# Forum > Play-by-Post Games > Finding Players (Recruitment) > Recruiting Interest Check - 5e, pbp, Group of 2, Sandbox

## hxolhpths

*INTEREST CHECK*
_Not a recruitment post (just yet)_

Just ruffling the bushes here to see what i can find...

I'd like to run a campaign for 2 players max.
I prefer to be 2 real life friends or a couple, but i will consider
2 "strangers" too. The reasoning is that i want this to be as fast
paced as possible. That means at least 1 post per day by each
player/DM. Weekends, holidays, traveling, heavy work/school/uni schedule
are not excusable. A post will take 3-10min max to type.
We all have phones & data. I'm looking for dedicated people.

That said...
The campaign will be sandbox, with various hooks and routes.
Style, mood, expectations, boundaries, triggers, will all be discussed
with the players (once found).
I like a more RP/descriptive style, preferably no silliness or KOS just for the sake of it.
Players will be able (and encouraged) to build their characters and bios together,
be an IG couple, friends, or even strangers.

 Thoughts???

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## animorte

> [Weekends, holidays, traveling, heavy work/school/uni schedule
> are not excusable. A post will take 3-10min max to type.
> We all have phones & data. I'm looking for dedicated people.


Hardcore. I've been on here every day anyway, and I've been looking to try out pbp. I also am currently most familiar with 5e.

However, I do come alone and I have other questions that you may have planned to answer in the future:
- How will you handle dice rolls and relevant dice rolling encounters?
- Are there any restrictions on character building and, if so, what are they?
- Ability scores: rolling stats, standard array, or point-buy? (I prefer not rolling, honestly.)
- Umm... A few other thoughts that escaped me. Oh well.

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## hxolhpths

> However, I do come alone and I have other questions that you may have planned to answer in the future:
> - How will you handle dice rolls and relevant dice rolling encounters?
> - Are there any restrictions on character building and, if so, what are they?
> - Ability scores: rolling stats, standard array, or point-buy? (I prefer not rolling, honestly.)
> - Umm... A few other thoughts that escaped me. Oh well.


Although most of these i planned to address later, here is a preliminary & crude answers...
- Dice rolls. All out of combat dice rolls will be called by me. Some times you wont need a roll,
some times i ll roll my physical dice if you shouldn't know if you failed or not. (perception,
knowledge, insight etc). All combat rolls will be in IC, all "GM only" will be physically rolled.
- What i can tell you for sure right now, is no homebrew. Everything published is approved,
but i might veto a monster class if it is too.. hmm... missing a word there... weird/strange
for the story/mood to be in.
- I have no problem with either/any. I ll leave it to players to decide what they will both use.

In general, you ll find me most flexible with character creation, with the understanding that
whatever is available to PCs is most likely available to the rest of the world.
If you ask, for example, to be able to crt 15-20, then everyone is able to crt 15-20.
PCs are free to do WHATEVER they like, as long as they understand there are consequences 
for their actions. What i won't allow is hostile actions between PCs, unless it is approved by
both/all Players involved. What count as hostile is determined by me and i will call for the reasoning
behind it in OOC before resolving the action(s). In general, lethal damage, actions, spells or
abilities that remove character's control from Player etc, are always prohibited, unless
both players agree cause of narrative/story reasons.

More questions plz :)

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## animorte

> PCs are free to do WHATEVER they like, as long as they understand there are consequences 
> for their actions.


That's how I DM. You're free to optimize however and make any decisions, but understand that I can always adjust accordingly. It's supposed to be a challenge, with some exceptions as the narrative provides, and fun is still a priority.

I'm oddly fine with the idea of you making all of the dice rolls. To me, it's more important to be able to express what I intend to do (in or out of combat). You can roll and determine the outcome accordingly. I can supply relevant modifiers, though I'm we'll both have copies of the character sheets, so that not doesn't really matter either way. Kind of makes me think of a choose-your-own-adventure format, except with a real person for finer and more creative adjudicating.

- Where will communication be held OOC?
- How much backstory detail do you request or care to use, if any?
- What level is play intended to start at?
- Is the game planning to go as long as it can? (I assume so because sandbox.)

