Fantasy The Legends of Aldoen

[The Great Sage]

Hello, greetings, salutations and good day!

I am the great sage, the storyteller and the caretaker of the realm of Aldoen. I see that some among you have the strength of will and courageous spirit to pass through myth and legend to leave your mark upon an infant world that straddles the border between real and impossible. To those; I humbly request that you help me chronicle the history of Aldoen.

-Gameplay-​

When you start a campaign with me, your first task will be to dream up the creature who will be your avatar in the world of Aldoen. There are no wrong answers. A barmaid struggling to escape the clutches of her cruel employer is as important to me as the great warrior who pits himself against the strongest dragon. The wild stag who must lead his herd through a devastating storm to reach the wide grasslands beyond has as much influence on the world as the young prince who must weave his way through a web of courtly intrigue and deceit. Aldoen is vast, and there is a place for you here no matter who you are.

After we know your avatar, we will come to know your life. We will spend time exploring the status quo. We will meet your friends and family and match wits against your rivals. The bond between you and your avatar must be strong before we continue.

Once you feel ready, I will release your destiny. The rest will be up to you, and the choices you make will ripple through the history of Aldoen.

If you are familiar with old text adventure video games, you will feel right at home with how I manage roleplay. We will have no stats or dice rolling for your character, but there will be plenty of puzzles, moral quandaries and tough decisions. You are free to discuss things with me or ask me questions at any time OOC during the game. I want you to feel like the actions you take will yield predictable results. I will never try to play a trick on you, the player, by twisting your words around.

-What you should expect-​

A game master with over 20 years of experience.

Patience and tolerance.

Lots of hand-drawn MSPaint pictures, maps and so on.

A world that can be either fantastic or grim.

Consistency.

-Example character ideas-​

A hedge wizard suffering mutations from the misuse of magic
The second son of a powerful king whose eldest son and your older brother is cruel.
A siren living upon a rocky island that is being encroached upon by increasingly bold sailors.
A prostitute who overhears a client plotting the murder of a foreign dignitary.
One of the last of the elves who chooses to leave his dying civilization behind to search for secrets in the most magical locations in the world.
A young monk whose abbey is upheaved by a great spiritual revelation.
An angel who stumbles upon the first mortal anyone has seen in generations.
A mercenary captain who has fallen on hard times and must struggle to rebuild his once prestigious band of warriors.
A farmer's daughter who catches the eye of the local lord's son.
A old witch living in the forest who sells potions and simple charms to the local peasants.

Let your imagination run wild.

 

[Silanon]

This looks promising; if there's enough interest, I'd be happy to give it a shot.

 

[The Great Sage]

Apologies for not being clear - any game I run will be a game master/player experience. Think of them as single player text adventure video games, or maybe a choose your own adventure novel that writes itself just for you.

Truthfully, I find playing with any more than one other person very hard to manage from a narrative standpoint, and when I do try, I feel like the quality of my games plummets. Whether due to pride in my own writing or else a desire to do well for my players, I can't bring myself to run an online game for more than one person at a time.

 

[Silanon]

Thanks for the clarification! See, I expected things to work out like in other quests I've participated in before, where several people decide the fate of one avatar. Your approach changes things - and it sounds like a lot of work for you, and very little on my end, right now. What level of contribution are you expecting, precisely? Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding in that regard. What kind of posting schedule are you aiming for? Once a week? More or less often (more has proven quite unrealistic in most quests thus far, from my experience)? I'm on a busy schedule right now, so I don't want to promise too much yet; but I'm certainly tempted to simply give it a try.

 

[The Great Sage]

It certainly is a lot of work - in the same way that being a DM for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign is a lot of work compared to that expected from the players, and I think you display a high level of empathy for seeing that as quickly as you did.

I've had dozens of players in this 1-on-1 forum format over the past 20 years, and each one has been different in terms of writing quality, reply length, descriptive language and so on. I've loved and admired each player for their own qualities, regardless of apparent skill or drive. If you learn enough about someone, you come to love them as they love themselves.

I am very low-stress about my games. They are meant to provide us with an escape from the doldrums of life - and if writing becomes 'work', then I don't see there's much point. I'm perfectly happy for you to leave me for a year and return expecting to pick up where we left off. The nice part of our imaginary worlds is that we can press the pause button whenever we want and our characters will never know.

As for myself - I tend to reply quickly. If you post a reply, you can expect that mine will follow within 24 hours, and it's not uncommon for me to write multiple replies a day.

 

[Silanon]

Well, I've had the pleasure to run a Pathfinder campaign some time ago, until real life eventually got in the way - so I know that side of the story-telling myself. I tend to post at a slower pace, a post every few days at most; depending on my other rp's, inspiration, schedules, and all these other things that sometimes get in the way. If that's alright, I'd be interested to try this out.

 

[The Great Sage]

Quite alright by me. If you send me (or post here) a synopsis of a character you'd like to try, I'll do my best to return with a compelling plot to place them in. From there we can tweak things together until we feel ready to start. Then I'll open a thread for us and away we'll go.

 

[The Great Sage]

Riddle:

"All through the day I stand with my brothers,
you've taken my blood and that of the others.
Out in the sun I was happy and still,
'til you snuffed out my life for an evening's breif thrill."

What am I?

 

[Top11]

Got room for another campaign?

 

[The Great Sage]

Plenty of room. Any particular character concept you want to use?

 

[Xcelgamer]

Yes please, I am very much interested in this idea. I already have an idea for a character but I'm not sure if she would fit into the world.

 

[The Great Sage]

I'm going to have to close recruitment for the foreseeable future. I think I've found a couple of good players and one or two campaigns at a time is likely going to prove to be my limit. Thank you very much for your interest and I wish you the best of luck with your search.

 

[The Great Sage]

Spot for 1, potentially 2 games. Xcelgamer or Top11 if you guys are still looking for action, I'd like to discuss potentially starting something up.

 

[Xcelgamer]

Heck yeah I am always down for some rp!