Rawlinswood

The idea here is to create a shared world, in which we can do a 'West Marches' style of game. What is a 'west marches' style game? At a high level, it's a player-driven, exploration-focused, large group method of playing dnd. What does that even mean?   Player-driven: You Should have goals. You should have goals for your character that may or may not involve other players. However, your goals should drive you to want to explore. Perhaps you are looking for lost artifacts of the past like the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords. Or you want to collect money to build a Tower of Magical research. Or perhaps you want to find lost towns, and reconnect those who have lost the light of civilization. But YOU want something. Exploration-focused: There are large parts of the world that are no longer known. You are going to change that. You will put together a team and go pursue rumors, or other leads to try and find things. The wilds are precarious though. It will take your cunning, planning, and Teamwork to survive and thrive in the wild. Because the wilds are dangerous you will put together a party. You want to explore the burial mounds of the Urturg Tribes, for you heard there was a belt of stone giant strength, and you know there are undead. Ask a paladin and/or a cleric to join you. And maybe a ranger who can find it. You heard of the Ominous Black Door in the forgotten abby of Saint Eisel? Grab that rogue you know to open the door, and that Warlock who knows things about the bizarre incase what's inside is beyond you. And each time you venture out of civilization, your needs may be different, so your party may be different. Large Group: Lots of people like to play the game. Not all can sit at the same table, with the same DM. And what's more, we're busy with complex schedules. So here's how we all play. We have a bunch of people who have characters in a shared world. When someone gets an idea, they can post in whatever forum we decide to do this in, and say "Hey, I am wanting to do this thing, and was hoping to do so on such and such night". You may have some specific people in mind to potentially go do that, and maybe a particular DM (of the authorized DMs), but maybe they can't make it. So you haggle, discuss in the open forum, and eventually, you have a group, a DM and an evening decided. The DM prepares the content you were interested in, and your makeshift team works through that episode. Then, someone writes up what happened, shares it with everyone, and we update the most recent version of the map so everyone knows what happened. As part of the adventure, you'll find leads to other opportunities. Next time you adventure, your group may be different. In fact, it's likely to be different. If problems arise as we get into this, we will have to address them as they come up, as this is the first time any of us have ever done something like this. But I'm excited. Here are some links if you want to do some more reading.