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## hxolhpths

> I'm oddly fine with the idea of you making all of the dice rolls. To me, it's more important to be able to express what I intend to do (in or out of combat). You can roll and determine the outcome accordingly. I can supply relevant modifiers, though I'm we'll both have copies of the character sheets, so that not doesn't really matter either way. Kind of makes me think of a choose-your-own-adventure format, except with a real person for finer and more creative adjudicating.
> 
> - Where will communication be held OOC?
> - How much backstory detail do you request or care to use, if any?
> - What level is play intended to start at?
> - Is the game planning to go as long as it can? (I assume so because sandbox.)


I won't roll ALL the rolls... 
You roll for combat.
If out of combat, you state your intentions and if i think there should be a roll involved i ll
call for one to be rolled (by you). I just want to avoid premature rolls that most of the time
are not needed cause of the triviality of the task (or modifiers unknown to you because of
the story) and rolls that even on a N20 with +1m modifier are too absurd to succeed.
("Hey.. King.. give me your kingdom!" rolls N20....
"Hey you... Kill your daughter!" rolls N20)

- The fastest way for day to day OOC chatter is in IC. make a spoiler titled OOC and be done with it.
Players can always PM me to ask/suggest anything. If the need arises (with 2 players difficult, but still..)
we could use the OOC thread.
- Depends on agreed upon style and mood... will know at session 0.
I expect more than 2 paragraphs, less than a 2 pages. 
I don't need a list and description of your prowess and accomplishments. You haven't started
"Hero-ing" yet to have those. I need though, a window to your soul. What drives you, why,
what/who made you think & act like you do, what you (think) you want, what are you prepared 
to sacrifice and whatnot? Show me your character's boundaries to try and bend em!
Your personality traits, your alignment, you beliefs are not set in stone. They are fluid.
Your character is supposed & will have a character arc. 
- Lvl 1. Maybe go as far as lvl3 if the agreed upon style-mood calls for it.
- As long as it can!

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## Nyan

I am absolutley interested! I'd love to apply seeing as descriptive rp style is my jam. All the questions I have has already been asked. All I need to know is what should I do in order to be considered as a potential candidate?

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## animorte

> I need though, a window to your soul. What drives you, why,
> what/who made you think & act like you do, what you (think) you want, what are you prepared 
> to sacrifice and whatnot? Show me your character's boundaries to try and bend em!


I'm all about character motivation, no matter who it is. (I consistently go back to that on various threads on the motivation of any and all characters: npc, monster, bbeg, pc, you name it.)



> I am absolutley interested! I'd love to apply seeing as descriptive rp style is my jam. All the questions I have has already been asked. All I need to know is what should I do in order to be considered as a potential candidate?


I'm clearly interested as well.  :Small Tongue:

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## Nyan

> I'm all about character motivation, no matter who it is. (I consistently go back to that on various threads on the motivation of any and all characters: npc, monster, bbeg, pc, you name it.)
> 
> I'm clearly interested as well.


well we could perhaps discuss characters over discord you and me! (goes faster)

here is a link

https://discord.gg/RkvfQJkm

Gm could also hop in if he likes. Not much discussion about characters can be made without really knowing the setting/concept tho.

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## J-H

I may be interested.  I am an active DM here and, when my players can keep up, can usually run a combat round or two per day.  I had a game that ran at a daily post pace for about 5-6 months, but trickled off as RL happened and people dropped out.  By the time I killed it 5 years later, I only had two of the original 4-5 left, and had cycled through a number of replacements.

I have also been a member of a dozen or two failed PBP games where people (often the DM) would ghost us after 2 weeks.  

Here's some advice intended to be helpful and friendly, and maybe tentative interest.

You've been a forum member for 10+ years, but I don't think I've seen you in the context of PBP before.  If you haven't done much, you may want to review this recent thread:  How many PBP games actually succeed?

_I'd like to run a campaign for 2 players max.  I prefer to be 2 real life friends or a couple, but i will consider 2 "strangers" too. The reasoning is that i want this to be as fast paced as possible. That means at least 1 post per day by each player/DM. 
_
This is pretty reasonable.  The one problem with a duo game is that if you lose a player, you lose half the party, all the background hooks, and most of the sense of "what has come before."  A single lost player may doom the game.  3 players means you can lose one and not be as crippled, and it removes some of the combat swinginess.  A too-small party limits how complex of an encounter you can make, because 2 PCs just can't handle an archer on the rooftops , a barbarian in front, a wizard in back, and a tame blink dog all at once.

