# Virtual Tabletop - Mondays



## JoeLandolfi (Feb 2, 2009)

Greetings Potential Player!,

This was originally posted on the fantasy grounds 2 message boards. While it isn't "typical" D&D in that it is a virtual tabletop its still D&D. If this shouldn't go in this forum area; I apologize!

For the past two years I have run campaigns based in and around a campaign setting that I have created and that my players have molded with their actions and reactions. I have deep, rich (yet unfinished!) history and cultures and as a student of anthropology the development of cultures and languages is of particular interest to me. To enhance our game play we use a voice over internet protocol program called Ventrilo. Using Ventrilo we coordinate combat, discuss our situations, and sometimes roleplay. I own and operate my own server which hosts Ventrilo in addition to downloadable content for my world (such as campaign setting handbooks). In addition my players and I are currently working on a wiki which is unique to my world.

I am currently running a campaign on Monday nights following a "main" storyline. I also run a group locally on Wednesdays here in Savannah, Georgia and am considering running a game on Sundays though significantly more sporadically. I'm looking for a player for my Monday campaign.

The Monday Campaign operates solely on Mondays from 6:00 P.M until 12:00 P.M. The group currently has 5 players. One of our players will be leaving due to scheduling conflicts. The campaign is heavily story and roleplay based. We utilize forum role playing, forum feedback, forum role player voting (for awards such as best roleplayer of the event) and general forums for chatting and discussion. 

We also utilize the forums heavily and "in between" event role play is a big part of the storyline. I've included addition information in the form of a FAQ below. Last time I posted here I didn't include enough information I was told.

Can I Play?
My players and I are looking for one, _with the possibility of two_, new players for our Monday night game. This players should meet these requisites.


 Can play on Mondays from 6:00 P.M to 12:00 A.M EST..
 Experience in role playing, as well as enjoying doing it.
 Knowledge of 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons.
 Willing to commit time throughout the week for forum activity.
 Willing to learn the culture, lore, and history of a home brew Campaign Setting.
 Has (or will have) fantasy grounds 2.
 Will get or has Ventrilo (which is free).
 Has a good attitude and wants his fellow players to enjoy their time.

Who Are You?
My name is Joe Landolfi. I am an experienced DM and story teller. I have played Dungeons and Dragons since the seventh grade and am now a Sophomore in college studying Archeology and Anthropology. I've Larped, I am an SCA member, I have played D&D 3.0 and 3.5 for many years. I develop rich story lines and typically run low magic campaigns that sit about two notches upwards in difficulty. This creates an immersible world with a lot of history, information, and challenge.

What is Avegost?
Over the past several years Avegost has had several forms. I started Avegost about six years ago as a text based roleplaying game on a forum. During the time, forums such as Ayenee.com were quite large but were primarily freeform RP. I had been playing D&D now already and wanted to see the rule structure translated.

After moving to Georgia last year for college I began Avegost as a way for my group back home in Michigan to play consistently. We used the Neverwinter Night's video game and my expertise in both coding and the tool set helped to create a believable world. The party fluctuated and over time players came and went but the campaign stayed solid.

Last May my group stumbled across fantasy grounds and I immediately latched onto it. Fantasy Grounds is everything my group could want for their D&D games and so far it has worked well. I currently run two campaigns based in the 'Avegost' setting, which is a homebrew I have been working on for many years.

Do you have a website?

You can visit my website at; www.Avegost.com. You can also see videos that my players and I have made about my game (when we used Neverwinter Nights instead of Fantasy Grounds as a medium) here. You can see the Campaign Teaser/Trailer for the Monday Campaign [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWUQ5LMC4Sk"]here.[/ame]

What are your character generation options?
Answer: Our rules for Character Creation ability scores are to roll 4d6 and drop the lowest. The maximum you can therefore have is 18 and the lowest is 3 (not accounting for racial modifiers). Players may “reroll” one OR all of their stats up to 3 times though each “reroll” will incur a -2 on the highest roll. So if I roll a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on a reroll my 6 would become a 4. If on my NEXT reroll I roll a 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 then my 11 would become a 9 and my 10 would become an 8. To offset this, players may give themselves a +2 bonus to any –single- ability score that they feel best represents their character. This is a “hero bonus” and therefore doesn’t have to be your classes’ most important ability score. Rather, it should reflect what you feel is your character’s strongest trait.

