[Closed] 🪖 Band of Bastards - DnD 5e 2024

Pitch
See the game details above.

System
DnD 5e 2024.

Tone and Themes
I want this to be more than just a series of combat encounters: I'm aiming for a fantasy version of the Band of Brothers show where we collaboratively tell the story of a group of soldiers. I would like to see how the characters react to the hell of modern fantastic warfare, and I want to feel the camaraderie of the squad.

Game Duration and Post Frequency
We'll aim for one post per day, but accept that other things sometimes get in the way.

I want to run this as a one-shot consisting of 2-3 short chapters. These things are hard to guess about, but I assume we can finish that in about 3 months. We may choose to extend the game if the setting turns out to work well and the group is interested in more.

Characters
PHB 2024 with custom backgrounds. Level 1. No other restrictions; this army is inclusive to everyone.

Controversial Content
This is a war story, so violence and death (including character death) is to be expected. Expect the same controversial themes as you would in a war movie about ww2 (including foul language). The game will not touch on the atrocities of the Nazis. That would be much too dark for what I have in mind.

As you may have guessed, this game will use a lot of AI generated images.

Specialised Software and Resources
We'll have a Discord server for OoC chat (text only). For me, PbP is also a social game, and I like that Discord helps facilitate random chat between the players. I also find that it helps with pacing because simple questions can be answered quickly. Everything IC will be here on GP.

Who can Apply?
Anyone can apply. Newcomers to DnD and/or GP are very welcome. And you don't need to have watched the Band of Brothers show.

This game is explicitly friendly to LGBT and any other minorities or marginalised groups.

How to Apply?
Please leave a comment here and let me know why you're interested. I would also like to hear a little about your your experience with DnD and PbP (as mentioned, newcomers to both are welcome). No need to post character concepts, we can handle that later (you're welcome to add one if you want, but it's not necessary).

Looking for 4-5 players. I'll leave this open for a week or so. I'll close this in the evening (CET) on Tuesday 12 August.

Miscellaneous
This will be my first time as a GM on GP (I have previously run a PbP game on another site). @Adam has kindly agreed to mentor me on this project, so he will join the game forum and the Discord.

I’m definitely interested! A band of brothers sounds perfect for a non-magic grunt of some sort.

I like military play and looking at the atrocities of war instead of the shiny heroes. We need more consciousness about war and its consequences.

Best part of the intorduction to me was: "This is not ... just a series of combat encounters. It is also about camaraderie, annoying officers, equipment scrounging, and other aspects of the daily life of a foot soldier"

And it would be the first time for me to play 5.5E.

So, I'd like to have a place on that eagle and hope that my harness deploys correctly... ;-)

Runestone is a gem of a gamer, with engaging posts often brimming with both poignancy and humour (a difficult combo to pull off). I have no hesitation in recommending joining a game with Runestone, for whatever effort you put into this game will be returned tenfold.

If you're a story and character focussed 5e player looking for game, you'll think yourself accursed you were not here for this one. From this advert to the ending of the game, you in it shall be remember’d; you few, you lucky few, you band of brothers.

this sounds like a load of fun! as someone who's played d&d quite a lot, anytime i see some new flavor i'm excited to give it a try! the story possibilities for this sound so cool, and the use of AI to generate fitting images what would otherwise be incredibly hard to find (cries in hours spent looking for a perfect art piece for my games) is a touch i really, really appreciate. i'd be honored to be considered!

I loved the Band of Brothers show and this idea sounds fantastic. Unfortunately, I’m already juggling too many games at the moment, so I can’t commit right now.

If someone drops later on, could you post an update here? I’d definitely be interested in jumping in when I have more bandwidth. In the meantime, would it be okay if I lurked around a bit, or maybe even played the occasional odd NPC in combat if that would help?

If you need a character concept, Grashka "Boom Mother" Drokh – Orc Grenadier from the "Nazyr" (the opposition / evil nation):
Best of luck putting the squad together! =)

This sounds fantastic. I love genre mashups. I have run and played in many, many5e D&D games (and almost all the other editions). I've done a lot of PbP. I have not, however, watched Band of Brothers. So I'd be going in just as blind as a newly deployed private.

I would very much be interested.

