Sellswords Wanted for the
Phandelver Free Company!
Welcome to the FORGOTTEN REALMS. In this campaign, you are a fortune-seeking adventurer serving with a newly formed mercenary company based out of Phandalin, a frontier town on the fringes of civilization. You have eschewed your plow and pickaxe for sword and shield and spell. You will protect the town against monsters, bandits, warlords, and dragons. To root out these threats and earn your fortune, you will need to investigate the town, brave the wilderness, and delve into crumbling ruins. If you are clever and have a bit of luck, you might even survive long enough to build a stronghold of your own. Will you become renowned heroes of the people or hardened swords-for-hire?
5th Edition with an Old-School Feel
This campaign encourages some character optimization, but the dice won’t solve every problem—sometimes, a bit of ingenuity on the part of the players is needed, and other times, discretion is the better part of valor. Indeed, most enemies won’t fight to the death, and morale will play a major role in combat. We will be keeping a close eye on equipment, gear, and funds to heighten the challenge of surviving in the wilderness or a dungeon. We will be stricter about playing by the rules and letting the dice fall where they may, so player character death may occur if suitable precautions are not taken. Tonally, the campaign will strike a middle ground between grittiness and high fantasy.
West Marches–Inspired Campaign
The Phandelver Free Company is a narrative conceit to explain the open-table approach to this campaign. A mercenary company can have a dozen or more sellswords in its ranks, but only a few of them might sign on to a specific job. Similarly, the adventuring party for this campaign is not fixed, but changes for each job, drawing from a pool of characters and players (meaning you could have more than one PC). Players should sign up for jobs posted by the DM—some are one-shots, while others are mini-arcs lasting several sessions. This campaign differs from traditional West Marches game by featuring a more prominent metaplot, meaning that certain jobs will advance a given storyline.
Adventures on the Sword Coast
This campaign takes place in the Sword Coast region of western Faerûn. Setting knowledge of the Forgotten Realms is not a requisite to apply, but players should be willing to learn the lore of the world as we play. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is a great starting resource, as is the Forgotten Realms Wiki.
Because the Forgotten Realms is very "core D&D" in flavor, not all sourcebooks are permitted. Players may select character classes, races, spells, and feats from the following sources: PHB, EE, SCAG, ZGtE, TCoE, VGtM, MToF, FToD. No Unearthed Arcana material is allowed.
Scheduling and Bookkeeping
The Discord server will be the “base of operations” for players and PCs alike. There you can sign up for sessions, handle downtime activities, reference the ever-evolving world map, and roleplay in-character at the local tavern.
Most sessions will be run in-person at the GameZenter or the DM’s home on Tuesdays or Fridays, but some sessions might be offered online via Discord (we will be using the Avrae bot). There will be a minimum quorum of three players for each session, otherwise we will reschedule.
For character sheet management, we will be using D&D Beyond (the DM is able to share official content with players, so you won't need to buy or subscribe to anything). Players will be responsible for their own campaign record-keeping beyond experience points and treasure.
Players and DMs Beware!
The start of this campaign will be based on materials from the Starter Set, Essentials Kit, and published adventures such as "The Sunless Citadel", so if you have recently played or run any of those, this campaign isn’t for you at this time.
How to Join
Recruitment is currently open—to apply, please fill out the following Google Form: https://forms.gle/sLFEyzJVUfty28dD9. If you are selected as a player, you will receive an email with a link to the Discord server and the Player's Guide. The first sessions will open up during December 2021.
