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Venger
Learned Scribe
USA
269 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Apr 2025 : 21:19:25
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I’d love to find a PBP campaign in the Realms, specifically the 1E-3E era (I have no interest in the post Spellplague Realms). I’m fine with using a variety of rules sets, like AD&D, D&D 3.5, Pathfinder 1E, and even Castles & Crusades, Shadowdark, and/or Old-School Essentials. I just want to play in the classic Realms. So can someone point me somewhere where I can hopefully find a campaign like that? Thanks.
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"Beware what you say when you speak of magic, wizard, or you shall see who has the greater power." |
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HighOne
Learned Scribe
249 Posts |
Posted - 09 Apr 2025 : 03:05:20
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| Try AI. The latest models are very good at DMing. |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2523 Posts |
Posted - 09 Apr 2025 : 04:25:07
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| rpol.net? |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
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EltonRobb
Learned Scribe
USA
238 Posts |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2450 Posts |
Posted - 08 May 2025 : 21:16:15
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| I second www.rpol.net. Though you'll need to check the Wanted - Players thread regularly, because older edition games fill up quickly. You could also post in a Wanted - DM thread, to see if someone would start up a game for you and others. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Asssilem
Acolyte
1 Posts |
Posted - 09 May 2025 : 05:35:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Venger
I’d love to find a PBP campaign in the Realms, specifically the 1E-3E era (I have no interest in the post Spellplague Realms). I’m fine with using a variety of rules sets, like AD&D, D&D 3.5, Pathfinder 1E, and even Castles & Crusades, Shadowdark, and/or Old-School Essentials. I just want to play in the classic Realms. So can someone point me somewhere where I can hopefully find a campaign like that? Thanks.
Do you try rpol? |
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klevinsourd
Acolyte
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jan 2026 : 08:14:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Venger
I’d love to find a PBP campaign in the Realms, specifically the 1E-3E era (I have no interest in the post Spellplague Realms). I’m fine with using a variety of rules sets, like AD&D, D&D 3.5, Pathfinder 1E, and even Castles & Crusades, Shadowdark, and/or Old-School Essentials. I just want to play in the classic Realms. So can someone point me somewhere where I can hopefully find a campaign like that? Thanks.
You’ll have the best luck finding a classic Forgotten Realms play-by-post campaign by checking established PBP-friendly communities rather than general LFG spaces. Reddit’s r/lfg and r/Realms are good starting points if you clearly state that you’re looking for a 1E–3E era Realms game and are flexible on systems like AD&D, 3.5, Pathfinder 1E, or other old-school rulesets. Dedicated roleplay forums such as Myth-Weavers, EN World, and Giant in the Playground also regularly host or advertise PBP campaigns, including older Realms settings. In addition, many Discord servers focused on old-school D&D or Forgotten Realms have PBP channels where GMs recruit for long-term games. Being explicit about your preference for pre-Spellplague Realms and your rules flexibility will greatly increase your chances of finding a suitable campaign. |
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SilenceOfLolth
Acolyte
10 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jan 2026 : 03:05:57
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I have no experience running PBP games, and so do not think I would be a great fit at DMing one, even though I prefer it. I would, however, happily play in one one that used 2e or 3e/3.5e rules. My preference would be for 3e and/or 3.5e but would happily play 2e. If any other rules I would probably respectfully bow out.
AI is not the answer for me, far from it in really. |
Edited by - SilenceOfLolth on 13 Jan 2026 03:08:14 |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
8063 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jan 2026 : 08:56:01
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quote:
Originally posted by HighOne
Try AI. The latest models are very good at DMing.
AI is good for providing tools.
It can quickly spew out whatever you ask from it: maps, NPCs, subplots, etc. And it's great for "cognitive offload" chores, all the dull and tedious routine detail stuff which collectively costs a lot of real time to provide a little real value.
AI is not good for providing friends.
Anyone who claims otherwise is a profiteer or a victim of the "AI companion" trap.
People are embracing (and recommending) AI too quickly, too often, and too blindly. And Artificial Intelligence provides a wonderful start point which is better than low-talent Natural Intelligences. Some of the things it generates are quite interesting.
But AI is still unable to beat humans who are actually competent, skilled, and creative at their craft. (AI can produce a lot more quantity but that's a poor measure when you seek more quality.)
You can easily find endless low-effort low-talent low-quality low-engagement AI slop on Youtube - garbage fiction, garbage narration and translation, garbage art and imagery, garbage music, garbage videos - the sort of vapid stuff which looks good at a glance but is revealed as rubbish when examined critically - ask yourself if that's really the quality of D&D you want to play and what you would honestly expect to gain from it. Do you really want to fill your time with passive garbage which is flawed, limited, meaningless, and unimpressive to actively intelligent people?
Some of us have experienced and remember truly outstanding players and characters and adventures and combats and sessions and campaigns, we can regale with outlandish and amusing stories, we can look back with nostalgic fondness and laugh together. Those are authentic and genuine experiences shared with other people.
AI would replace those with contrived and copied experiences, ideas stolen from other sources. It would entertain only you, nobody else would share the experience and (because it is artificial) nobody else will be very interested in hearing you retell it later.
Relying on cloud black boxes to do your thinking leads to decayed ability to think inside or outside of the box for yourself. And this is dangerous when the AI offers to do so much more than the basic grade-school arithmetic your calculator has already made you forget or the basic ability to remember all your frequently-used phone numbers that your smartphone has stolen from your brain. Play with AI too much and you'll lose cognitive talents, creativity, capability, even conscious volition.
Relying on AI/LLM interfaces for relationships will never be as lasting or fulfilling as real offline relationships with actual people. At some point it will change from you choosing solitude to you suffering from a verdict of loneliness.
Use the AI for the thing it's best at - as a tool to increase your quantity of output.
Don't use (or depend on) AI for the thing it sucks at - as a substitute to supplant your quality of output.
I will barely touch on the "hidden" downsides of playing with AI running on somebody else's servers.
Your sessions will not be private. The information it observes or collects about you will be used for other purposes (and probably sold to others you would not consent to, who will in turn use or sell that data again). It could be hacked, wiped, stolen any time - or locked behind subscription paywalls - or get bankrupted/bought/sold/takeover by different owners. It's not "your" data, it's totally outside your control, and regardless what it promises there is no real guarantee your significant investment of time and effort into it today will still be available to you tomorrow. Internet institutions are transient and ephemeral things, your thousands of hours of effort today might not even exist tomorrow - or, just as bad, it might be plastered all over the search engines for all to read.
To answer the OP's question ... join an offline/online group or run an offline/online ad to meet actual people you can interact and synergize with. There's probably peers at your school or workplace who share similar interests. There's probably a dozen reddit and discord groups filled with people who can recommend other people. There might be community message boards in places like libraries and rec centers and laundromats (although I don't imagine young people would think of looking at such things). And the classic method still exists - just hang out or ask around at your local game store, the sales person will happily connect you with other players if that encourages you (and them) to buy more products. D&D and RPGs and the fantasy genre itself are more mainstream now, maybe they aren't as cool as some people think but they also don't carry the social stigmas they did in past decades.
Yes, meeting people might be hard, especially if you're shy or you just don't know where to start. Spending your time engaged with an AI prompt isn't going to offer the right solution to that problem. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 13 Jan 2026 09:38:35 |
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Where can I go to find PBP Forgotten Realms games?
