Calimshan - Adventures in Faerun's Magical Deserts
In Calimshan's deserts, you will explore ancient ruins, meet real genies, and align with factions to claim the jewel of the desert
$10.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Sunday - 6:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
Campaign Length / 10+ Sessions
1 / 6 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
1/6
About the adventure
For why are you traveling to the realm of Calimshan, dear traveler? Are you a Knight of the Gauntlet seeking a sworn enemy fleeing to the sovereignty of the desert? A Zhentarim agent on a dangerous, undiscloused, lucrative contract from up on high? A Tome raider whose heard the rumors of recent big scores being uncovered in the dunes? A previous Genie Lord's companion, looking for allies to bring about the other factions' downfall? Don't know what Calimshan is? Check below! Come travel to a world where golden cities rise from the desert, and merchants, guilds, and genies wield more power than any lord or king. Ancient magic hums beneath every dune and city alike. Calimshan is a place of opportunity and danger in equal measure: genie clans scheme behind silk curtains, guildworkshops create mechanical wonders, and relics of forgotten empires wait to be unearthed by those bold enough to seek them. Upon your travel to Calimshan, you will step into a world shaped by trade, magic, and ambition — so long as you make it out of the heat alive! This campaign emphasizes adventure, exploration, and factional intrigue. You may guard caravans through hostile sands, bargain with genies whose favors come at a price, infiltrate rival guilds, or delve into ancient ruins scarred by elemental power. Calimshan is not a world of simple good and evil—every choice has consequences, every alliance creates enemies, and power is earned as often through wit and negotiation as through steel and spellfire. The setting blends high magic, mythic wonder, and early magitech, where elemental forces coexist uneasily with ingenious mechanical creations. At the table, I run a cinematic, character-driven game. Expect rich descriptions, meaningful NPCs, and a world that reacts to your decisions. The beginning of the campaign will consist of standard adventuring that will lead you and your unnamed party into learning each other's stories, secrets, motivations, faction ties, and the dangers of Calim Desert. On our second arc, I want to focus on several factions, their goals, and how they align with your motivations to base the major driving factor of the storyline. My hope is to focus on the type of factions you choose during player creation to make this feel like a world with ramifications to who you align with and against! Exploration will be central, combat essential, and trying to make sure social encounters feel dynamic. This game is ideal for players who enjoy immersive roleplay, layered storytelling, high mythic fantasy, and worlds that feel alive. Experienced players preferred, newer players are welcome—I’m happy to teach as we play. If you want a campaign where magic feels powerful, choices matter, and the world reacts to what you do, Calimshan is waiting.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Combat Heavy
Meet the Game Master
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Knows the Rules
Average response time: 14 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Hi, I’m Warlec! I’ve been playing and DMing Dungeons & Dragons campaigns for about 12 years, and cannot get enough of fantasy in my life. I love creating games where epic stories, ridiculous moments, and meaningful character choices all live at the same table. Outside of D&D, I am a history teacher in Chicago who loves travel, the great outdoors, and all forms of gaming. Like a lot of us, my D&D journey started by watching the game before I ever played it. I caught Critical Role back when it was still on Geek & Sundry, and it lit the spark that got me into my local game store in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin—the hometown of D&D’s creator, Gary Gygax. Along the way, I even had the unforgettable experience of playing at the table with his kids, which only deepened my appreciation for D&D as a shared, collaborative storytelling tradition. Since then, I’ve spent years behind the screen: - Running multiple multi-year campaigns, both online (Roll20) and in - person - Building two original homebrew worlds (one still actively in development) - DMing a Gary Con convention table using D&D 3.5e - Playing in long-running campaigns across different groups and styles
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
First session will be a free session 0, where players will be able to communicate as to what type of party they want to play, and factions they want to engage with through the story. Also, I would like to note that I am a pretty generous DM to people building characters, and what options they want; all I ask is that you run your character choices by me. This is not to put people's choices under review, but rather to prepare me for what type of character options can inspire in-world effects. Character Building Requirements and Inspiration Questions below: - 2024 Character creation rules - Point buy/Standard Array stats - Classes, backgrounds, species, feats, and spells from D&D published materials are applicable (but open for DM review) - Starting Level 2 - 1 common magic item (for fun and flair!) - Average HP (Unless everyone really decides they want to roll it) - Starting Equipment + 50 gold each.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Programs Required: D&D Beyond Account - You will have to make your character online on D&D Beyond in a campaign of my creation for validation and transparency of character Discord Account - Discord will be used for communication. I'll always be a pro camera on type of DM, as I want to make sure players feel the comfort of getting to know each other (we are humans afterall, were not all robots yet!) Programs Suggested (If all players can use them): Talespire - A great service to use 3D map-making software and set scenes, dungeons, and even whole city locations for you! (Only applicable if all characters have the service)
What Warlec the Traveling Wizard brings to the table
I love doing voices! I am a loud and eccentric personality at times, so I love to channel it through characters. Music to set scenes is always a must, and sometimes art I can find or build in Talespire for set dressing. On the topic of rules, I tend to stick by them pretty accurately as I've DMed long enough to memorize most everything. However, that also means I try to use every rule in the game to your advantage. Also, I try to allow as many creative entrypoints for bending and breaking the rules when provided compelling character RP moments. I want us to have fun and enjoy expressive storytelling, that is always my primary focus, cause in my experience its the energy and joy of the players that makes this game so much more fun.
Homebrew rules
Nothing major, but I have ones I enjoy floating by people, such as: Homebrewing spells through modifications of old ones Death saving roll augmentations that allow for more secrecy and urgency for characters who are unconscious Revival of character alterations a la Critical Role style, where rituals must be conducted to save ones compainions
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Warlec the Traveling Wizard creates a safe table
During session 0, we will cover the range of themes that will be present during the campaign, and agree as a group on what lines and veils we all have personally and as a community. X, N, and Os guidelines will be set as a group on how to make visual reminders most comfortable for players, either visually or via message.
Content warnings
Safety tools used