Neenah Dungeons & Dragons

Thank you for your interest. Currently all seats at the table have been filled. Regarding the photo above, the party did manage to save Peppercorn from that giant tsunami, so stop worrying!

Welcome adventurers! Wanderlust in your hearts? If so, I need three to five intrepid souls to gather at their local Whiting House Tavern in Neenah every two weeks for some 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. We're talking dungeons, we're talking dragon, tieflings and tarrasques and treasure and more! (The Whiting House is the name of my home, where we would play said D&D. It’s on Forest Avenue.)

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Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, Neenah, WI

This is going to be lengthy, but I want to put everything out there so that you know what you’re getting yourself into. My name is Gabe, and I have lived in Neenah for one year. I played D&D as a kid, but only a little—never enough. Over the years I’ve played several short campaigns, but everything always fizzled due to something like the story not being good, or the players not being reliable. I am looking for three to five people who want to devote real time to playing in a good D&D campaign that could potentially last for a long time.

Who should apply?
I would love to play with any NICE PERSON who wants to DEVOTE THE TIME to playing, from completely new players to experienced veterans. Three to four hours every other week, with a group consisting of myself and three to five adventurers would be ideal. If you’re not sure you can make a game regularly, please do not inquire. People with super tight schedules or people who often skip things because they’re tired after work, or got a better offer, or those who never show up because they have to put the kids to bed should probably consider what’s most important in life. Killing dragons, defeating arch-enemies and divvying loot are paramount to real life work, energy levels and offspring, right? Obviously things come up and people will miss now and then, but, joking aside, I’m really looking for a dependable, lasting group of people devoted to their character and the adventure. (I’m also looking for friends.)

The world will be mostly homebrew, while reserving the right to rip off anything I want from official D&D adventures and the internet, so long as it feels right for our adventure. I’ve been working on the setting for a while. That said, it will be similar to typical D&D fantasy settings like Forgotten Realms or Eberron. I enjoy Critical Role, and while I am no Matthew Mercer, I would like a game that has a similar approach; i.e. kindness among players, PG13, equal attempts at adventure, lore and combat so that the game feels well rounded and interesting, and some attempt at roleplaying our characters.

Game Location: 
I would like to play at my home. I’m not just being lazy or selfish. I would like our game to feel like an event each game night, and to that end, I’m working on making my home very game friendly. I have one, soon to be two gaming tables. One is slightly smaller, but sits six people comfortably. The second table is being built and is going to be BADASS. It should arrive in November 2021, I think. I have a solid selection of terrain for our games, and most of the official 5th edition materials. I’m willing to put money into the game wherever appropriate to make it more fun for us.

Roleplaying: 
This group should be open to roleplaying their character. That doesn’t mean doing a “crazy voice.” If that’s your thing, I won’t stop you, but mostly I just want to play with people who are interested in fleshing out their character. Roleplaying for you might be about taking on an entire persona, voice and all, or it might be less about doing a voice, and more about speaking as your character. I’m no actor, and I’m new to RP, too. I can’t do an accent to save my life. That won’t stop me from trying, though. TRYING to roleplay is all that’s important to me. Once we get accustomed to one another, we’ll get better at the roleplaying. Don’t overthink it. Just do it. It’ll be fine, right?! It’ll be fine.

First session: 
We’ll roll stats for your PCs together, get to know one another in and out of character and make sure we’re all on the same page. Maybe put a little work into what you’d like to be before hand so that you show up with a COUPLE of character concepts to choose from. Show up with more than one potential character class in mind so that everyone gets to play something they’re interested in without there being five rogues—unless you all agree that that’s what you want! I want to take into account every character’s backstory in what I hope will be a solidly story-driven plot, so be prepared for that. Or at least, be prepared to be prepared for that. We should leave session zero with our basic characters rolled up. I’ll contact everyone ahead of our first full game, and we’ll hash out fine character story details in case anything needs tweaking to fit in the campaign. Given time, we’ll have a short introductory to the campaign to get things rolling. 
I would love to play every other week. Currently I have a novel writing group on Thursday nights. We can have a deeper discussion about times and days to play once people start subscribing to the Meetup.

