Style of Game

Hey guys! Now that we've got a full party, I'd love a weigh in! What kind of game do you guys want to see? Exploration and dungeon dives? Lots of heavy roleplay? Danger around every turn? Some mixture of the bunch?

And difficulty! I know some folks really like the Dark Souls approach to gaming, is that for you? Or would you prefer a smoother ride?

Lemme know so I can tinker this story to fit your playstyles!

Well, I'm always one for the RP side of things, to grow our individual characters and have them do stuff outside of slaying the baddy of the week/hour/minute. So some sort of downtime goal would be neat while occasionally going out on an ill-advised quest. That's not to say one thing has to hold the other down, we can do the threads in parallel at some point once we got things going.

That said, this being Barovia, I do expect the horror element to be a thing. I'm already looking at a druid that will change into the local creepy crawlies. And you can go a liiitle bit Dark Souls on us. I mean, dumping the Pursuer on us at level 2 would be a bit cruel. I'm looking at you, Dark Souls 2.

I know it's a little cliche but I really am a fan of a healthy balance between the 3 classic pillars of combat and rp and exploration. Just when one is getting tired it's nice to switch things up with something else. I am also really excited to invest in the characters and developing them. I feel like, if anything, exploration takes a bit of a back seat for me in terms of interest; though clearly that's important in this module.

Ugh, the question of difficulty is always tough. I think I appreciate real stakes; it helps me feel like I truly accomplished something with a group when we make it through something scary. But I also would never want an us-vs-DM situation where it just feels like we're trying to be killed.

I'm open to any of it. I know exploration is a bit clunky on the pbp format cause its i turn left... wait for post... go straight 30 squares.
But for some good RP and comabt is alway fun.

Difficulty, Idc i'm not against dark suns difficulty but i would sparse that in with some not so killer encounters.
and difficulty doesn't need to be just combat either. Social encounters can be difficult also

Open to anything.

I haven't been exposed much to exploration due to never playing outside of pbp, but I'm open to a balance between the three or one being more important than the other.

I've also never played Dark Souls so I have no real gauge of what difficulty that truly is outside of I've heard DS makes you want to rage quit.

I'm really just open for whatever :D

I'm not sure what you're talking about? It's a merry game of happiness and friends!

Bad Khulod. No corrupting the newbie.

I'm fine with the feel of dark souls, with some jokes here and there, but I'm definitely not competent at DND enough for 'dark souls hard'

So my intentions with this game are threefold then.

Firstly! RP will *hopefully* be an immersive and engaging experience. I want to present you with characters to love, to hate, and to find mixed feelings for

Secondly, I want you to see all Barovia has to offer! To that end I've gone to every corner of the land in other games and ensured I took a thoroughly fine toothed comb to it, BUT left enough open ends to allow you guys to alter the landscape. Essentially I made sure I explored all the known content and filled in the potholes, whilst leaving some threads for you to tug to your heart's content.

Last, but not least! I want combat to be thrilling and exciting, but not the only dangerous bit to the game. What I meant by the "Dark Souls" angle was that death was a serious threat, not to be taken lightly. If you wander off into the Barovian woods at midnight? I'll treat it as such. But that's a two way street. You figure out how to rig a ballista trap pointed at the 'dragon'? Bam. Dragon-kebab. I want this to be a dangerous game you can use to your advantage at all angles, and expect your foes to do likewise.

Hopefully that makes sense!

Sounds great to me I'm pumped! Super glad to have a GM with experience with the module it sounds like you put a lot of thought into this

This sounds amazing!

And I've never played Dark Souls, but I know that it's NOT all happiness and friendship :P