First off, thanks for stopping by. If you make it through this long read, I hope you will have a better understanding of what our Dragonlance campaign will be about and how we plan to run it. First off, our group decided to stay with our modified Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy game system instead of going over to 5th edition. I understand that most of you are 5th edition players and I respect that but, I'd like to explain our Old-School Essentials system and why myself and my current four players prefer classic D&D compared to 5th edition.
Below you can see multiple PDF's that will help you understand the Dragonlance setting more, along with the two Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy rule books.
Dragonlance Adventures
The Core Dragonlance Novels
"There is no way I can create a sense of horror or fear in my campaign as a Dungeon Master using the 5e rules. The 5e rules allows the players characters to always have a safety net beneath them compared to Old-School Essentials rules "in my honest opinion of course". To play Old-School Essentials, you don't have to learn the rules, you will learn them as you play and the rules are very simple to learn and understand. One of our players, Joe Rice, had never played D&D before in his life and from the start he had no trouble understanding how to play and now he loves the system.
This is a rules light system, your choices as a player matter more than dice rolls. Actions of your character are less defined by your character sheet than on creativity and thoughtful planning. Players have agency, they decide the plot. They're actions have consequences. There is no pre-determined plot. It plays faster and smoother, with more player agency overall, and a kind of classic “feels” or “vibe” that can’t quite be gotten via modern-style rules sets. In a nut shell, It's just like 5e, except all the rules that tell you what you can or can't do are gone. Instead, you tell your Dungeon Master what you want to do and the Dungeon Master tells you what attribute to roll equal to or under. Don't be afraid to try this system out, who knows . . . you may end up liking it."
- House Rules: We do have a few "quality of life" house rules to help make the game run a little smoother and be slightly more forgiving than it is in it's current form. These rules may change over time.
- About Our Campaign: Here you can read all about our Dragonlance campaign.
- Current Companions: We have four core players at this time. We would like to find one more local player to fill in the last spot.
- Journals Page: This is where my players can find everything they need to know about our campaign.
- Links & Tables: This page will contain various links and tables plus playable races and classes.
- Discord: This is the eastiest way to reach me. Click the Discord link for a link to my Discord server.
- Facebook: You can also find me on Facebook.
- Email: If all else fails, my email is jamesefullard@gmail.com
Our campaign setting we plan to play in is the Dragonlance setting. I will not do a long write-up on Dragonlance but the story arc for our campaign can be found here and hopefully you already know about this setting (We would love to add one more player to out group that is familiar with Dragonlance). In my opinion this setting is the Star Wars of D&D - truthfully, this setting is just wonderful. If you don't believe me, feel free to read this Reddit post where many people explain why they think Dragonlance is the overall best campaign setting.
Alright, now for the good stuff lol I hope you made it this far. This campaign will happen at my townhouse. If you know anything about a town house, you know they are not spacious as far as square feet goes. We will be set up in my living room - pictures of the table are below. Our friend Joe Rice lives in Florida, so he will be brought in through Roll20 using the webcam feature on Roll20.
We have room for myself and four players at this table. No laptops will be used at these games. We play classic D&D and you'll be using paper character sheets. I will allow phones or tablets for quick referencing of the PDF rulebooks if a player wants to put the two rulebooks on a digital device but for Classic D&D we have no need for laptops at the table. I on the other hand will be using a laptop because I need to be able to manipulate the battlemap on Roll20 and be able to deal with any tech issues that may pop up + I'll be streaming our table on my laptop so I have to have this laptop going at the table.
We have also discussed ordering food during the game sessions - pizza, chicken, whatever. If we all decide to order food, everyone will pitch in an equal amount to whatever the cost of the order is, or players can bring snacks for themselves. Our play times for this classic D&D campaign will be approximately 7-11'ish pm or 8-11'ish pm, we have not hammered the exact times down since we have not filled our the group with one more player. The days will be twice a month, every other Saturday night - possibly a little more depending on player schedules.
Gaming Area Pictures
It's not glamorous, it's not luxurious but it's the best I can do in this townhouse plus it has to be at the flat screen so I can bring in our Florida player via webcam/Roll20. We can slide another chair for a five player group. I would have set our table up in my dining room but since we have a player playing online, this is the best way I can make it happen. We can squeeze in four players at the live table.
- Picture #1
- Picture #2
- Picture #3
Everyone currently in this group are middle aged people with ages ranging from late 30's to late 50's and one old man who is 70. We are all easy to get along with, very friendly and love D&D. We don't bring any outside politics to our table, we don't bring any religious, political or just anything from the real world into our games. We are all adults here but when we sit down at the table, it's about the "game" and nothing else.
My Message to New Players
- We are looking to put together a five player group, but will settle for four players. At this time, we have four "for sure" players. Out of the "for sure" four core players, we have three "live" players and the fourth is playing with us online using Roll20/Discord (he lives in Florida). We can easily fit three players at the table but can make room for a fourth player if we pick one up. Joseph, Wendell and Jennifer all wanted to roll real dice so I bought what we needed to set us up a table to make it happen so now our group is a mix of live/online players. It would be nice to find a fifth player that knows all about Dragonlance but, this is not required but knowing all about Dragonlance will enhance that players experience ten fold.
- If you enjoy playing a character that is a Knight or Paladin (Wendell just rolled his Knight up) and love the idea behind orders of knights, then this is the setting for you. The Knights of Solamnia are probably one of the most noble orders of knights that exist in any campaign setting and they have such a huge part of what makes the Dragonlance campaign setting special. If you love playing a Knightly character class, I would encourage you to play one, especially in this campaign setting.
- If you enjoy playing a Wizard (and we actually still don't have a Wizard in the party), Dragonlance was "built" to allow Wizards to shine. If you are a Wizard at heart, then the Wizards of High Sorcery would like to have a word with you. If you love playing a Wizard, I would encourage you to play one, especially in this campaign setting.
- I suck at doing voices. I'm not a voice actor, not even close so I try to make up with this in other areas.
The Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy system is very easy to understand. You don't need to know the rules before you play. Character sheet creation takes minutes, not an hour. Classic D&D is about normal "mortals" setting out for adventure to try and earn fame and fortune and be the heroes of the land. Dragonlance is the perfect setting for this. I hope we can pick up one more player that would like to try something new and fresh. I'll run this campaign with my current four players but would love to have 5 players (We prefer to pick our 5th player up as a live player that sits at the table with us - so we are looking for someone to fill this last spot that lives in or very close to Waycross Georgia, we don't want to force a player to drive long distances).
I don't consider myself a GREAT dungeon master, as a matter of fact I think I am more or less average but one thing I can say is every game I've ever ran my players have had a great time so I guess I am doing something right. If you're looking for a friendly atmosphere, friendly down to earth players and a Dungeon Master that tries very hard to give his players something special, I would love to hear from you. Alright, I've talked enough!
We currently have the following characters "*cough* *cough* still no Wizard" . . .
- Arion of the Aspen: Human Ranger
- Cyric of Qualinesti: Qualinesti Elf Knight
- Elora Dawn: Cleric of Mishakal
- Hordus Blackforge: Dwarven Fighter
Rules
• Digital Devices: Please keep the use of cellphones to a minimum during game time. If you want to load the Dragonlance or Old-School Essentials pdf's to a tablet of phone for quick reference then that is fine.
• Be Mature: We are all adults, please ... let us all act like adults when we play. (no need to elaborate on this any more - this should come naturally)
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