Dungeons & Dragons 5E
en
English
Hungry World - Homebrew Horror 5e Campaign
Homebrew
Roleplay focused
(Originally wrote this as a reddit post, please mind the formatting lol)
Hi folks! My name is Eli (they/he), I am a 28 year old enby DM with ~5 years DMing experience in 5e and I am looking for 1-2 players to round out our existing party and join my newest campaign called Hungry World! Hungry World takes place in the world of Esurio, where surges of wild magic have been sprouting up all over the world, scarring the landscape and warping the world as we know it. Your group will be tasked with finding out the cause of these surges, and discovering the answers to other mysteries along the way. I am creating the skeleton of the entire world and pantheon myself, taking inspiration from canon D&D lore, Critical Role, The Magnus Archives, The Thing (1982), real world mythologies (esp Celtic and Jewish, as those are my backgrounds) and some other fun stuff along the way. I am looking for players that can help create and fill out this world with me, leaving your own personal mark on this newly fabricated space.
This game will be meeting every other week, likely starting Feb. 20th, at 8pm EST and will typically run 2-3 hours. The group already had session 0 so I will likely be having a 1- or 2-on-1 session 0 with whoever joins.
Current Party:
Tiefling Way of the Astral Self Monk
Tiefling Swarm Keeper Ranger
Halfling Wild Magic Sorcerer
(I would like a cleric to join, as our last cleric had to drop out, but I have other plans if that isn't something you're interested in! Happy to share the pantheon I've made so far with anyone looking to play a cleric/religious character, just didn't want to completely overload this post with text moreso than I already have lol)
Requirements to join
- Be 21+ (current party is all late 20s/early 30s)
- Have Discord and Roll20 accounts (sheets will be made on Roll20)
- Be okay with having voice/video on during session. I prefer to have both voice and video, but voice only is okay too!
- Be okay with session audio being recorded. This will be for private use, it will be uploaded to my google drive (which you will have access to) for posterity and note taking purposes.
- Be okay with body horror, as that will be a fairly major theme in certain parts of the game. Also, if insects and/or trypophobia are an issue for you, heads up that a PC (and their art) have these as a big feature.
- Note, if you are okay with body horror in general but have a specific type that you aren't keen on (ex. eye horror), I'm happy to work around that and accommodate!
- Be okay with PC death. I don't think I'm a particularly bloodthirsty DM, but I like a fun, brutal combat encounter from time to time. Note that I treat PC death seriously in my games, but it doesn't mean it will necessarily be the end of the line for your character (if you don't want it to be). There will always be an option to come back, but there is also the option to let your PC stay dead.
- Be open and communicative with me. I'm not asking you to always answer me immediately, but I do ask that any conflicts (of time/scheduling or in game) be brought to me in a timely manner. Just want everyone to be on the same page.
- Looking for a serious game that you will interact with outside of session time. I'm looking for someone who will do more than just "check in/out" for session time. I'm not asking for anything too intense but I really enjoy just talking about characters outside of game, even just as simply as sharing memes about characters. I really like a slightly higher level of engagement to really show that you are invested in the game. I'm not expecting this at all times, I'm reasonable and know life is busy and that absolutely always comes first, but any show of engagement outside of game would make me really happy.
- Absolutely no generative AI, there is no room for that in my game.
- Just be cool! No intolerance will be accepted at my table, we're all just here to have a fun and goofy (and-possibly-traumatizing-for-the-PCs) time 😊
Looking for (but not required)
- Would prefer folks with some TTRPG/D&D experience, but players of all levels are welcome!
- Players who prefer heavy RP and who aren't afraid to prompt RP themselves.
- You don't have to be queer but I've played with mostly all queer groups (and the current table is all queer) and my world will be heavily queer (trans NPCs, NPCs with neopronouns, not a single cishet NPC lol). So long as you're cool and respectful, you're welcome at my table.
General Game Vibes
- I definitely prefer to run RP/character-centric games, but that does not mean things like combat and world exploration will be forgotten. I'd say it's gonna be about a 60/20/20 (RP/combat/exploration) breakdown, give or take.
