$0.00 Prince of the Apocalypses [D&D5e]

Let's be honest I know almost nothing about the Forgotten Realms or the module that is Princes of the Apocalypse but that's exactly why I won't claim to.

This games will pay homage occasionally to the idea of the Princes of the Apocalypse Module but with a high likelihood of getting things wrong, or changing something entirely as is seen fit, the game is not:
- Serious: I will take whatever opportunities present themselves for humor
- Plot Driven: In that a plot doesn't exactly exist yet, I have a starting point and expect players to drive much of what happens after that point.
- Rules over Fun: Who really wants to take the time to look up how to do something only to find out you can't, just figure out something within reason-ish.

And with everything that is isn't there should probably be some promises I try and make for what the game is or at least some sort of basic description...

You've tried and failed to start an mercenary company, perhaps it's because you suck at marketing or more likely it's location nobody goes to Amphail to look for mercenaries when Waterdeep is next door, and as such you come so close to needing to file bankruptcy until another group of mercenaries who are way better than you pay your offered reduced rate because they don't want to even attempt the mission they've just been given and they believe there's a chance however slim that you might succeed.

I'm attempting to run a delicate balance here between serious chances of death and wild illogical actions, and this will require full buy in from all the players, characters that have wild ideas perhaps even foolish. Things that maybe don't make sense in their backstories because they aren't supposed to. Gaping plot holes that may or may not be filled mid game with whatever random ideas people want. The goal is to make something feels like it's an off brand version of something that could in theory have been perfect.

Gameplay: I will be using a discord server as both a notification system to allow us to know when others have posted and as the primary means of any form of our of game updates.

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Character Creation: You all grew up in Amphail and in this same small town you learned all that you know, perhaps you made the journey to Waterdeep at one point or another in your life but most of you life up to now was spent in this one small town with the same few people.

Level: We'll be starting at Level 3 D&D5.5e and using milestone based experience to level up fairly quickly with hopes of if you don't die reaching at least level 8 before the story wraps up.

Variant Rules
Group Initiative: Initiative will be run in groups, PC's then NPC's/Monsters or vice versa.

Plot Inspiration: Inspiration that can be used before you make a roll that replaces whatever you might end up rolling with a 20, this 20 does not activate any special features like a critical would but is still a 20.

I expect some sort of explanation something fluff, that explains why in that moment there is no chance that your character could possibly fail.

Horseback Riding: As you are from a horse breeding capital of the region, horseback riding will be treated in combat as Identical to if you weren't on a horse expect with a speed increase to 60ft.

Im interested, but know that im constantly miss reading the title as $0.00, price of the apocalypse

Kind of fits with a mercenary that cant price his services right
The direction that I would like to see this game taking, is the chase of the heroic ideal or becoming something you are not.

Like the person who idolises dwarves, and their culture, but is themself as far from dwarfs as can be, like a Tabaxi. That person would search for magical items like belt of dwarvenkind, and make stupid deals to get it.
Another example of becoming something you are not, is the farmer's son, who wants to be a hero, but has nothing to back it up with. No mystical birthmark, no faiy godmother. But making a (warlock) deal to get heroic abilities, now that is the thing.

Was that the king of direction idea you were looking for @KoldikSteelskin?

My most ambitious vision for a bunch of "wannabe mercenary" to gradually develop into a team. When they will face a problem they don't have experience solving - party members will have very different ideas on how to solve the issues. Fear to engage in conflict around those ideas will result in lack of commitment to decisions and eventually jeopardize success.
In other words - I would like the party to grow not only in terms of PC character level, but also in their ability to work as a team. And I would like characters created through session 0 with the initial party dysfunction in mind.

"initial party dysfunction" now that is a selling line :D

I don't want to say to much about whether or not people are giving me the kind of applications that I'm looking for because I don't want people to copy someone elses application but I can't help but enjoy that wording.
As far as applications go you've both done a great Job of talking more about how you envision the group than your individual characters which is what I need to see to consider an application.
You know the price of the apocalypse is Inaction, basically free if you want to look at it that way...

I guess I've just failed my insight check. Could you please clarify for a less insightful person
1. When you ask "what direction you see this taking" - what's "this" if it is not the story of adventurer party
2. When you say "without giving me a character concept" - do you want me to simply hide class/species from you, but share the rest of otherwise finalized character idea?

You both did pretty well exactly what I was asking for, sorry if I made it seem like I was asking for something more in my second post, I didn't spend near as much time on it as the initial post.

As for not wanting character concepts yet I guess the best way I can explain it is this: I don't want people coming together with premade character concepts and then trying to make that into a group what the group looks like should come before what individual characters look like if that makes sense.

I've tried to clarify in the Initial post as well now that I've said more here.

We all have options. :)

Are we using the new Heroes of Ferune book? Or the artificer from the eberron book that is getting released at the moment?

Assuming that I get enough Interest in the game I don't have any Issues with it.

I laughed at the title of this thread when I first saw it and I've come back to this thread a few times since it first appeared.
My initial response is "Anything that does not start in a bar..." but I realized a bar owner who is losing his business and must now go out adventuring might be a nice twist on the trope.

I see a couple of different potential approaches to the group.

The one mentioned by runekyndig above with the farmer I like, the "normal" people who are now getting into something they did not expect. Are they all friends who are down on their luck and trying something a bit crazy, which is also not really working that well.

Or was the dream of this group always to be adventures? and the real difficulty of doing it has slapped them in the face because they are not really that good at it yet.

A mix of both perhaps.

Level 3 puts an additional twist on this. They are not completely unskilled and that needs to be accounted for.

All of my characters tend to be serious, so the idea of embracing some humor, frankly might be a challenge for me, but I like trying things I have not done before.

I realize this has been a rambling response :) I'll just finish by saying I'd be interested in seeing where this goes.

The title actually came from a conversation on the Gamersplane Discord that happened a while ago making fun of Temu and talking about like cheaply made version of different D&D module I ended up half putting together a game idea and so when I came back to GP the idea was still sitting here for me mostly finished and I just had to throw a few finishing touches on it.

Rune, DrifterDwarf and GreyWord, I'll be sending out Invites shortly.

I'm excited to see what the three of you create for party composition the backstory if you will not just to the characters but to the party as a whole.