Polling for Interest

Hello everyone! Due to my RL schedule being rather odd these days, I've been looking for alternatives to tabletop play since my RL groups can play only every other week or so. Thus my arrival on GP as I think Play by Post will be one of the better options available to me. After some browsing around, this site seems more intuitive and easier to access than some of the others and so here we are.

While I know it is a longshot, I am primarily looking for players willing to try using my homebrew system Reforged Fantasy.

Reforged is the culmination of three years of playtesting; a personalized amalgamation of a half dozen different OSR style DnD clones that I cherry-picked my favourite mechanics and flavours from. A moderately lethal system with an emphasis on player ingenuity over rolling skill checks, It is a simple, stripped down game that I think will complement the PbP style well, with a minimal learning curve for veterans of almost any d20 system.

(For those willing to take a peek, here is the dropbox Link. The pdf includes bookmarks for easy navigation (though you will probably need to download it to use them) and the actual mechanics + class, race and character options are only about 50 pages total. The rest is spell descriptions and equipment lists and costs. I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors, I have not yet been able to hire a professional editor, just had my GF and one of my players skim it)

The actual campaign I am currently thinking of running using the above system is a potentially very long running fantasy-apocalyptic military game where the characters will take on the rolls of military officers, nobles and specialists of a fantasy empire in the immediate wake of a plane shattering catastrophe. Due to PbP limitations, the focus of the game will be on the burden of command, interpersonal interaction, military strategy, and problem-solving over hack and slash dungeon crawling with PC combat encounters limited to more 'boss fight' type situations that your rank and file troops cannot deal with for one reason or another.

I will be looking for at least one player willing and able to take on a little extra work in the long run in the form of taking on independent command or governing positions (such as commanding an army or ruling a town), though more than one would be lovely [note! You will not be starting the campaign with such responsibilities, but they could be earned through play].

Critically I would also be looking for players mature enough that gameplay would not be harmed by one or more of the characters being in positions of nominal or real authority over the others, and that could still cooperate in a mutually agreeable and effective fashion in such a scenario.

I will be aiming for 3-5 players, 4-5+ posts a week per person and if I am able to find a reliable group of players who match the criteria given above I will expect this campaign to last multiple years of real and in-game time. In support of this, there will be fairly firm and concise rules and explanations of my procedure in the wake of unexplained player absence to keep the game rolling and not penalize the other players for poor attendance.

If this appeals to anyone, let me know. If I get enough responses to make the effort worthwhile I'll make the campaign and help guide you through slightly modified character creation. Thank you for reading.

If anyone has any questions about system or campaign feel free to fire away here or via PM.

Well, this was about what I expected in way of response haha. But to help me better shape things for future posts both here and on other PbP sites, could anyone who did read my big wall of text comment on what specifically made them pass it on by? Was it purely the non-standard system? Was it something so ambitious from someone brand new to the site? Or was it the campaign idea itself? Thanks in advance.

[Also, if anyone bothered checking out the PDF, comments or critiques on that is also appreciated.]

This is one that I opened the PDF and then forgot about. I have every intention of giving it a skim (downloaded to my phone now) and letting you know what I think :-)

I read your text and found it interesting. It showed a real desire for depth which I personally appreciate.

One thing that turned me off was playing a military commander. I am not into the military, so I thought it would be hard to RP the arvhetype needed. But the real reason I didn't apply is I am trying not to overextend myself by joining too many games. I GM 1 game and play in 4 others already. Too much more and I'd be in trouble.

Good luck!!!

I, too, was not inclined to want to play due to the commander-of-troops notion. I would generally jump at a homebrew system (I live for trying new things), but I'm not very interested in mass combat.

Thanks for the fast responses. The lack of interest in the command/leadership positions is not what I expected to be the snagging point, based on my past experiences on other sites. (Where homebrew/custom systems tend to be the much more common issue). So, it's good to know that is the case for at least some people. Thanks for the insight.

Hey, I feel for your situation, TACTIC. I've been trying to get some campaigns started on here, and rally support for my own homebrew system. Unfortunately, there's no sense of urgency, so I've had to learn to be patient and wait for interest to trickle in. You got some surprisingly fast replies, all things considered, but I hope you don't take it personally that it took about a week.

As for myself, I'm a little hesitant to dig into people's systems. See, I'm working on my own, and I don't want people feeling like I might rip off their material. On my word, I most certainly would not, but I know that means jack squat coming from an anonymous stranger on the Internet. So what I would venture is this: I'm looking for support as well, and hope to start a playtest in the near future. We could make a pact not to steal from each others' work without discussing it first, and that would make me a lot more comfortable helping this ambitious project get rolling.

(To be clear, since I used a few buzzwords here and there, I'm not talking about advertising or financial support or anything. Just emotional support, opinions, participation in games like the one you're suggesting, things like that.)

Thanks, WalkerOfSorrow. If nothing else, I'm always willing to discuss game design and homebrew. As far as ripping off material, Go for it! I have no illusions about how plausible it is to make a retro-clone commercially viable (pretty much impossible at this point) and did a lot of 'looting' for my system myself to say the least. The concept of the rest system from 5e for one. So I'm certainly not going to get offended if you want to use anything from Reforged for inspiration. xD

(Now taking the whole PDF and slapping your name on it is a different kettle of fish entirely, but I don't really see anyone bothering tbh)

If you are genuinely interested in playing with that out of the way, I'd love to have you. Unfortunately, that would still only put the number of interested players at exactly one for the above campaign concept.

As for stealing from your work without telling you first, I can agree to that. Honestly probably would even if you hadn't asked me to first. But Reforged is pretty much done, and I'm not really planning on starting work on a new system any time soon, so that's a pretty easy agreement to make haha. But I would be happy to read and probably playtest your system if it seems to have potential :)

Oh, and @Naatkinson - Thanks so much for taking the time to skim the Reforged pdf. Even if you don't want to play after, I would love any opinions from outside my immediate gaming circle.

No worries! Let me know if you get more people. It may take a few months; I know some of my modified Pathfinder ideas have.