm no becky homecky DM able to whip up a polished map and plot out of nowhere when players decide to take things off the rails - so expect some railroading. Aka, you guide the train, at times lay back and just enjoy the views, but I set the tracks - and it's all smooth sailing from there, or maybe not sailing, it's a train, but you get the point, choo choo mfs'! Having said that, I also have areas that are extremely sandbox-y, so be willing to take the reigns when I toss you into a massive city full of locales and sub-plots and tell you 'what would you like to do?' - giving you 3 weeks in-game time before 'redacted main plot event'.

Duration wise, it's a multi-year campaign, spanning multiple regions (some of them are optional - up to the players whether they want to explore everything), each of which are about half or a year long to complete. Please do not apply if you are looking for a short-term thrill.

Finally, I'm planning to play mostly RAW - given Pf2e is quite balanced that way - but sometimes I feel confident enough as a DM to grant a homebrew story related power up or backstory related item, or make a boss with some homebrew abilities. Worth noting, some classes and races may be unavailable - for example, Android Gunslingers I'm afraid don't quite fit my medieval fantasy setting... But otherwise, mostly RAW with a hint of BattleZoo shenanigans (though that mostly involves enemies) and a pinch my own homebrew seasoning.

Testimonials

So, given I had a dedicated feedback channel in my discord server for the campaign, I'm able to allow my former players to describe my DMing strengths, weaknesses and style in their own words. So here, some quotes - from the good, the bad, and the 'observations coming from personal taste' (what? were you expecting 'the ugly'? from yours truly? ha!):

• The Good

Your amount of prep has been nothing short of spectacular and the group has been a blast. The sheer variety of maps and locations and music is much appreciated.

I really appreciate all the small decision points you create everywhere we go it makes interaction with your world very rewarding and often leads to fun and/or interesting RP opportunities.

Redacted fight was very good due to the limited vision and choke points as well, it forced us to think on what to do and not fall into the same routine of Strike x3. It was challenging enough to make me genuinely worried but it felt achievable. And in general you do a good job setting up encounters that are thematically satisfying.

The quality of the writing/dialogue was really good and I loved the voicework / how much you were into it! It really added to my immersion and made me hyped!

I really, really appreciate how much thought you put into giving redacted moments to shine that session. I felt as if I was given the perfect opportunity to RP and show redacted's strengths and flaws without feeling like 'the chosen one' or something.

I think the experiment with redacted was awesome and I loved that. Not everyone would've liked it, but that was epic and I likely will never get the chance to do something like that again in a TTRPG. It was really fun as a little creative challenge for me to speed-brainstorm how I'd redacted.

I also liked that you held yourself together and didn't give us any big hints to solve stuff and just let us be exploring this redacted you so beautifully created.

Your music choice is immaculate. The vibes are excellent.

Also appreciated specifically that you let us RP about a lot of funny/unnecessary/fluff stuff at the table without interjecting.

• The Bad (some of which I've tried to improve upon of course)

At times I feel railroaded and honestly I just want to explore more of the lore of this world that you created so intensively.

Sometimes you giggle at your own mischievous antics towards the party, and it can break immersion a bit.

Big boss combats sometimes devolve into the one jojo meme where all of the martials gather around to beat a guy prone on the ground. I would say don't be afraid to give a Boss like 45-60 more HP while still keeping it PL+2.

The only thing I feel might be lacking at times are slower, player-emergent sections or RP moments. I don't mind the story-intensive moments but when things are chill it could be nice to let the players freeform a bit - a 'calm after the storm'.

The intervention of redacted felt a bit Deux-Ex-Machina-y; though I can see there's mixed opinions about it.

• The 'observations coming from personal taste' (of the players)

I think too many of the NPCs seem to have some sort of comedic element to them. I guess I would appreciate the majority of NPCs having a more serious demeanor.

Some elements of the campaign can feel game-y given the absence of much theatre of the mind, and how prepped everything is - even NPCs having a prepped initial line of dialogue rather than always improvising (it can feel somewhat scripted). I'd also love some more descriptions of the surroundings rather than relying on the map visuals.

I enjoyed the story driven "railroad" that was the redacted arc.

Just not fond of trail/travel sessions. Just a preference on my end.

I also love the rotating protagonist deal and having a PC being the focus for a 4-5 sessions at time.

I really appreciated the experimental nature of this session and I don't mind cutscene-focused sessions at all! There would be a point where I'd crave some action, but that wouldn't be for a couple sessions from now, so slowing down the pace is a-ok for me.

Her unique loot is very fun for me to use and super well-written and thought out. I love that it has significant downsides. It feels more cool than strong.

Loved the genre mix up! We mainly had standard fantasy happenings + combat but this was like an "out of left field" experience.

I appreciate that you structured the scenario in a way that allowed us to fail forward.

The more silly (but still seriously dangerous) redacted was a nice subversion of expectations.

The loot is really useful, perhaps erring on being a bit too generous and abundant at times. We killed 5 redacted and got like a loot piñata of all sorts of weapons/tools/unidentified stuff, so I kind of shut down when it comes to loot.

I actually really like the funnier bits as it makes the campaign not feel all doom and gloom, I would be a bit sad having to RP redacted as just purely depressed mode for example. But I can afford to be a bit funnier due to the crazy situations we find.

You don't have to rush to correct things, and fumbles only actually feel like it if you apologise/audibly say 'oops sorry guys I did X'. We actually won't notice or care about minor mistakes if you don't actually mention them.

I feel like half our combats have been of severe difficulty - luckily half of us seem like a bunch of masochists and surprisingly we haven't lost any PC yet.

Conclusion

If the campaign catches your interest, feel free to fill out the following form and I'll be sure to give it a read (since you survived through my own post lol)!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScu3ShyAdM8GI3iLQMZLbSRRdBjG8FvT9CRZFfn83vJsCCabA/viewform?usp=dialog

I will contact you through discord if your applications peek my interest, with hopes to do a voice call, ask any follow up questions, check that your mic audio quality doesn't make you sound like ET, and 'sus out the vibe' as dem kids used to say before they got 6-7ed. Then, depending on how many people truly stand out - I'll either pick a group directly and then do a light-hearted ice-breaker type homebrew one-shot or session 0, or if a ton stand out I'll run said one-shot with 2 groups of applicants to see them in action and then choose players afterwards. So, yeah, I'm taking my time with this, but there is no rush, and I'm looking to build a dream team - which isn't easy with random strangers on the internet, but hey, my first campaign attempt OGs were quite a lovely bunch so I'm optimistic. And do know, if you don't get selected but at least we reached the voice call phase, that if I were to lose a player you'd likely be one of the few people I'd reach out to if you'd still be interested and available.

In any case, I look forward to playing with you, future players! Thanks for giving me the time of day and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!