Old Haunts || hunting ghosts through the heart of the USA

Creating your character

I would like everyone to come to session 0 with a vague concept that's open to change- for the most part it's okay if you've got nothing and it's okay if you've got a character fully built, but monster of the week allows us to go around the table and build connections to other players, and I would like to ensure there's space in your character's backstory for that to be feasible. We're starting at level 0 and monster of the week allows you to select a stat block from your playbook. it's okay if you don't consider this too deeply beforehand: when we get to the session i'll be discussing if anyone has accidental playbook overlap (it's probably okay! but some playbooks are better for it than others). I'm also open to explaining anything about the system to newer players and I'll be discussing the drawbacks of some playbooks, so I don't want anyone to be heartbroken if their concept works better with a different playbook or what-have-you. For the most part concept creation will happen at session 0 and you can finish your sheet before session 1, but however much you get done is fine.

Preparing for the session

All my players need is a mic and a discord account. if you want to seek out the free resources evilhat has online that's cool! if you don't that's also fine and I will give you all the papers you need. All I ask is that you come to session 0 with the vaguest possible idea of the kind of character you want to play- since so much of character building happens when you decide your connections to the other characters, it's perfectly okay if you don't have it all figured out. I'll walk you through it, and off you an empty fillable gdoc for the character sheet stuff.

What Casper brings to the table

This game will be RP heavy, and I do stick to rule of cool within reasonable boundaries: if there is something that it makes sense for your character to be able to do but you can't quite find the rule for it, i'll allow that, as long as it's fun and in the spirit of your character. In the spirit of characters, in general: I'm a writer and will be bringing that to the table. I do character voices, create resources like documents you would have access to, and visual aids like face claims for NPCs so you have a general idea of the vibes of the person you're speaking to. I'll also offer visual aids for the environment- less dnd maps on a grid and more images of the buildings in the town you're walking past, what's in the window of shops, things to get you grounded in your landscape. I enjoy both creating the story you're running around in and being a fan of the story you're creating: you are the main characters, and I won't try to railroad you, you can go wherever and do whatever speaks to your characters. I'll give you a road to drive on.

How Casper creates a safe table

At session 0 we'll be sitting down and talking about what everyone's comfort levels are and establish a rough list of Hard Nos, and things that I will simply not include onscreen in campaign. If one of my players is afraid of insects, we will not be fighting giant insects, for instance. If those Hard Nos are a poor fit for my campaign (if angels and demons are a hard no, for instance) I may simply gently suggest you tag yourself out, no hard feelings. I keep an open door. If at any point something is getting described in two much detail and you need a skip ahead, I invite people to send an x card- since we'll be playing on discord, you can either do that via the public voice channel or in my dms, which I will be keeping nearby during game. You can send an "N" if you feel things are heading in an uncomfortable direction. We will be handling some heavy topics, but as a PTSD sufferer myself I will be respectful of boundaries and I expect my players to be respectful of mine. While this campaign takes place in the modern world and has some of the shittiness that entails, I will not be going grimdark and I do ask that everyone bring characters to the table that won't go in that direction either. Lets all be respectful of each other- the party should be a team, and conflict between characters is only fun if everyone is on the same page about it. After heavy sessions or conflict-heavy sessions I will be checking in and encouraging my players to check in with each other and make sure conflict in character stays in character.