[OOC] D&D 5E: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

[Mae]

_{ᴅᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ ᴄʀᴀᴡʟ}

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THEY SAY the great wizard Halastar Blackcloak crawled out of the Cradlelands some thousand years ago. They said it was providence itself that bade him here, that a great elven kingdom once stood in Waterdeep's place. They say Halastar was one of the first wizards, magic-users they called them then, from some great kingdom buried in sand and time and dust. They say he came from Netheril, they say he came from the stars, they say he marched from beyond the vale. They say he had seven great neophytes, they say he called beings from other planes and bade them to build his home, they say he enslaved the fell. They say he burrowed into the depths of Mount Waterdeep with molemen, that the halls of Undermountain are filled with wild treasures beyond imagining, they say he froths at the mouth and casts chain lightning with his eyes and shoots magic missiles out of his arse.

They talk alot of guff between the spluttering candles within the Yawning Portal Inn, but luckily the booze is good. You are here with your budding adventuring party, a few stories of your own under your belt and the flash of wonder and wanderlust still burning in the crucible of your eyes. Truly, the tales of Undermountain and the promise of hoards unclaimed below is enough to whet the appetite of any self-respecting adventurer. Indeed, even the very proprietor of the inn himself, Durnan, made his fortune down in those depths and used his haul to build the very flagstones beneath your feet. He'll be happy to tell you all about it himself if you like, before challenging you to descend into the depths and charging you a gold piece for the pleasure. Only if you're metal enough to stomach it, of course.

As you immerse yourself in the hearty hollers of drunk and brigands, your benefactor catches your eye from across the way and hails your parties' table. It's a straightforward enough proposition, a search and rescue or proof of whereabouts, and it certainly helps her case that she's picking up your tab and paying for your lodging. As your gaze scans over the lip of your tankard, you can see quite a few characters wheeling and dealing and barganing over the Mad Mage's dungeon. Truly there is mint to be made here, for the wily and foolhardy.

Yes, there are many tales about the Mad Mage and his mountain. But one thing rings true: there may be fortune and fame below, but danger comes to all who dive too deep.

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Looking for an additional 3-4 players for a traditional dungeoncrawl through 𝔇ᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ Mᴀᴅ Mᴀɢᴇ. For backstory reference to those who may be so inclined, this module is set in the Forgotten Realms in Waterdeep, though our version of that universe will have some non-cannon variations (such as the presence of Ebberon races because they're cool). For the benefit of our timeline, it is set prior to the events of evil dragon deities taking over the world and giants going ape. You are welcome to include ties to Forgotten Realm factions and characters if you wish, or ignore them completely, as this is a stand alone Megadungeon game. You may also feel free to invent locations to place in the world for your backstory as needed within reason, as personalising a setting brings the world to life.

To any newer players of D&D, welcome! No previous D&D experience is necessary to join, however be aware we will be starting at a higher level, so you're skipping the wonderful experience of dying to kobold crits, or in my case, grass. There are character creation options available for use from other supplements if you wish to make use of them, and I am available for assistance if you're curious but need a helping hand. Characters can also be crafted from the base PHB if you don't need all the bells and whistles.

𝕮ʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ 𝕴ɴꜰᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

► Characters start at Level 5.
► All characters will be part of a pre-established adventuring group. You are in the early stages of making a name for yourselves. Your party has gone on one or two adventures and you are at least acquaintances with the rest of the gang, though some may be newer then others. I'd like everyone to contribute one or two cool things they've done that have led to them getting to this level of experience.
► You start with normal starting equipment and 625 gp.
► We will roll for stats.
► We will not be using milestone XP but rather XP will be granted for dealing with monsters, trap disarming, exceptional interactions, and cleverly navigating situations.

𝕽ᴀᴄᴇꜱ:
No Custom Races allowed as there are plenty available. If you need access to specific information let me know.

► Tortles: I am unable to provide extra information on this race beyond the wiki, but it's cool so I'm sure we can find a place for Tortles should you wish to play one.
► Unearthed Arcana: Changeling, Shifter, Warforged
► Elemental Evil Player's Handbook: Deep Gnome, Genassi, Goliath*
► Volo's Guide: Aasimar, Firbolg, Goliath*, Kenku, Lizardfolk, Tabaxi, Triton
► Mordekainen's Tome of Foes: Tiefling subraces, Elf subraces, Duergar, Gith, Deep Gnomes
► Xandapanda's Guide to All The Things: Has some pretty nifty Racial Feats.
^{*Heads up these are the same
You're basically allowed anything from an official supplement except Aarakocka}

𝕮ʟᴀꜱꜱᴇꜱ:
EDIT 10th Aug: As play has started and I'm juggling a few things, I am no longer accepting Custom Classes I have no experience with previously.
Custom Classes are allowed rarely on a case by case basis depending on how well balanced they are. That being said I don't want a whole party of CC characters.