_Weekends, holidays, traveling, heavy work/school/uni schedule are not excusable. A post will take 3-10min max to type. We all have phones & data. I'm looking for dedicated people._
My phone tends to not stay logged into anything, and accessing a character sheet on it isn't very easy.  I WFH most days, but a couple of times a month, I have a 5 hour round trip drive with meetings, and also shopping for 2 households while I'm in the big city.  My only time on those days to read anything on my phone is usually spent keeping up with the daily flood of e-mails, and when I get home at suppertime I usually have to spend my time catching up on work or getting the kids to bed... so I won't promise that.


_The campaign will be sandbox, with various hooks and routes._
Caution:  Sandbox is harder to run in a forum.  It's easy to get overwhelmed by the number of options.  Sandbox can also lead to total diversions like "Let's become salt merchants" or "let's run an inn."

The most successful games I've seen have a mostly-defined path to follow, or at least a solid end goal in mind with concrete and measurable objectives (think SMART if you're familiar with business process design).

I tend to see combat-heavy games as usually working out better.  D&D is not mechanically strong at social/political intrigue, so those game types usually do better with games designed for them like Diplomacy.  It's also hard to 'read the room' on PBP and tell what your character knows that the player doesn't know as far as what's insulting or not, what's going on in the background that player forgot about from 6 months ago, that a real social manipulator would recall, etc.  Kill the dark lord?  Sure.  Overthrow the dark lord by spending a year fomenting 3 different slave rebellions and convincing the Court Mage to Disintegrate him?  Good for novels, not so good for D&D.

_Style, mood, expectations, boundaries, triggers, will all be discussed with the players (once found).
I like a more RP/descriptive style, preferably no silliness or KOS just for the sake of it._
I struggle to be descriptive beyond a sentence or two sometimes... it's something I'm working on.  I do not typically put out four-paragraph wall of text posts, both because I don't think that way, and because I find it very awkward to assume a whole set of reactions to a conversation, or to swap in "I'm going to monologue" for "What's going on?"  (wait for response) "Oh, how did that happen?  What did they look like?" (wait for response) conversations.

_- Dice rolls. All out of combat dice rolls will be called by me. Some times you wont need a roll, some times i ll roll my physical dice if you shouldn't know if you failed or not. (perception, knowledge, insight etc). All combat rolls will be in IC, all "GM only" will be physically rolled._
This is good.

_The fastest way for day to day OOC chatter is in IC. make a spoiler titled OOC and be done with it._
I've recently enjoyed having a Discord available as the main OOC discussion.  It makes it easy to get everyone on the same page, and can prompt for faster responses ("post up.").

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## animorte

> I may be interested.
> 
> Here's some advice intended to be helpful and friendly, and maybe tentative interest.


All of this actually helps me so very much. I'm looking to break into pbp for the first time. I appreciate your perspective and input.




> you may want to review this recent thread:  How many PBP games actually succeed?


Discussion on that exact thread is what finally encouraged me to actively come throw my name in here instead of just stopping by to read some of the threads periodically.

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## hxolhpths

> Gm could also hop in if he likes. Not much discussion about characters can be made without really knowing the setting/concept tho.


I never got to familiarize myself with discord.
I guess the years caught up with me before the broad usage of discord and i now find it
too much of a hustle to get accustomed with it.
But... by all means... players may use it to any extend to chat, organize and coordinate
with each other.




> You've been a forum member for 10+ years, but I don't think I've seen you in the context of PBP before.  If you haven't done much, you may want to review this recent thread:  How many PBP games actually succeed?


I play pbp for the same amount of time on another site, so there is some experience. Either way i ll read the link you provided. 




> A too-small party limits how complex of an encounter you can make, because 2 PCs just can't handle an archer on the rooftops , a barbarian in front, a wizard in back, and a tame blink dog all at once.


 Why did they get into such a place? They provoked someone they shouldn't? they walked into a "bad neighborhood" without taking measures? 
The fact that they are the "heroes" of this story, doesn't mean that the world is shaped around them.




> ...when I get home at suppertime I usually have to spend my time catching up on work or getting the kids to bed... so I won't promise that.