An Avegost Player’s Handbook has been made to answer many questions of this sort and a docket for this specific campaign within my world titled; “The Coming of the Dragons” is also available. These documents answer many questions and would be required for play. (They’re downloadable from my server).

What are your alignment restrictions?
Answer: In the past our group recently “lost” or rather “asked a player to leave” due to his overly competitive nature and knack for playing a foil to the party. While I’m a fan of character development through conflict I’m not a fan of someone ruining the fun. I’d prefer characters who are looking to be something and while their motivations need not be too dubious or heroic they would need to be compatible with my current party. I like to keep my current players happy. I prefer not to restrict alignment but would ask for non-evil and non-evil leaning character alignments.

What are the current party classes/races/alignments?
Answer: The party currently has a Human Duskblade of good/neutral alignment, a Dwarven Fighter of good/neutral alignment, an Elven Druid of good/neutral alignment, a Human Sorcerer of good/neutral alignment, and a Human Bard of good/neutral alignment. The party is in need of a cleric or healer type. In my previous game with players who had stuck around we had in one party; _One Tiefling, One Vampire, One Avariel, One Lycanthrope, and One Timelord._ It comes down to the devil you know, ha ha! I knew these PC's and had no qualms with weird subraces and templates but for a new player I'm looking for a bit vanilla.

What are you looking for as a 6th player as far as character/class/race/alignment/personality?
Answer: Truth be told we’re looking for someone who will fit well with our current players. A major point of contention we had with one of our previous players was that despite his friendship with us his blatant arguing over his characters ‘good’ intentions and how they justified his actions bored and agitated us all. We’re looking for a player to play a character, preferably one that will fit with a group of “hero” types. He doesn’t need to be immune to fear or beyond flaw but he should naturally be a good person, even if he has sort of strayed from the path (in the case of a neutral character). A list of playable races includes all of the base races (minus Gnomes, which do not exist in my world!) and some races which are a part of my world.

Any Attendance Rules?
Yes. No Call/No Shows are not welcomed and we prefer a weeks notice if you can't play. All of us understand emergencies occur but I suppose having a cellphone is a requisite of playing.

Anything else I should know?
Avegost isn't just my campaign setting it is my family and friends. My players and I play online games together in addition to our weekly D&D. We discuss house rules and politics. Overall you should know that we're a serious bunch of gamers who are looking for a friendly addition. Most of the players are in their thirties though I myself am twenty. We understand that life has its ups and downs and we just prefer a regular gaming session a week with some good storytelling. We want someone who will put themselves in the action; not stagnate and only show up on Mondays.

I'm Interested, What Should I do?
You can e-mail me at Alyais at Gmail dot com if you're interested. Applying players should include in their e-mail their name, background, and possibly mention any conflicts (roleplaying, scheduling, whatever) and a short story. Tell me a brief story about one of your D&D experiences as a player or Dungeon Master. I'll post your e-mail on my forums for my players and I to discuss.

Again, applicants not greatly interested in a game requiring commitment need not apply.

Thank you.
-Joe Landolfi


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## Roman (Feb 2, 2009)

Hello Joe, 

Your campaign sounds intriguing, but I do have several questions/comments: 

1) I have never used either Ventrilo or Fantasy Grounds 2. I am certainly willing to try, but might require some initial 'support' if it's very complex. 

2) The time slot is fine by me - I could commit to that without a problem. I would, however, appreciate some clarification as to the 'normal' amount of time commitment needed to in-between forum activity. Clarification on this is necessary, since I don't want to commit to something unless I can fulfill it. 

3) Although I currently live in the U.S. (due to my graduate studies), I am from Slovakia and have a strong Slavic accent. I don't know if this would pose a problem or not - I can certainly imagine that the accent would make it more difficult for other players to shift to their 'fantasy mode'. I just don't know, it may or may not... 

