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DONE-PRIVATE GROUP Beginning Players

DONE-PRIVATE GROUP Beginning Players

Two to three hours (your choice) devoted to your questions & problem areas as a new player, then wrapping up with a 90-minute adventure!

TYPE

One-Shot

LANGUAGE

English

EXPERIENCE

Open to all

AGE

18+
FULL
$20.00

/ Session

Details

Once / Saturday - 12:30 AM UTC

Mar 22

Session Duration / 2–3.5 hours

6 / 6 Seats Filled

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Schedule

This game will begin once 1 player has joined

Meet your party members

6/6

About the adventure

Are you a "first-time player" or someone who is "still new to D&D" and looking for a coaching session and a short game to help you learn the ropes? You’ve come to the right place! Whether this is your first time playing or you’ve had a little experience and want to expand your knowledge, I enjoy working with new players to help them understand the game I’ve loved for 40 years. Each session will include discussion and Q&A, as well as a live play one-shot so you can get comfortable with the game at your own pace. I can run beginner sessions for groups of 2 to 6 people. What we'll do: BEFORE WE PLAY: After you've booked your SPG session, if you are interested, I'll be happy to give you 30 minutes of free character creation chat coaching on Discord to work through some of the issues you might be having creating a character on D&D Beyond. DISCORD: Please use https://discord.gg/EdC6SWU6xv and the "dnd-for-beginners-general" channel. D&D BEYOND: Join my my D&D Beyond Beginners Campaign: https://www.dndbeyond.com/campaigns/join/63453783540188701. PART 1 (60-90 minutes) 1) WHERE ARE YOU NOW: I'll spend a few minutes getting a feel for where you are in your process of learning how to play D&D (never played, played once or a few times, etc.) and what aspects of the game you are most interested in learning about. 2) CHARACTER PREFERENCES: I'll help you spin up a character that suits your sense of how you want to play (spell caster, tinker, fighter, high-priest, shifty rogue), or if you're not sure, I'll guide you through some Q&A that will help you understand what it's like to play each each type of character. 3) PLAY PREFERENCES: Next we'll talk about what kind of game play experience you think you want to have. What interests you most? Exploration? Combat? Interacting with NPCs? Solving puzzles? Facing monsters? Navigating dangerous city politics? Finding treasure? What would you like to try first or next? PART 2 (90-120 minutes) When you feel ready, we'll dive into a short adventure crafted by me to suit your wants, goals, and needs. 4) PLAY + Q&A: We can either play straight through for 90 or 105 minutes and leave 15 to 30 minutes for Q&A at the end, or we can allow play to pause any time you have a question that you feel is preventing you from playing as effectively as you'd like. I have done both and am comfortable with both.

Game style

Rule of Cool (RoC)

Theater of the Mind

Meet the Game Master
DMs Guild Writer

Less than a year on StartPlaying

161 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Teacher, Rule of Cool

Average response time: 3 hours

Response rate: 100%

About me

Greetings Adventurers and fellow DMs! I'm your friendly GM/DM Justin Donie, known here as Fungeon Master Justin. I specialize in D&D5e games for parties ranging in size from 1 to 12 people (1-6 online, 1-12 in person), with ideal party sizes ranging from 3 to 5 players, comfortably managing an eight-person campaign at the moment. I've run over 700 D&D/RPG sessions in my 40+ years of playing (590+ of those in D&D 5e in the last 10 years), including a good mix of in-person and remote sessions of D&D (AD&D, 2e, 3e, 5e), Star Trek, Star Wars, Shadow Run, and other RPGs, but my focus is definitely D&D. I was fortunate to spend over 10 years working at Wizards of the Coast, and while I was there I got the chance to write the D&D Adventurers League module 09-03 Hungry Shadows (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Hungry_Shadows) and to be a contributing writer to Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. I offer a range of session type and length options including One-Shots (2-3 and 4-5 hours), Marathon One-Shots (5-6 and 7-8 hours) and Campaigns with serial 1-2 hour or 3-4 hour episodes. In addition to the One-Shots and Campaigns I currently offer, feel free to message me about doing a Custom One-Shot for you and your party! I enjoy running both published content and my own homebrew one-shots and campaigns. I am available for both private individual/group events as well as public events, and if you'd like me to run something you've written, I'm open to discussing that too! Please see my GM Style notes for more information about me and what I do! PARTY COMPOSITION: Recognizing that you might be contacting me as an individual looking to play in a game OR as one person representing a group of people who want to play together, please mention in your contact whether you are looking only for 1 slot for yourself or if you have friends who are planning to join the same scheduled event. I normally only run Neutral and Good characters, but I will run Evil's IF the group playing the Adventure agrees to it and we discuss play style well before game time. So if you want to play an evil character, please contact me before booking. SPECIAL REQUESTS: It's always OK to ask me about shifting dates, times, player counts, etc. to better suit your purposes. If I can make it work from my end, I'll be happy to do so!

