I'm a young guy trying my hand at running a campaign in an RPG tabletop over the internet with one other person (I met him when he posted his steam contact info (lol) on 8chan's christian board years ago). He expressed interest in doing online rpg, so I made a game based on Iron Age Gaul and the Second Punic war. Even though I do not profess to be proficient at this I think I put forth quite a bit of effort. I enjoy the story building but I have a very weak grasp on things like mechanics of games and getting a feel for how to run them. Right now we are using a rule book called "Tiny Dungeons" which is supposed to be very bare bones.

We also both came to agree that if we should continue doing this we would need more players for it to be fun. I told him I would look for players but the only place I would find them is on roll20 and I really don't want to do that, unless I have to. I stumbled on this site and to my pleasant surprise there seems to be a lot of veterans of the old internet here, and thought maybe you could help.

If you are interested I attached the notes for the campaign that I have thus far, as well as the map of the village I've been using for all our previous sessions.


NOTE -- parts noted as such;

# <-

can be read verbatim to the player

Villiage Magurix;

PLAYER NAME marcos
FATHERS NAME maron

Starts in the morning, during the beginning of harvest. You assist your mother, Rigani, to collect food(from garden inside villiage), and wood (outside village) mother is cooking at the house.
If wood is collected first, the player meets Ardur before he leaves out that gate(who divulges the location of a new fishing place and asks if he will join later) then Magurixartr.
Magurixartr if he stays to collect herbs (who jeers at him, half-politely) then ardur (who says the same things).

If player is to  go fishing he must be reminded that he has no proper spear to use, and has been using a sharpened stick, which is more likley to cause fish to be released (finess).

Following helping mother you eat some cold bread  for breakfast (or not I guess?) and proceed to feilds where father is already working with harvesting grain.
Grain harvesting proceeds nicely due to the clouds, however comfortable it may be though the rain has left the grains continually damp. lifting a moldy bundle triggers a roll for coughing, which will
cause Magurixartr to jeer at player again if failed.

/ Session 1; Marcos, was jeered at by Magurixartr. Then when harvesting insulted Magurixartr
/      Currently on east of villiage upstream spearfishing,  mid afternoon.
/

# Magurixartr is not much older than "you" are, but he is a man and "you" has still to make your oaths. It is a rite wherein "you" will present yourself at the longhouse and be made to swear certain oaths
# before the villiage men to reach manhood. This rite is done when the boy in question is decided to be a man by the clan men.
# His father, Magurixsunis, is ill at home. So, in his stead, he, Magurixartr, has been sent out to organize and oversee the working at the harvest.

Magurixartr is supposed to work as well with the
labourers but makes up excuses to avoid work if he can. He does not like the player or his friends because he thinks that he is simply better than everyone (except the much older men 30+ or so who he is careful to not anger),
and the player has been receiving (ill-deserved according to Magurixartr) recognition from the men of the villiage for his skills. So, he tries to make up for it by belittling him.

# The villiage is generally administered by Magurix's son Magurixsunis. This entails mostly routine managment of things such as accounting for grain, dealing out and selling of grain to laborers and/or paying thereof, ensuring
# villiage public buildings and defenses are in good repair, setting watch of the villiage and issuing orders for control of gates and other things. With his illness this unofficial role has been delegated to his son, who is
# projected to be the heir of leadership. Magurix is very old and is the man who started the village, and he is actually either father/grandfather/or great grandfather to half to villiage, or another old relative to the other.
# This is a tight knit clan villiage and everyone in it is related to "you" in someway or another. Though he may be old Magurix remains the head of the villiage and presides over clan meetings in the longhouse.

> Tribe name is Ventrixos
> Fyrsten's name is Carosartr
> Settlement of 50 families, 300+ people
> Elder Magurix is de facto leader but villiage still hosts meetings (adult men only) to settle issues
> It is surrounded by a pallisade and rests on a hill top and has a single watch tower.
> 4 gates in the palisade for the 2 roads that cross in it
> The villiage has never benn attacked in your lifetime and never been beseiged by a large army
> The road that leaves towards the stream ends after following the stream for a few miles
> To get to the Fyrsten's seat-city of Lounānidos one must follow the stream-road until it ends, and continue along the stream's bank until you reach a lake.
  You must then travel along its bank for miles until the mountains on the other side approach. Here, one must go through a pass in the mountain and follow it
  until you come down the other side. In the valley that opens up at the bottom of the the mountain lies Lounānidos.
> Though most in the villiage eat bread and ale, and some hunted game and fish, there are a great many sheep held by the village. These are used to trade with Lounānidos
  for things such as raw iron, tools, and other neccessities, and occasionally luxury goods. The shepherd cottage outside the villiage is one of the best houses of the villiage because of the job's unique importance

