We are going to tell a tale together - from humble beginnings to heroic heights. And the one guiding principle is that everybody at the table should have fun. The game master has obviously a significant influence on how the game unfolds so let me give you an idea of my game master style.
I prefer to have a continous major plot line running through my campaigns as I found over the years that players found recurring villains and working towards an epic goal very rewarding and fun. To counter the risk of railroading players in a more or less linear fashion from one plot point to another I am weaving each characters background story into that major plot line. I ran campaigns were the players eventually found one the characters plot more intriguing than my major plot line and I will roll with that.
I am not a big fan of throwing out completely random "bulletin board-style" or "stranger in the tavern" missions. On the other hand, there will be rumors flying around in Korvosa and the players can decide which ones to explore.
Whether you don't care much about character development and want to just show up for the game to enjoy your characters capabilities or engage in downtime activities to build a business, gather influence, build relationships or forge your own magical weapon - the campaign can accomodate both extremes.
You will notice a number of Optional Rules which I am planning to (gradually) apply in this campaign. If you are a new player or want to keep it simple you can skip most of the rules.
Distrations
I am trying to create an immersive game experience and found that folks extensively facebooking, twittering or enjoying cat videos often disrupt the game for the other players. So I respectfully ask to limit your non-game-related electronic device usage to what is necessary.
Combat is fast!
As characters gain levels you have more options to choose from and I can understand that you want to choose the perfect action every round. Or even discuss it with your group. This is not how combat works in my game. Again, combat is fast. And messy. Adrenalin runs high and we all make mistakes in these situations. You will forget that you shouldn't block the charge path of your group's fighter. Or use the wrong weapon. Sneak attach on an ooze doesn't work?! Aaargh, yes, now I remember. It happens and I as GM make at least as many mistakes or forget about the spell the evil necromancer had cast prior to the encounter. So while character's can certainly coordinate actions in combat, there is no time to devise a detailed strategy or debate options. Countdowns will happen in these cases!
Battlemap vs. Theater of Mind
Personally I am big fan of miniatures - not because I think that absolute everything needs to represented on an inch-grid - I just think they look cool. While in some combats, minis allow an easier visualization of what's going on, in other situations they are not necessary and it is more fun to create the image of an epic encounter with a flying dragon in everybodies mind. How useful minis are depends to some extends on the class choice and we need to see where the balance between the two options is.
Hajo is the name. I started playing at age 13 with a dump fighter character who wanted to be a Lord Paladin. Eventually his companions took pity and started a make-believe for him, calling him Lord and convinced him that his horse was a noble griffon with clipped wings. As I said - Lord Astor Griffonrider was not the sharpest tool in the shed. And I was hooked. Ask me about the mundane stick they gave him and told him that it is a wand of trap finding...
Since then I have run several long-term campaigns - lasting anything from 3 years to 10 years each- on various D&D/PF editions and in settings like Mystara (Wizards of Glantri, anyone?!), Ravenloft, Dragonlance, Planescape and Pathfinder's Golarion. The one common factor in all of these campaigns was that players played - with very few exceptions - the same characters all through the campaign.
I enjoy the variety of people across a huge age spread, backgrounds and interest the game brings together. I am curious what players I will meet here in the Bay Area after my wife and I moved to San Francisco in fall of 2016!