So, a number of days ago now, I was asked to be the DM of a game in the chatroom. I've DM'ed games on and off for a number of years now, everything from lunchtime D&D played with a quarter, to a 3rd edition game played with 2 guys, to a 3.5 edition game played with 8 players, so I'm quite happy to DM a game here.

I don't have all the details of the quest yet, but fortunately, I have the same amount of time to prepare as you all do. I'll try to prepare a quest that has a decent balance of puzzles to solve and enemies to fight, though. And, since I'm normally a DM that works with props, I'll try to figure out something to do to substitute for that. Jpeg maps may well be involved in this game.

So, anyone that's interested in playing, let me know! You can post your character information here, or PM it to me. We're going to be starting from the start, level 1 characters. I'll allow a good deal of things, but no races with an ECL (Effective Character Level). Since I'm expecting a fair number of people, some sort of group will definitely be forming, and Chaotic Evil folks don't tend to work well in groups... So, go with something not-Evil. Depending on how many players we get, I may have to adjust the quest to accommodate the group size. Also, having a balanced group is a good thing, keep in mind what other folks have already chosen to be when designing your character.

We'll probably start things up around 2 to 3 weeks from now, give everyone plenty of time to get their characters ready, to schedule times when the games will happen, and for me to plan the quest itself out. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Fred or I. (While I have a lot of experience DM'ing games, Fred has a LOT more experience in playing as a PC than I do, so he's definitely a good source of information. And he doesn't know I'm roping him into this, he's off getting drunk right now.)

EDIT: I entirely forgot to mention, this'll be a 3.5 edition game, not a 4th Edition one.

Well, M3ga has shown interest in playing, and he's a COMPLETE noob at it, never played nor even cracked open a PHB before, so I'm willing to take on all players.

I'll be setting up a thread in the NWO with further information on the books, folks who don't have any of the D&D books will want to head there.

If they're level 1, sure. ...One PC per person, though.

Absolutely, the LexiaBot9000.

I think I might actually limit things down to the Player's Handbook, Player's Handbook II, and any of the Complete _____ books. It seems like we're gonna have a decent amount of folks playing for their first time, so I don't want to have the new folks seeing some Munchkin'd out character from one of the more advanced books. Keep in mind, this is a level 1 quest.

EDIT: This will be in a custom world, not in any of the pre-made worlds. As for timeframe, at this point, it's absolutely anyone's guess. Based on past experiences, scheduling games is the biggest nightmare of playing D&D.

Some things I forgot before, notes on character creation...

New players should probably try to avoid the spellcasting races, like Clerics, Wizards, Sorcerors and Druids. We have some more experienced folks playing, they can handle those for us with fewer problems than a newer player would have.

As far as rolling stats goes, I've always been terrible at rolling for stats, and have seen some characters ruined by horrible stats... So I'm being fairly generous with it. Roll 4 d6 and drop the lowest one and total up the other 3. Roll 6 stats this way. Then roll another set of 6 this way, and then a third set of 6 this way. You can then take your pick between the three sets of 6 to use as your base stats. And what the hey, you can even assign those 6 to any stat you want, rather than having to go in order. I'd rather see a character with a few high stats than a character with a lot of low stats...

More questions will come up, I'm sure of this, so continue to direct any questions you have to me or Fred, or LordSathien or UsaSatsui. All these three people are very good sources of information.