# Recently there has been a great deal of rainfall later than usual, especially now during the harvest. This is expected to reduce edible grain yeilds significantly.
# Last year there was a drought which also reduced yeilds and already depleted the granary reserves, putting the villiage in danger of starvation.
# Tonight the villiage will hold a meeting to discuss the current plight, and also it has been decided that you will present yourself at tthis meeting to make your rites.

Random NPC gaulish names;

Male Female

Decanviros Mediosa
Danti Cunagnosi
Catusviros Veracix
Medusiges Caros
Mīlan Caros Canū
Letronias
Lāmā

Assigned NPCs;
Rigani, the player (marcos) mother
Maron, the player (marcos) father
Danti, tower gaurd
Mīlan, gate guard
Catusviros, stablemaster
Maron, father of Marcos

During the meeting a villiager, Cornācu, complains that too much grain has been sold to the baker who has been using it to make beer which is more profitable and less filling.
Artos defends himself saying that he prices his works fairly to afford things for his family, and that it is not his job to account for grain for the whole villiage. There is little
anger or raising voices, and the the discussion is short lived, ending with silence between Cornācu and Artos, followed by a resolution from Magurix that no more ale is to be made from grain
and the villiage must simply drink water or milk. There is no dissent.

Further discussion about the plight of the village entails where supplementary food can be gathered. Hunting, trapping, and fishing have already over burderened the region and much of the game in the area has already been eaten.
Discussion about culling sheep to feed the villiage is discussed, but the flock held would only be enough to feed the whole villiage for 2 months, after which there would be none left to trade with. The Magurix forwards that if
all the grain is depleted from the granary, sheep may be culled until 1 out of 5 of all the sheep held now remain after which there will be no more the villiage can do, and each family shall be left to find sustenance in its own way.
Magurix sets a conditional release of the oath of the villiage men, that they will be no longer bound to the villiage once all the sheep that are allowed have been culled.

It then follows that someone must be sent to the Fyrsten's seat of Lounānidos. Generally, Magurixsunis would go on the journey when such needs arose because he was known to the Fyrsten. However, being sick as he was, and Magruix
having delegated this to his son years ago after he had advanced in age, there was need to chose another to go. Naturally, Magurixartr stands and offers to go first, being grandson of Magurix. However, Magurix asks the player's father,
________ to go instead. Magurixartr becomes angry and asks his grandfather;

# "How can you send a common man to the Fyrsten's seat! I am a man like the rest of them here and as son of the villiage warden I have a right to go!"

# Magurix responds; "You have spoken rashly and forgot some of your wits. There are none in this house, not even I who is above a commoner in the eye's of the Fyrst!"
# "You are very young, and do not know the way to our Lord's city. You are needed here to order the harvest and join the hands in their labour"

following this, Magurixartr silences  himself.

The meeting ends andd Marcos is called to the center of the long house in front of Magurix and is asked;
> Do you swear to be loyal to you  clan and people, and to their leader Carosartr?
> Do you swear to defend our peoples land in times of war, and keep it in times of peace?
> Do you swear  to uphold the law of Gods and to follow in the path of truth and justice?

Magurix then instructs you; "rise up and take this sword."
then turning to the men he asks "Do you accept him as your equal?"

The villiage men realease a yell and cry "Yeah" in one voice. Magurixartr says nothing and Marcos sees this if he passes a test (Normally disadvantage unless he has a trait)

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@ Last session Marcos threw a fish at Magarixartr and humiliated him (and himself) in front of the entire village. He was knocked out and made to swear the oaths before being
@ taken out of the Long house, he was additionally told he would not be going on the expedition and tha Magurixartr would go in his stead.
@
@ Though Elder Magurix did chide Magarixartr, the exact verbage went well off script. Marcos essentially call Magurixartr an immature bully unfit to be anything and threw a
@ fish at him. Nothing else of note happened that session, Marcos caught some (2) fish and deleivered them to his mother and took a look around the village. The player was
@ interested in weapons, which he still has not yet chosen.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@ Marcos was condemnded to a months punishment in service of the knakker
@ Aquired 10 days food, a spear, a water bag and lef the villiage. Is in a grove about a mile to the south, 100 yards west of the road
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Marcos and his father will encounter a wild direwolf, which had been manipulated into unnatural strength and viciousness by the power of a demon.
The wolf will have 4 HP, and knock Maron on all fours and get an opportunity sneak attack of maul (1 test for attack, 1 for sneak, if both pass its is a crit),
and 2 subsquent attacks at disadvantage.