Sounds great. One of the more imaginative concepts I've seen for 5e. Definitely interested.

You had me at "(*) By friendly I mean that new players are just as welcome as everyone else to join this and die an unremarkable death in a ditch."

Sticking with standard races though with reskin but custom origin, do you allow subclasses from outside PHB (was thinking centaur Echo Knight but can reskin elf or tiefling for satyr, Greek partisan that got pulled out after a British para mission that went south).

And why i am interested, 2025 rules. Role-playing seems like it will be on point. I love genre games.

For pbp been on and off for a few years ran sone games, played in more mostly dnd

Thanks for the interest everyone. As mentioned above, I plan to keep this open for a week or so. Ideally, I would like to put together a group consisting of some people I know to be reliable and creative posters as well as some I've never played with before.
That's also very important to me. It's not going to be easy to pull off, however. Honestly, I'm not sure wether it'll work, but I want to try. It depends a lot getting a group of players that have the same interest.
I've had a lot of fun generating those images. :)
I have a prompt template that I'll share with the people that join this in case they want to create similar character portraits.
Nice.

Regarding worldbuilding and nationalities:

This is a high fantasy version of Earth with the serial numbers barely filed off. The world map looks exactly like Earth. In general, place names are simply the regular names in reverse. In broad strokes, the war has progress like ww2 so far (Ecnarf is occupied by Ynamreg and so on).

Technology is at a standard DnD level (no magi-tech). Monsters and magic are both used extensively by all sides in the war and they take the place of technology (the giant eagles used instead of airplanes is a good example of this). I have more examples like that planned, and the players will be invited to participate in coming up with more.

This is a fantasy kitchen sink: Any species can come from any country/state. So we could have a young dwarf from New Kroy that is the daughter of immigrants from D'naleri.

That's essentially all the world building there is. We'll figure out the rest as we go along.
Sure. It's good to have more cannon fodder reserves. And it should be easy to integrate new recruits into this.
Let me think on that. I would also want to run that by the players first.

I would love to be a part of this
What is your thoughts of sentient warmashines AKA warforged?

I thought you might :)

We'll stick to the PHB for mechanics, but I'm all for creative reskinning, so I'm sure it's possible to make something that feels sufficiently like a warforged.

From a worldbuilding perspective, that sentient warmachine would have to be some prototype (or maybe a wizard volunteered their creation for the war to avoid being drafted himself). My point is that the soldiers in the war are generally regular living people, so this would be a special case.

Incredible pitch Runestone :) Love the artwork.

Really a lot of potential for parallel world building - I just have this odd vision of a Great Old Ones image on a recruitment office where you can sign up to become a warlock - or a line of guys going through a war god's temple to be enlisted as war clerics. Recruitment efforts which are usually in the shadows might be out in the open. Farmer getting sent off to war, perfect time for a sales pitch from a dark entity.

I've had precisely the same thought @DrifterDwarf. In fact, I wrote this a couple of days ago.

US Army document 666-W
Addendum to Standard Service Contract (optional)

Date: ____________

I the undersigned (henceforth know as the Soldier) hereby enters a binding legal agreement with __Exzzagonarth_the_Despoiler___ (henceforth know as the Patron). This agreement will hold from the day of signature until the cessation of all hostilities in Eporue and elsewhere. For the duration of this agreement, the Patron will support the Soldier in their fights. Likewise, the Soldier will support the Patron in the event that the Patron is or becomes involved in hostilities.

The Patron will bestow upon the soldier eldritch power and reward faithful service with increasingly powerful magic. Furthermore, the Soldier will be paid a one-time bonus of ___50___ gold pieces.

As a token of good will, the Patron will hold dominion over the Soldier's immortal soul until the termination of this contract.

Being of sound mind, the Soldier enters this agreement freely and willingly.

Witnesses: _____________________

Soldier: _____________________
Soldier's signature (in blood): _____________________

Signer on behalf of the Patron: ___Saul Smith Esq.____
Signature on behalf of the Patron: _____________________

That's awesome :)

Thanks @DrifterDwarf ! BTW are you interested in joining this? Or did you just get caught up in the worldbuilding? :)
@badbaron @valdattaMadun @timplausible @CouchLord0510 @Dominic

Did you see this part? I don't think you're on the GP Discord server, so I want to make sure you're onboard with using Discord for OoC chat.

