If there is any interest, I'd like to run a dungeon crawl type game. The system is Tunnels and Trolls; behind the scenes I roll a bunch of six sided dice, on stage you can whale away to your hearts content (with the usual understanding that I decide if it what you tried works or not). The milieu is magical renaissance. Magic works, gunpowder works; gunpowder weapons are deadly, imperfectly reliable, and very expensive; heaven help you if you've got a bunch of black powder on your person and someone hits you with a fire spell. Muscle powered weapons remain very popular for some reason...

The races are mostly the standard elf/human/dwarf/hobbit/etc; anyone who wants to run what would normally be considered a monster race has to run an individual who knows how to play well with others. No kindly balrogs or dragons, please; this is going to start out a low strength campaign.

Magic is a pretty straightforward system; you pick a spell, and if your character has enough strength left to cast it, it goes off. If not, it doesn't. The actual spells I'll explain to anyone who wants to play a mage (some others can learn spells, but they won't know them at first).

Fair warning, it might occasionally get a little silly; but things should not become openly Monty Python's Guide to the Galaxy. Dragon eating, gold excreting tribbles will be very much the exception, not the rule.

So with all of that said, is anyone interested?

I might be. Playing is way less work than running.

Certainly! I'll take the dumb tank role. Are orc races allowed to be player characters? I'd love to play a troll, but that may be over the power level allowed, or not a viable PC.

Dibs on the healer.

Dibs on the squishy wizard. Specifically, elf; main strength in his spells, but in case he's caught out without them he can use a bow and (on the archery range) hit the target more often than not. Something along those lines.

Can a Half-Elf cleric pray to the Gnomish God of Heavy Artillery? Or is that much too silly? Also, can I raise undead in your game?

In some kind of order...

Orcs are allowed, yes. A troll would have to be a fairly young one, which would get tougher as it eventually levels up.

Clergy in the usual 'divine magic user' sense aren't really available, but it would be easy enough for a specialist mage to have a modified spell list (including higher level healing spells at the cost of most of the normal first level ones). Non-magical healing can also work for a character that isn't starting as a mage.

Beginning characters are at best mediocre missile weapon users, and wizards aren't really well trained in weapons to begin with; but a bow using spell caster is certainly doable one way or the other. Eventually they can get pretty good at both.

A god of heavy artillery...well, most gunners would be among the most pious folks you'd ever want to meet (things being what they are). There's no reason a god or two wouldn't have decided to take an interest in this new chemical powered weapon technology, or that their servants can't be half-elves. Any actual power derived from the relationship with the divine would be entirely up to the divine, and would manifest as one off miracles (if it manifests at all) rather than being a separate spell list. In short, the priests and priestesses need a more standardized skill set to go adventuring while they forge their own particular relationship with their gods. As for creating day to day type undead, it's a pretty standard ability of high enough level mages; the higher power types of unliving abominations usually require special preparation and aren't created in the field. Not on purpose, anyway.

A word about the basic character types we'll be using. At the start there are three main 'classes' characters belong to. They are the fighter archetype; widely trained in weapon and armor use, and all but magically inert. The magic user; capable of mastering any magic eventually and doing original research/enchantment, though very limited in weapon use. And the 'rogue', better thought of as a generalist; who can use most any war gear (though not very well), and can learn lower powered magic if they can find a teacher (they don't know any spells at first). On rare occasion, there are some oddballs who manage to pick up both formal weapon and magic training; they're the only ones who start out largely capable in both fields, though they have some limitations that keep them from being too abusive right off the bat. These general types can be tailored to some extent to get a desired character type; but at first everyone has to more or less fit one of those types.

Now remember that that's what happens at the start. Events during the game (on or off stage) can further nudge characters towards the desired concept. Or away, if things go wrong; but what adventurer ever sees things go wrong?

Is the world like Arcanum, where magic and technology are mutually exclusive, or can gunpowder be magicked and firearms enchanted?

They aren't exclusive; but enchanting gunpowder is rather dangerous unless the mage knows exactly what they're doing (few do). Enchanting firearms or fireworks is more common, though certain spells can have pronounced side effects.

Well then, I know what character I'll be playing. She'd probably qualify as a "rogue" type.

I think I'll go with a straight magic user. What limited weapon use ability an ordinary magic user has will be placed into knowing which way round to put a bolt into a crossbow.

To simplify things slightly, I've decided that your characters are basically acquainted at the start of the game through mechanisms and means left unstated. At least for now. So if you would all be so kind as to post a brief description of your characters, I would be most obliged. One thing I would ask you to include; indicate which would be your character's strengths by way of stats (they are basically the same as first generation D&D, except instead of Wisdom there is Luck). Also include which would be your characters' drop stats, if indeed there are any.

For what it is worth, many things in the game involve rolling saves versus the appropriate stat; the higher the stat, the easier it is to save. It's never actually impossible to make the roll no matter how unlikely the prospect of success, and never absolutely sure that the grandest master with the highest of stats will succeed. Not out in the field, anyway; things are handled differently when there are no time pressures (or awkward foes insisting on hampering one's style).

By way of useful background in which to place these characters, all of this takes place in a rather large empire with very different levels of law and types of custom included here and there. Though culturally more or less western, for the political setting think more of China than Rome; dynasties come and go, provinces become more or less peaceful (and might be lost for a time now and again), barbarian armies may come through (and occasionally settle) provinces may remain all but permanently unassimilated (like Tibet, say); but the empire itself endures. Right now, the dynasty is human; in a few centuries it may be some other race. Or it might not. The dynasty seems stable for now, and things are more or less peaceful across most of the land.

How does this affect the characters? Aside from the prospect of being referred to by such descriptions as the fifth greediest man in the Empire (which might provoke a jealous response from number 6 if that worthy is looking for a promotion), there are plenty of imperial or provincial forces, official, unofficial, and secret societies, and such like the characters could have belonged to. It's a long settled place with wild bits rather than the other way around. Don't worry for the moment about names of these places, we can fill that in later. Though if you feel your character absolutely must have been a member of the Imperial Order of Pastry Cooks or some such, then feel free.

Oooh, there's a Luck stat! That makes me want to base a character on Gladstone Gander - incredibly, unnaturally lucky, but as a result lazy and poorly skilled, going through life on luck alone.

He's an elf, his father was a wizard, his father before him was a wizard, and so on back as far as family history records (several centuries). His name is Cloverleaf, and he is tall and thin. He learnt a bit of magic on his father's knee, and has kept up his magical studies purely from curiosity, but he's never opened shop as a wizard. Or anything else, for that matter. He lives well, on a series of lottery wins, discoveries of mysterious buried treasure, and similar lucky events. (It also doesn't hurt that the day he decides to buy something, then it's often on sale - if he even gets as far as the shop without finding someone giving them away free). He's ridiculously, almost inconceivably lucky; his friends sometimes refer to him as the luckiest elf in the Empire, which is not quite a believable claim - he's no doubt the luckiest in the village, though. He collects old and rare magical tomes as a hobby - most of which he finds in the local second-hand bookshop, the proprietor of which has no idea of their true value - but he is quite willing to go exploring some underground complex looking for some rare volume, trusting in his luck to ensure that he will leave safely, with at least one new tome in hand.

Major stat: Luck (with second-highest being Intelligence - I presume that's the stat used to cast spells with?)

Weakest stat: Strength

I suppose I should mention that as characters gain in experience their stats will improve. So at start one could be a very lucky elf, but at first it will be on a more local level (luckiest in town, 6th luckiest in the province, or some such). Luckiest elf in the Empire comes later.

Okay, I've made a suitable edit.