Maul does 1 HP dmg. A critical attack is a successful attack on a vital portion of the body, for animals this area is only the neck. a successful crit does 3HP damage.

The dire-wolf will crit on Maron taking 3HP. The next two tests are determined by chance, and will only do a maximum of 1 each.

In wooded fight, Magurixartr rolls normally, but Marcos rolls advantage on attack and damage rolls due to adrenaline.



Hey there,

there is a recent topic of just about the same issue:

https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/lfg-forum/

There clearly is demand for it, which is understandable in this current politicized climate.
Anyhow, you mentioned christian board, have you tried your church if you attend one?

Quote from: Angry Goblin on June 02, 2023, 12:23:27 PM
Hey there,

there is a recent topic of just about the same issue:

https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/lfg-forum/

There clearly is demand for it, which is understandable in this current politicized climate.
Anyhow, you mentioned christian board, have you tried your church if you attend one?

I do have some irl friends who may or may not join.
If so, that's great, but it's more than politics. I can get along with liberals or whatever, so long as they want to get along with me. The people on roll20 just seem like ... non-serious people, if that makes any sense, and not talking about the hobby (I don't room to talk).

Quote from: katoshy on June 02, 2023, 05:56:58 PM
The people on roll20 just seem like ... non-serious people, if that makes any sense

Heh. I got one very good player off Roll20, by not advertising for 5e D&D and I guess being lucky!

Hi, I'm glad you've found this hobby!  I read through your campaign notes and it seems like it's very scripted, similar to the way a video game story would work.  Some people do enjoy that style, but it's a lot of work on the GM side and the player experience won't be any better than playing a video game. 

Personally, I prefer a style that creates a simulated world with emergent story.  Prep in this style of play is much easier: I detail a location, add some NPC/Monster factions with their motivations, and let it rip.  The players come up with creative ideas to solve impossible problems and things get really entertaining when their plans go pear-shaped.  You should check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLMpNX3iZc0 and the entire channel there if you like that one.

This play style (called OSR style) benefits from random generation to keep things from getting stale.  I use this site for a bunch of stuff, especially names: https://donjon.bin.sh/

There are a lot of blogs, videos, books, etc. that go into detail on how to play this way so if you get lost there are resources.

As far as finding players goes, see if there are any cheap game conventions in your area.  I ended up in a regular weekly game as a result of meeting people at a small convention.

I generally go with real life friends.  RPGs are just a way to spend time with friends, so if you play with folks you already know you like hanging out with you're more likely to have a good experience.  If you're a beginning GM, finding people who have never played before can be good, because they're less likely to see your mistakes.  And if you're in high school or college, there's likely to be a lot of RPG groups and clubs about.  You just need to find them.

Quote from: Mishihari on June 06, 2023, 05:46:49 PM
And if you're in high school or college, there's likely to be a lot of RPG groups and clubs about.  You just need to find them.

I can't even imagine what woke circuses high school and college clubs must be in today's environment. If 90's me was getting in to gaming now, he'd be burned at the stake.

One thing I have done myself is looking at Facebook groups, you might have friends who are members to your surprise (I had). Granted, there are a bunch of toxic lefties openly supporting antifa and BLM, they are always vocal about it, so you can easily stay weed them out, but there are also a few conservative or non-political players, or even sensible lefties that you could get along with.

You can write a request for players and see the response in such groups and vet those who respond, if you have a profile that is neutral you might get the right folks to join or just add a "I support veterans flag" or something similar, it will deter most of the jerks. If someone starts whining about identity politics kill their character by a freak accident and boot them from the group, I would.

I'd recommend IRL things like public noticeboards in your local library, uni or community college over asking around online. People are much less likely to misbehave if you find them in meatspace as opposed to Facebook or Roll20. Your church would probably be the best bet if you want like minded religious people. There's no harm in asking around your local haunts in the real world. The worst that will happen is some people will say no.