► Once again, anything listed in the Unearthed Arcana, Elemental Evil, Volo's Guide, Mordekainen's Tome of Foes and Xandapanda's collection of shinies are free game.

[Mae]

Interest Check for posterity.

[Mae]

We're open for business! and by business I mean dungeon delving for loot and glory.

It's still early days yet, but for future reference - please either PM all character sheets or post them in the OOC and wait for approval before posting them here.

[Lauder]

@Mae

Would you like us to show you the rolls for our stats?

[Mae]

@Lauder yes, thank you :D

[duskshine749]

So I’ve never rolled for stats before, how do we do such a thing?

[Ellri]

the standard system, we believe, is six sets of 4d6, dropping lowest die from each set, @duskshine749.

[DTHar]

How do I “show you” the rolls? Print screen?

[Ellri]

for the stats and such we decided to roll a physical die, but of course later it'll presumably be using the guild die roller.
thus we wrote down all the numbers, even the dropped roll.

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We're making a Tortle Wizard, by the way.

[Ellri]

A preliminary sheet has been written, but it needs some editing to be fully readable (we repurposed a cleric sheet template, which had the wrong text box sizes for a wizard)
Oh, and we rolled on the "This is your life" tables in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

[Mae]

Pinglist

@Cao the Exiled@Lauder@Vertigo@duskshine749@Ellri@DTHar

Please make a Dice Campaign for all rolls, including the stat ones. Sorry for not making that more clear <3

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Heads up, some of you may recognise this, but here's a quick tutorial on using the Dice on RPG.

At the top of the homepage opposite the Newcomer section, click Dice:

You'll come to the campaign screen with a list of all the site user's dice. You can only roll in your own campaign so click New Campaign at the top right. In future, you'll always be able to find your campaigns at the very top.

Open up your campaign and fill in whatever type of dice roll you are doing. For example, if you were rolling stat dice, you could write 4d6 in the box and add "Stat Roll". In future you might make skill rolls like 1d20 + 2 and then the tag should be something more like "Tutorialbot Perception Check"

If you're doing stat rolls you'll want to open up that link so you can see which one of the numbers you need to drop. Unfortunately we have to do this manually as the dice roller is pretty basic.

In my case my final score would be 5 + 6 + 3 = 14 which I could then whack into my character sheet.

For stat rolls, just link me to the campaign when your ready to show me your sheet and I'll be able to go through it. In future we'll link each of our dice rolls in our posts but we can cover that later.

[Ellri]

you can roll multiple sets at once, but unfortunately no more than five.
so rather than entering 4d6 six times, you can just enter 4d6+4d6+4d6 twice.

[Lauder]

The dice hate me and I don't know whether I deserve it or not

[duskshine749]

@Lauder don't worry the dice hate me too, I have an 8 in 2 stats, not good

Also, what are we using for character sheets?

[Lauder]

@duskshine749

I am personally using Myth-Weavers.

[Ellri]

we're currently using a homebrewed PDF. easier for us to update.

[Mae]

@Lauder@duskshine749 In my experience I have found the dice to have a sense of humour.

@duskshine749 Whichever character sheets you are most comfortable with - mythweavers, tavern-keeper, even roll20 if needed. I can make a BBCode sheet as well if that's a preference.

[Vertigo]

Hmm, so we have a Warlock, Wizard, and possibly Paladin and a Bard.

Considering bringing back a Rogue of mine (Halfling, Chaotic Neutral), though he's more geared for social situations than dungeons, so-- might make a Tiefling Rogue instead. I've wanted to try that race for a while.

Barring that, I've also been itching to try a Monk, so that's another option for the Tiefling... choices, choices.

As far as sheets go, I've only ever used Roll20's character sheets thusfar, but can migrate over to whatever format is preferred - or export a sheet from there, I believe?

I'll do my stat rolls and get started on a sheet today (or tomorrow, getting late in my time zone).

[Mae]

@Vertigo Roll20 works alot for me if you're more comfortable there. I tend to condense all the player information into a roll20 campaign anyway, so I can flick through stuff quickly.

[Ellri]

On the topic of timezones... What timezones are everyone based in?

We're based in Central European Time, albeit a somewhat early version of it.

There's lots of interesting Tiefling options in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, @Vertigo.