I can't promise anything, but i ll try to see if and how flexible i can be with activity. You'll know before game starts.




> The most successful games I've seen have a mostly-defined path to follow, or at least a solid end goal in mind with concrete and measurable objectives (think SMART if you're familiar with business process design).


 The "path" will be drawn by the players. I am not there to tell them where to go. They know where they want to go.
I am there to make it interesting enough, so even if they fail to reach their goal, they would say "I'd do it again"




> All I need to know is what should I do in order to be considered as a potential candidate?


Nothing yet. This is only an Interest check.
When i post an official recruitment post, be ready to apply.

If you want to have something ready, i invite you & everyone interested to think
what subjects are a "no no" to you. What triggers may be there that you want/need to
avoid etc.

 Maybe the characters find themselves into a hardcore racist kingdom. There would be
scenes, conversations, even actions from or against them that are more than... disturbing.
 Maybe the characters decide to go up against a human traficker (or another race) and
they infiltrate his/her base. You can only imagine what you ll see/hear in there.
 Maybe the two players selected are a couple that plays a couple, and they want to be
a tad.. "descriptive" in the way they portray their affection to each other.
 Maybe you find yourself into a hardcore Patriarch or Matriarch society that treats
the opposite (and all other) gender as less as an object or even worse.
 Or a society that enjoys and promotes interracial relationships to the extend that
entirely new species emerge from time to time. 
 Maybe you find yourself amidst a "barbarian" raid to a town... Historically, they did
much more than burning buildings and looting...

There is an unending list of subjects that our society shies away of, but nevertheless,
they used to be a worldwide day to day occurrence, and unfortunately, for some
places on earth it still is.

From the top of my head, there isn't a subject i would shy away off, as this is a
make believe game and not a manifesto or a course on how to live or behave.
By portraying & interacting with such ideologies, does not automatically make you
or anyone, a follower or representative of such beliefs.

You may be a character that strives to abolish each and every of these,
you may be a character that thrives in these, or just someone that
has specific boundaries and some are considered an abomination, some are 
considered a blessing and some are ok or just indifferent.

That said, if the players decide to take the "safeties" off, and apply for the game,
they have to be 18+ years old. This is not debatable.

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## hxolhpths

> _The campaign will be sandbox, with various hooks and routes._
> Caution:  Sandbox is harder to run in a forum.  It's easy to get overwhelmed by the number of options.  Sandbox can also lead to total diversions like "Let's become salt merchants" or "let's run an inn."


Let me elaborate a bit on that...
I used the term wrongly/broader than it is defined.
What i should have said was that me as GM and the players we decide the story.
You can be whatever you like, in the era/setting of your choice, the mood of the story,
the genre, even if you want to play in a high or low magic, if there is gunpowder or if
there are steam powered devices.
We, together decide on the "setting/world".

You may be 2 brothers, trying to escape your oppressive family, that have the means
to go after you, hire people, use magic or even start a war through their networks & status.

You may be 2 witches during the dark ages, trying to stay hidden.
or a couple of interracial or homosexual people (or even both) trying to make by,
in a discriminatory world.

Or you may just be usual, run of the mill couple that try to find a way to lift a curse
befallen on their village in order to conceive.

Or you may be both soldiers of different kingdoms during "The War" that meet and 
due to circumstances form some kind of alliance, or friendship, or romance....

Maybe one is an Evil mastermind, set to subdue the entire realm, but s/he meets
the other, and somehow needs him/her, or owes him, and the later tries to bring him
to the side of the "light". Or vice versa...

You may even be the last of your species, or realm or plane.. and try to make a life 
somewhere else. Maybe only one of you is and the other i a native.

The list is infinite...
You can create the story you always wanted.
As Long As, both players & DM Agree.

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## hxolhpths

any more questions?
any (more) interest or luck there off, cause of recent answers?

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## animorte

I see we're not afraid to go hardcore, which doesn't particularly bother me any, as long as it's not intentionally there to send a political message, or to be a bully for no reason, I guess. (I don't get the impression of these as you said you want it to last as long as it can.)

The only questions I really have following is what type of over-arching setting you, as the DM (I assume), intend to lay as the foundation. I guess it would be "setting" talk to figure out what everyone involved aspires to achieve.

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