Ziggurats/text

How about a gritty bit of D&D monster hunting using the spooky, evocative setting of the Grimm’s Tales Great Forest. Characters will be gritty realisations of suitable archetypes like the brave woodcutter, huntsman, wily beggar, magic piper and so on. More on that below.

Using D&D 5E, aiming for daily posting with understanding that folks may have to park characters for periods. For ease of play, some PbP simplifications like party initiative. Also avoiding abilities that require visualisation of areas of effect, or granting Advantage to others so that order of action has to be considered.

Some ‘core’ character ideas:

The brave huntsman or woodcutter [a Ranger?] The wily beggar, full of guile [a Rogue or Bard?] The wandering storyteller [Bard?], chronicler of the tales? The king’s soldier, returned from the war [fighter crossbowman, slayer?] The good cottager, wise(wo)man potioner [Druid] The strong blacksmith [Berserker maybe]

No clerics or wizards, etc. But some characters ideas with a more magical bent (often ‘fairy’ in origin): The piper trickster [Bard] The clever miller, shoemaker, whatever, Everyman with a magic something or other The lost fairy: a fey turned into a human but retaining some fey powers [skin as Elf sorcerer] Someone who is really a cat, wolf or fox or turned into a human retaining some original powers Person with a magical connection to animals

I’ve noticed a reluctance for folks to pick fighter types (which work well in PbP ) so I’ll grant characters with a martial class (like Ranger ) a +1 ‘lucky’ sword at start of play.

Another setting kink: let’s keep armour light (padded, leather, studded leather)and pre-renaissance /foresty . Shields, esp bucklers, ok. Those with medium and heavy armour profs can trade these in for a + 1 ‘toughness’ bonus for each prof. Another reason to play a fighter.

Characters would have German, Italian or French sounding names. Johan Greenthumb or such. Currency is pennies rather than gps.