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Where the Shadows Lie
The Empress of evil has been slain. Her armies are falling apart and everything is on fire. But you see that the throne is empty.
$15.00
/ Session
Details
Play by Post (Asynchronous)
Billed Weekly / Saturday - 10:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 1 hour
0 / 2 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
Sarnilla, the dark empress, the uniter, is dead. With an iron fist and dark magic, she brought countless peoples together and was on the verge of conquering the world when a small band of so-called heroes fought their way into her flying castle, avoided or killed her guards, and managed to slay the woman who had seemed unbeatable. Now her followers are in disarray. Fleeing in all directions, fighting amongst themselves, or vanished back to whichever hell or part of the abyss they came from. But not you. You are one of her junior lieutenants. Ambitious, cunning, and with a dark heart. You don't want to flee or to see the whole Empire of Darkness collapse into petty squabbles. No. You want to finish the job. And if that means a few more deaths, so be it. Of course, you will do things differently. Someone with your ambitions always has their own views on how things should be. But first, there is the matter of survival... So yes. This campaign starts right where many other campaigns end. The forces of good, a party of great heroes, has killed the big bad and taken her stuff. You are one of the survivors on the other side and the job on top just opened up. How you go about seizing the opportunities this offers of course is up to you.
Game style
Play By Post
Realm Building
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(3)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Beginner Friendly
About me
Hi! I'm Dirk and I've been GM-ing for around twenty-five years by now and like to think that I've gotten fairly good at it. Like many people, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons (3.0 back then. Just in time for the complains about 3.5. Yes, edition wars are that old). Fairly quickly, I found that some stories are better told with other systems and so, I built up a slightly oversized collection of books and experience with a plethora of systems. I've ran games for groups of friends and also like to run games at conventions and the like. I find that every story should be tailored to the people at the table, whether it's virtual or an actual one. Aside from games, I enjoy painting miniatures, literature, and, of course, cooking and baking. Those however are a little less relevant for online gaming.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
If you want me to, I can of course make a character for you, based on your rough or more detailed ideas. You can also make your own, or we can do it more collaboratively. Either way, you will start with a pretty powerful character. For ability scores, we will use a 36 points buy (I'll link a calculator in the server). The character will start at level 8 and we will be using the Gestalt rules, which basically means that you'll have two classes at the same time. The alignment will obviously be some flavour of evil. All the 3.5 and 3.0 books are on the table in terms of options and if there is any homebrew, dragon magazine, or the like that you're interested in, just mention it so I can take a look at it. Just don't go all Pun-Pun on me. As for things to avoid, well, there's Leadership and it's variants of course. You will be getting plenty of followers, so we don't need rules for that kind of thing. Other than that, everything except the most broken things is on the table.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
We will be writing on a special-made Discord server that also includes a dice roller and where we can share all necessary information, from character sheets to extra rules and backstory elements.
What Dirk brings to the table
This will be a play by post campaign where I plan to be writing at least once per day. There will obviously be combat which will mostly be in the theatre of the mind for maximum flexibility. The core of the story is how your character takes what they believe they deserve and it can go in almost any direction. I strongly believe in sandbox worlds and that it what we will be exploring.
Homebrew rules
We will be using some homebrew enemies and the material from all the official books. Additionally, we will not really bother with things like tracking weight exactly because that just takes time and effort that's better spent on things that actually matter. Additionally, any and all third party or homebrew material can be used. Just run it by me first.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Platforms used
Safety
How Dirk creates a safe table
We will discuss in advance whether there are any topics that are to be avoided or treaded lightly around. We will also use X-cards to immediately stop anything that moves into an unwanted direction.
Content warnings
Safety tools used