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Character creation

Creating your character

I'll work with you to create a character that suits your understanding of what you want to enjoy in this session. We'll use D&D Beyond as the Character Creation Tool and when we've created a character you're happy with, we'll connect it to my campaign in D&D Beyond so you have access to everything you need. My only restriction is I don't support evil Player Characters in my beginner sessions, as it can lead to complications and stress that aren't fun for the group as a whole.

What to expect

Preparing for the session

1) WANTS: Think about what kind of experience you WANT to have from your play / learning session. Make some notes about what you think you want, based on what you know so far. 2) DON'T WANT: Make a list of any things you know for sure you do NOT want to try or experience during this session. 3) QUESTIONS: Make a list of things you want to learn more about so you can ask the DM questions. 4) WHY D&D: Be prepared to tell me a little bit about why you want to learn more about D&D.

What Fungeon Master Justin brings to the table

As your GM, my primary goal is to make sure everyone has a great time, including me! I recognize that every individual and group is different and that the preferences of each group also vary. That's why we'll spend plenty of time in the first hour making sure I understand the group's likes and dislikes, preferences and boundaries, and what they are looking for from the adventure. This one-shot will be designed to suit your situation, your goals, your preferences for what you want from your learning experience. THE BASICS VIRTUAL/REMOTE: I use D&D Beyond and the D&D Beyond 2d Battle Map/VTT and grant all player characters assigned to my campaign full access to all relevant materials. I also provide custom story content, original (my own) and AI-generated NPC, location, and item illustrations, and lots and lots of detailed big and small maps, as well as PDF post-game session notes for every episode. Video recordings and transcripts may be available if we play in Zoom and the group is open to it and interested. IN PERSON (groups living in the Puget Sound area only): For those of us lucky enough to play together in person, I also provide battle maps, a huge collection of minis from which to draw, an awe-inspiring selection of dice (if you forgot your own), memorable handouts, eye-popping props, and other additional features which are negotiable based on party/group preferences (music, lighting, etc.). Minimum 2 weeks advance notice for in person games. NPC VOICES I love doing a wide range of compelling NPC voices and sound effects, but if you happen to be a group that prefers that I don't do that, I'm OK either way. Just let me know what you prefer.

Homebrew rules

TABLE RULES CRIT PC’s: Nat-20 damage = (1 full damage die value) + (1 rolled damage die value) + (normal bonus) e.g., D12 = (12) + (rolled value) + (normal bonus value) 25% SUPER BLOODIED Target creatures that have 25% or less of their hit points remaining make all attacks at disadvantage. 3 BAD ROLLS If a Player rolls 5 or less 3 times in a row on a d20 roll, they can re-roll the next 3 rolls at or below 5. SPELL SCROLLS Can be used with a casting ability check =10 if the spell is one your class can cast.

Equipment needed to play

Computer

Internet

Microphone

Mobile Phone

Safety

How Fungeon Master Justin creates a safe table

All listed safety tools available to players at all times during the session. It's MOST important that you feel safe and comfortable learning and playing the game.

Content warnings

Safety tools used

Frequently asked questions