I have a considerable amount of experience with 3.5E D&D, though mostly as a Dungeon Master and somewhat less than a player. However, here is a brief story from a game when I was indeed a player. 

It was a campaign based in the time of Arthurian Legends, and the characters were all human - two knights (one of them myself, Sir Anton, and the other was Sir Andrew), one noble/prince, one yeoman, one enchantress and one druidess. The party was wandering through the wilderness on a mission to retrieve pearls stolen from a necklace of the queen and we came across the ruins of a castle. It was nearly evening, so we decided to make camp, but we felt that something was amiss. Every so often, we would catch a glimpse of movement in the shadows or the bushes, as if something was watching us. Eventually the sneakier members of the party (meaning the non-knights) managed to position themselves in such a way that when the next movement occured, they managed to 'trap' whoever was in the bushes. At this point, the two knights joined in and cornered the stalkers. 

It turned out to be two young children or so it appeared. They started crying and told us of an event that occured at the castle long ago, whereby they were eternally cursed to remain as children. Apparently, only somebody willing to undergo great pain as part of a selfless sacrifice could break the curse. When we learned this, myself and the other knight started debating about which one of us should undergo the selfless sacrifice - we had a friendly competition going about who was the more heroic. In the end, the other knight won out and I reluctantly allowed him to have the honor. 

Sir Andrew entered the castle, while the rest of us were asked by the children to wait outside. Initially, Sir Andrew was asked to flagellate himself, and so he did. Thereafter, he had to enter a ritual bath which he had to sprinkle with various ritual herbs. The bath was warm and getting warmer. When the children started dancing around the bath and cutting pieces of vegetables into it, he got the hint... At this point he saw through the illusion (he got another saving throw) and saw the 'children' for who they really were - goblins! The goblins were going to cook him and he even tenderized his meat for them with self-flagellation and helped them prepare the broth with the 'ritual herbs'! 

In the end, it all ended well, he did try to fight his way out, although unarmed and eventually the rest of us also managed to see through the illusion to help him out, but it was still a story that we won't forget! And to think that me and him were 'fighting' over who gets to get cooked...


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## JoeLandolfi (Feb 2, 2009)

Roman,

1. Ventrilo is a free program though Fantasy Grounds 2 is an investment. Neither is hard to pick up on and barring hardware issues (such as a faulty soundcard with regards to ventrilo) it is easy to install and use. We don't mind giving support. My initial advertisement looking for a player asked for FG2 experience but I realized most of my best players never knew how to use it! I've also posted guides, with pictures, on how to use both FG2 and Ventrilo on my forum.

2. On weeks where we have forum roleplay we prefer that everyone log in at least once a day to post, read, and reply to said roleplay. Every week we have a "best roleplayer of the event" and "session feedback" thread. These threads require you to vote for who you believed shined best in roleplay and give a brief feedback (in the form of; "the good, the bad, the ugly") to the DM. While some of us dedicate a lot of time browsing the forums during our free time not much time is needed in-between games. Most players may Avegost.com a homepage and then browse it for new posts if they open up their internet explorer/firefox. If you manage to check Enworld daily or a few times a week you'd be fine with that at Avegost.

3. I think its extremely cool that you're not an American! All of our players are and one of our former players lived in Britain. I don't believe the accent would "bother" anyone as we have a wide range of voices and accents (we live all around the U.S). If you've survived with your accent in the United States then you'll survive with us. I just hope you wouldn't be offended if -we- asked for clarification.

I find your story to be very interesting and I've pasted your reply to my players on my forum. They'll talk with me tonight and we'll get back to you with regards to you joining us (likely for next weeks game). If you're fine with this then shoot me an e-mail at Alyais@gmail.com and we'll talk more. If you're really interested you could download ventrilo tonight and join us for a quick discussion and introduction around 7:00-7:30 eastern time (-5 GMT).

I have a guide on how to use ventrilo here, though I just noticed my pictures are broken.  If you e-mail me at Alyais at gmail dot com I will gladly give you our server IP and chat with you more.

• View topic - Guide: Ventrilo

Hope to hear!
Joe


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