Totally on board. Would just need to get into the server which I will admit I just have thought of doing with enough conviction to do

Definitely interested in being considered for the game :)

I don't usually use Discord, but I can. I usually just warn people that I check Discord around the same times I check GP forums - so it may not change my responsiveness :)

If I don't get picked, then like htech, this one seems like it would be fun to just watch :)

No problem with Discord. I'm in several game-related Discord groups. I'm just not I. the GP group. I can join that too if need be. I just have this quirk where I like to keep my list of groups pruned to only those I'm using regularly.

I saw it, no problem with it except I don't know where to find the GP-Server invite link.

Nevermind, found it, part of it...

Here is my signature! That is awesome

I didn't mean to imply that you all had to join the GP server. Just wanted to let you know why I was asking some, and not all, of you about this.

Re: Discord. If we are using it in game, sure, I'll connect up to it. Have used Discord for the tabletop game I play in.

Just noticed this now. I want to stick to the PHB for mechanics to keep things simple.

Edit: ... but I like the concept and the picture :)

Forgot to mention my experience. Been playing on here for 2-3 years now I think. Played on other forums before, but the games always fizzled. Have played RPG since 3e, which then moved to 3.5e, and then PF1. Played 4e once, and never played PF2. 5.5e is my favorite.

In keeping with the tone of the game, I really want to play a salt of the earth type of character, not some super optimized character. No magic, not confident, afraid of combat, thinks everyone around him is so talented/better looking/smart/etc, and he’s all about the camaraderie (or vibes, is that what young people say?) Something like a goliath barbarian (yes, a barbarian who’d rather run away).

Can work with Trickery Cleric instead if you are willing. I have a particular mechanic to lead in to the duplicate/echo which is that my mother (a witch) enchanted my shadow to, well, spy on me. Until I reach the stage where I can utilize this myself, it just acts like a normal shadow except that instead of reflecting what I am actually doing, it reflects what my mother probably thinks I should be doing. No power, just flavor until I reach 3rd level and get my Invoke Duplicity. Might go a different race to reflavor (like Wood Elf instead of forest gnome) if I'm a cleric. Have to see if you like the shadow concept first.

discord is fine! is there a reason not to just use the forums here though? asking out of curiosity not because i have a problem with discord :D

This seems pretty fun.

Got room for one more?

Sounds cool. I think this setting is very forgiving in terms of what concepts that can work, so don't worry that I'll try to veto anything you come up with. Normally, I find it a little hard to engage in fantasy kitchen sink settings where absolutely everything is on the table, but here I want to embrace that.
That was also my question the first time I got invited to a game that used Discord for OoC chat. But I've tried it a few times now, and I find that it helps a lot with both pacing and the social aspects of the game. It just works better when you ask "how was everyone's weekend?" in Discord.
There won't be room for everyone that has expressed interest, unfortunately, but don't let that stop you.

I planned to keep this open until Friday, but considering the level of interest, I'll close it a bit earlier; probably Tuesday or Wednesday.

sounds good! just invite me to the discord whenever :)

Usally there is a discord link with in the OOC channel in the game. People rarely get invited to a discord without also being in a game

oh ok that makes sense. i figured i'd be invited if i was invited to the game but steamlining it to just the one invite is more reasonable by far haha

Yes, we'll do it like that.

I'll leave this open until Tuesday evening CET and then send out invites.

I am interested! Love using Discord, Have a concept for a character already.

Thanks everyone for expressing interest in this. Unfortunately, I don't have capacity to play this with all of you, so I will invite:

@badbaron, @CouchLord0510, @Dominic, @grifter730, and @SJoyner72

SJ, Grif, and I are in the same game that is currently on long term pause. That's been a lot of fun, and I would like to explore this setting with them. I didn't have a good metric for the rest of the selection, so I gave priority to people that are currently in fewer games, and randomness did the rest.

If spots open up later, I'll post about it here. I hope I'll get the oportunity to play with you all another time.

I know a few of you expressed interest in spectating this. However, I plan to keep the forums closed due to the mature content.

Have fun, all. Keep your heads down and stick it to those Izans.

Good luck and have fun.

Have fun! =)