There's a new campaign coming up, and we're going to need some semi-expendable PCs. So I need you.
What we're doing.
Voyages of Dusk and Dawn is an upcoming D&D campaign run by me, and headlined by Jeff "TrumpSC", a longtime friend and player. He's going to be the main character of this campaign, and he's going to need some minions to control. These minions may live a long time, or may die right away. As they die off, we'll bring up reinforcements in the form of new players and characters.
The campaign centers around the exploration of the Ferrin Empire by Vincent Mapper, but the characters our applicants will be playing are random mercenaries picked up along the way who have no specific loyalty to Arcadia, Drekkis, or specific attachment to the quest. Ya'll just hired swords.
Our campaign will be on Friday afternoons / evenings at 12:00 US Pacific / 3:00 US Eastern / 8:00 UK / 9:00 Central Europe, and run 2-4 hours per session.
I haven't scheduled our first session yet, but we can expect it somewhere around October.
What applying means and looks like.
There are a maximum of 3 open player spots at any given time. Some of the slots may be taken up by other friends of mine, streamers, or other content creators. The rest of the slots are open to the general population.
I need a roaster of "available players" that I can call up as the campaign requires.
I want to be clear that this is going to be an unusual and messy process. I don't know how long the campaign will run, how many friends I'll bring in, how often characters will die off, or how many players I'll need, let alone when I'll need them.
In a normal audition process, you get a clear, "in" or "out" message at the end of it - but this is not a normal audition process, it's more of an application. In this situation, I will turn applicants into a pool to be drawn from as needed. That means even if your a perfect fit, you may never get tapped if the turnover for applicants isn't high enough. Similarly, if you're not a great fit, but the bodies keep hitting the floor, you may get tapped.
If you decide to apply, you should go in with the mindset of, "This may be a fun thing that I get called on for one day out of the blue, or I may never hear back about it". If you don't like being left in a total state of limbo, this is not a good fit for you.
Now let's talk about how your character might leave the campaign.
Normal adventuring death (probably)
Leaves when the party is in port because the player knows they'll be unavailable to play in the near future. (love people with foresight)
Kicked out / Killed by main PC over their in-game actions (ooo, fun)
Kicked out by DM for inappropriate behavior (hopefully not. It's only ever happened once.)
Scheduling issues (fallback mechanic to keep the game flowing)
Scheduling is hard. Even when everyone wants to play, things come up. If a player misses a session, we're going to say that their character has succumbed to sickness and they'll be back on their feet when the party can reunite with the character. If, however, the 'sick' character gets left behind in the wilds because it's infeasible or undesirable to carry them around, that character is done and so is that player. Similarly, if the player is unavailable when the party does reunite with them, then that character has died of their illness. This is not meant to punish players for having real world obligations, but the show must go on and these characters are extendible.
Application process.
Send an email to [email protected] with the subject line containing at least "VODD Application". It should have attached to it the character sheet, a link to your video, and affirm that you meet the player requirements.
e.g. "I meet all the requirements. Here's my character sheet and video link. - NewRecruit"
Player Requirements:
Tech: Reliable computer, internet, and power. Decent audio and video setup without distracting background noises.
Time: Generally available at our playtime. If you have a standing weekly commitment during our playtime, please do not apply. I can't ask you to hold that timeslot open for long as the campaign runs, but it will need to be generally open enough that you could make room for some D&D on short notice. If there is a period where you know you will be unavailable, please let me know.
Game Knowledge: Working knowledge of AD&D 2e / 2.n. You don't have to be an expert, I'm happy to help guide you, but you should understand the basics of how it goes.
Legal: There is some paperwork for you to sign to make it official that you're on my stream of your own free will, you're doing this for fun and not expecting to be paid, if your character survives they get to be an NPC in my world that I can do with as I see fit, etc. When you get tapped to play, I'll send over the paperwork.
Character Sheet: The sheet you fill out will be the character you're playing. You can fill it out however you want as long as it follows the following rules.
Stat generation: However you like.
Races / Spices: Humans, Dwarves, Halfling, Half Elves, Half Orcs, Goblins, & Kobolds. The more monstrous races might need some explaining as to why they are hanging out in 'civilization'.
Classes: Fighter, Ranger, Thief (2e raw), Multiclassed Fighter / Thief (non-humans only)
Level: 2-3.
Gear: Whatever you deem fits your character. No magic items.
Backstory: Anything you want, as long as your character has a thirst for adventure, or is willing to risk their life for money. The campaign will involve sailing, so your character will have to be OK with getting on ships and leaving home / whatever port they were in. I don't know where you will be recruited, probably not the Island of Arcadia, so don't tie backstory to anything that would limit where you could be recruited.
I'm looking for interesting and fun characters that would make for great minions, side kicks, and rough cut gems. You can find the 2e sheets attached to this post.
Video Application: Along with you character sheet, I'll need ~3-5 minute video of you talking about your character. This is to check your A/V setup, and get a feel for you as a person before starting since we won't have a 1-2h audition session. Talk to me about your character in some way. Their motivations, their backstory, whatever it is you want, just give me a feel for you and your character.
You can upload this to any ol' video sharing site as long as you can link it to me in an email.
Multiple Characters
If you want to send a backup character along with your main character, that's fine, but do denote your main character somehow and your video application (you only need 1) should talk about your main character.
I haven't yet decided if I want former VODD players to show up as new characters. It might be fun, it might not be. Sill, until I decided against it, players who finish a run should feel free to submit another 1 or 2 characters again.