- I also have a handful of NPCs already created that have little backstories in the game server and would be very happy to have PCs with history/connections to them (not required, I just love my little guys lol)
- I prefer a bit more of a serious tone to my games, but I'm also all for laughs and goofs. I love adding humor into the game but at the end of the day, I just ask that the world/story be taken seriously.
- There will be some heavy leaning into horror territories, especially body horror, but this is not an entirely horror themed campaign. It will still be typical fantasy with some horror elements to spice things up.
- Main themes: Corruption, Greed and Overconsumption
- Main horror themes: Body horror/transformation, loss of self/identity and loss of control/autonomy (there will be consent talks before this!)
Character Creation Info
- Starting at level 3 (unsure of where we will end, but this will be a long-term game, so likely into the higher levels/15+)
- Pretty much all standard D&D/fantasy races, except for warforged (or any other "inorganic" races), are allowed.
- Homebrew races/subclasses/backgrounds are allowed, but must be run by me first.
- Any race with a higher than average speed (35ft+, like aarakocra, tabaxi, satyr, etc) cannot be a monk. You can be those one of races *or* a monk if you want, but you cannot be the combination of the two (I learned this lesson the hard way with a way too fast aarakocra monk PC in another game lol)
- Rolled stat generation
- HP can be fixed or rolled (if rolled, reroll 1s)
- Password: Sunrise
- Multiclassing allowed (your stats do not have to meet multiclass requirements)
- Optional class features (from Tasha's) allowed
- Milestone leveling
- Everyone starts with 1 free Common magic item
- Would love to get at least a small backstory document from each player so I can work their story into the game from the beginning. It doesn't have to be super in depth, but I would like at least a bit of deep thought put into the character's origin. If you give me a huge backstory document with lots of juicy details to sink my teeth into, I will be kissing you on the mouth (consensual/platonic). Just be willing to possibly change some details up to fit the world/story ideas I currently have!
Homebrew Rules
- Everyone starts with one free DM inspiration (free d20 reroll) and more can be earned with creative game play.
- Sorcerers can be CON casters (instead of CHA). I will also allow other main class ability changes with some discussion.
- Only rule I am taking from the 2024 rule set: Exhaustion (10 levels instead of 6, and subtracting current # of exhaustion levels from all d20 rolls)
- Exploding crits (any die rolled to the highest value is rerolled and continually added to total damage until rolled below highest value). Ex: crit on 4d10, you would roll 8d10. If you rolled a 10 on any of those dice, you would keep rolling and adding until you roll that die below a 10.
- "Beyond the Limit" spell slots (idk if this idea has an actual name lol). Basically, you can keep using your spell slots, even once you have run out of them, but at the cost of level(s) of exhaustion equal to the spell level of the slot Ex: a 2nd level spell slot recovered this way would give you 2 levels of exhaustion. I am still playtesting this idea, including playing around with the idea of allowing this for non-casters with class/race abilities, but it might change around a bit.
- Sanity/Fear checks. I'm stealing this from Call of Cthulhu and will be using a fear system that could possibly lead to your PC developing phobias and other effects based on the horrific things you may encounter.
- While I tend to stick to mostly RAW (rules as written), I'm also open to rule of cool when it would benefit the story/the enjoyment of the players.
Other notes
- Everyone is welcome at my table. I am a white queer enby, who is disabled/neurodivergent, and will always try my best to foster safe spaces for folks.
- Safety tools are used at the table. I use lines and veils, X cards, TTRPG consent forms, after session unwinding/discussions and am open to others!
- You're allowed to roll physical or digital dice, the only roll I ask for to always be rolled digitally is death saves. (Or if you wanna point your camera at your dice so I can see you roll, that works too lol)
If you're interested, fill out the form below and I'll get back to you soon! Once I've reviewed the submissions, I will reach out via Discord so we can sit and have a chat to see if we might be a good fit! I'll likely need a few days to go over the submissions, so if I'm interested in your responses, I'll likely reach out by the end of the week (Feb. 7th).
Form Link