DM Qualifications: 
I have now DM’d this campaign for more than a year! I’M COMPETENT! HOORAY! Now back to the old copy: As I become more experienced with application of the rules, the game will flow better. I’ve watched ALL the hours of Critical Role since my first DM attempt, and I feel like I know a lot more than when I tried to DM right after 5th edition came out. After some time at the helm, I think I am creative enough to run an entertaining adventure. 
I will be strict about only a few things: We don’t talk over one another. We’ll try to adhere to the philosophy of improvisation where everyone gives the player of the moment their chance to act. And finally, the game must go on; I want to adhere to the 5th edition ruleset, yet keep the game from getting bogged down in “Rules Quicksand and analysis paralysis.” 
I love world building, character creation and fantasy. I am 120,000 words deep in a second novel’s second draft, hopefully evidence that I enjoy writing even if my novels suck. In addition, I have spent my entire adult career as an art director and illustrator, so there will be visuals.

Rules of Conduct:
This will be a game for mature players who want some new friends, and want to play like adults. In other words, your age doesn’t matter, only your maturity level. I’m looking to run a game with humor, action and story, but not slapstick. Think Critical Role versus Adventure Zone.
Things that won’t be tolerated at the table: 
Sexism/bigotry/misogyny: having played with a co-ed group in the past, and a homosexual man, it feels great to have a good representation of all sexes, and any sexual orientation at the table. If you have trouble playing respectfully with others, no matter their life story, then move along, move along.
Creepy sexual stuff: the game will be PG to PG-13. Language may become salty from time to time, but this isn’t the place for you to get your kicks…ya know…in that way. (PG-13 might not apply to carnage. It could get gory from time to time. Heads will roll!)
Racism: This is a game for anyone who wants a good adventure. This is a place to forget the real world for a while. Sure, dwarves and elves might not get along and halflings sometimes hate goblins, but be cool to your fellow players in real life. Leave your weird racist baggage at the door.

Rules lawyers, power gamers or min/maxers: If you're a min/maxer in your own head, more power to you. Count your cards or whatever it is you math-y types do. Everyone likes to feel powerful, but if your idea of fun is squeezing every ounce of perfection and strategic play out of your character and the scenario at the expense of other’s fun, expecting everyone else to do the same, this won't be the game for you. Make your character good, and do what's fun for you, but don't expect others at the table to follow your wiley ways. (I.e. play your own character.)

It all comes down to that law for nerds. “Don’t be a dick.”

Game Notes:
The campaign will take place on the planet Orbis.
Races, Classes, Backgrounds, etc. should be chosen from the 5e Player’s Handbook, as well as any official editions for 5e; not too much homebrew yet—let’s keep it simple to start. 
Occasionally a short combat might be theater of the mind, but most combat will take place using Dwarven Forge terrain and minis. Bring your own mini or design one on HeroForge and I can buy it for you.
Some notes:
Drow elves and others: Not an overall evil race in this campaign, they will range between good and evil, lawful and chaotic like any other race. They will identify less as evil and more wild and chaotic—vicious from an existence deep within the planet lasting eons. There will be penalties to playing Drow in the sunlight. No, your thin cape isn’t going to fix that sun exposure right up. This goes for all races. No race is inherently evil. Some may have evil sects or factions, or seem evil due to some misunderstood custom or religion, but the world is less black and white than that. 
Death and consequences will be a thing in this world. Feel free to be Murder Hobos if that’s what your party wants, but expect an equal and opposite reaction to your shenanigans. Events will continue on the planet Orbis whether you intend to take part in them or not. Regarding death, I’m looking at several official and home-brew options that add consequences to death and resurrection, without removing agency/abilities from a healing character. We can discuss this in person. I want the possibility of death to be real in this campaign because I believe it creates more love and decision making toward one’s character.

My Promise as a DM:
I want this to be a game that makes people happy to play. I will do my best to never steal your character’s agency. I want the world to be interesting, but the story to be about your characters. I will attempt to follow the rules, and keep the game flowing. I will try to make encounters well balanced, challenging and dangerous, but not unavoidably lethal. I don’t like railroading and will try to avoid it. I am new—rules and “the right way” will slip through the cracks now and then. If there’s a problem, we will stop the game for a second and discuss it as friends. In those instances, we’ll decide whether it’s important enough or easy enough to look up right away, or if it’s something that we should look up after the game and retcon. I have no problem retconning for rules issues, and making things right so that every person is enjoying the game.

Finally, we can play next to my fireplace, we have a refrigerator that sometimes contains beer and occasionally, my wife makes adequate snacks.

Come play with me! (That sounds like those creepy twins from the Shining. I promise not to murder you! But, maybe your character, who knows.)