Session Zero & OOC Info

Setting and lore

The setting abandons DND's book lore in a lot of ways; these are some of the major things to consider but if you have questions just shoot me a message.

• Faith and deities
• Warlocks
• Drow, goblin, and orc societies are not inherently evil, and it's not uncommon to see them in cities.
• There is no planar travel, or knowledge of planes outside Meraset.
• The known history dates back 300 years, everything before that is a mystery. Even if your character is from a long-lived race, you're all first time explorers, fresh out a training course.
• You have gone through training to take on this mission. Consider everything in the Explorer's Primer sections as common knowledge that your character recall without rolling, if you choose.

 

Playable character options

• All PHB races
• Aarakocra, Genasi and Goliath from EEPC
• Volo's Guide races, except for Triton. You come from a land-locked area.
• Changeling, Shifter, and Warforged from WGtE
• Minotaur from GGtR
• Mousefolk
• All standard PHB classes and Witch class from Walrock acceptable. Blood Hunter and Artificer pending approval.

List should be considered final.  

Gameplay

Combat

In order to keep fights moving at a brisk pace, I'm asking for the following:

• Please give the player at bat and DM speaking priority.
• Be ready for your turn. If you don't have an action prepared you can default to the Dodge action or delay until later in the round.
• You can narrate your action, or I will try to channel Matt Mercer and give you a cool action scene. On kills you'll get a 'how do you want to do this?'

When fighting in the Wilds:

• You have 2 lanterns that keep the Mist at bay. These can be picked up or dropped as a free action, and are able to be worn on a belt/harness to free up hands for using weapons or objects. Each lantern provides a 30 foot radius of safety around it.
• Facemasks are needed to breathe safely outside the lantern's radius. Perception checks are made at a disadvantage while wearing a mask.

 

Other rulings

• Milestones: Instead of calculating EXP, at the end of a session I'd like the group to answer the following questions:
  -Did you overcome a challenging enemy or problem?
  -Did you discover a secret or an interesting piece of lore?
  -DId you make any meaningful connections?
  -Did you fulfill any personal goals?
  I'll factor the answers in with hitting certain campaign points for leveling up.
• Death notes:
  1. Hitting 0 HP = you fall prone and can take no actions or movements. You can opt to fall unconscious or not; I don't want to take away your chance to roleplay some dying words. 2. Rolling a 1 on a death save counts as just 1 failure. 3. All other rules follow as normal.
• Allowing cinematic stunts for encounters: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/203-fighting-dirty-cinematic-combat-stunts
• Please no alts. Backburner character in case of first character death is fine, but I want to be able to focus on your individual stories.
• Using a potion on yourself takes a bonus action, using it on someone else is an action.
• Rations matter outside towns.
• Characters start at level 3.

 

House rule - Heart Links

-Modeled after the bonds/history in PbtA, heart links are reflective of your relationships with your fellow Explorers.
-Gained by starting Camp scenes; pose a personal question, prod about backstory, share drinks and learn something about your friends. Explorers involved in the conversation can take a Heart Link with each other, should they feel inclined to.
-Heart Links can be broken by words or actions.
-An Explorer can spend a Heart Link in 2 ways:
1. Spend 1 Link to gain advantage on your next roll.
2. Perform a Team Move. Both Explorers spend their Link with each other to act on the same turn. If both attacks hit, something interesting happens.
-Heart Links that have been spent can be reactivated through another Camp Scene.
 

Session Zero

 

Theme and notes

-Campaign will lean more towards RP than combat. I admit that I'm not very good at combat but will try to build interesting encounters.
-Game type is a 'sandbox on rails' kind of situation. The party will have a goal and a certain amount of time to complete that goal. Besides that, you can explore each area how you wish.
-Content and comfort levels:

• Topics that may be present: loneliness, grief, hopelessness, violence/gore.
• If there is something that makes you uncomfortable, please PM me. We can discuss lines and veils (lines being things that won't be crossed, veils being things that are glossed over/not narrated in detail)
• Group check in: For the public discord chat. At any point in a scene, DM or players can type 'check in?' to which others can respond with a thumbs up reaction (all good, continue!), the warning sign (this is getting uncomfortable, slow down before continuing scene), or a thumbs down (signal to stop or change scene).
  Also, you don't need to wait for a 'check in' prompt to use emojis. Use them as signals for 'i like this, keep going' or 'i'm uncomfortable, back off.'
• X and N card: For private chat. If something comes up during a session that is not okay with you, type an X in private chat. The X-card is a signal to the DM to change, rewind or skip the content. If you feel like something is headed towards an X-card topic, type N in private chat and we'll steer away from it.
• Open door: At any time you can step away from a scene whether in-character or out of character.

Pre-game questions

Character questions

• Why did you sign up for the expedition?
• Did you spend time with other PCs while you lived in the city? All of you will have seen each other in training courses, but are you friends, rivals, or just that guy who sat behind me in cartography?
• What are your characters' desires? Fears? Regrets? Feel free to PM me to talk about your character's backstories.

General

• What do you look forward to in a DND session?
• Is there anything you don't particularly care for/have fun doing in DND?

Post-session

Not required, but if we can take a couple minutes for reflecting/feedback on what you enjoyed, what might have been frustrating/confusing, and what you're looking forward to next time, I'd really appreciate it <3