Saltmarsh: The Truth in the Fog | 5e14 rules starting at LVL 5

Creating your character

CHARACTER CREATION: Each character has been hired by Elizabeth Cane to help in researching the Grene Haar. This does not mean you have to play a researcher! Your character could be hired muscle, here to keep the group safe, a local naturalist here to make sure the research is respectful of the environment, or any number of things. Think about why your character could be useful to this group of researchers and why they want the reward money and medicine that will come from completing the job. Also wonder if your character has any previous connection to Saltmarsh. If they have none, you could ask how they feel about spending extended time there for this job. BACKSTORY REQUIREMENTS: A short backstory is required to be submitted ideally before session zero and certainly before session one. Character backstories can be as simple or elaborate as you like. I tend to run high RP games, so you should build a character that you would enjoy spending a good amount of time with. Other little backstory stipulations: Evil characters are allowed but will require a group conversation. The best way to keep evil characters working well is to make sure their overall goals align with the party's goal. Please don't build your character with any overly literal references to characters in fiction or any real-life figure. I don't mind characters that take a lot from their inspirations, but I prefer for PC's to be more grounded in the fiction. In short: - A few sentences of backstory are required; longer backstories are welcome -Evil characters can be a part of the game so long as it's a conversation over the table -Please don't directly reference out-of-world fiction in your backstory -Build a character that you'd enjoy roleplaying CHARACTER SHEETS: -2014 5e as our base rules -starting at level 5 -point-buy for stats -Roll for HP. If you roll under the average, you get the average. -free feat at level 1 (you can get additional feats at lvl 1 from other sources EX: playing a varient human means you get two feats at lvl 1) -Normal starting equipment with an additional 100x1d4+50 starting gold (you can spend the gold on extra equipment during character creation) -You get 2 common magic items and 1 uncommon magic item -Homebrew is allowed with direct approval from GM -PDFs for character sheets will be provided; alternative formats are allowed (Ex: D&D beyond, Dicecloud, Google Sheets, etc)

Preparing for the session

-A full character sheet and backstory will be required by session 0-1! -Both a webcam and mic are ideal, at minimum a decent working mic is required! -A Discord account!

What Eve brings to the table

GM STYLE: Everything, including dice rolling, will be done over Discord. Control of the music will be delegated to one of the players each session. Combat will be done on hand drawn digital maps. For my general GMing style, I run games that are focused on player character autonomy and expression. I reshape modules around the themes and motivations of the PC's, maintaining a sense that the world is alive and has its own motivations and systems. Additionally: -The world will be alive and meaningful, but the story is focused on the PC's -player backstories will be worked into the plot in subtle and overt ways -RP between PC's is encouraged! -NPCs have distinct personalities and thought-out motivations -main goals are player engagement and autonomy COMBAT: As for more mechanics-focused game elements like combat, I run combat whenever it feels appropriate for the story, which, depending on player choices, could mean infrequently. I try to keep things fast-paced while still leaving room for creative PC descriptions and more cinematic moments. I try to keep my combat difficult and engaging, I never want combat to feel like a road bump on the way to something important. Additionally: -one combat won't last longer than one or two sessions -combat will be difficult but not a slog -combat will be a part of the story and not feel regressive -combat will be based on the logic of the setting and player choices -combat can happen more or less based on the player's out-of-game interest in combat

How Eve creates a safe table

For the game's safety tools, we'll run a session zero where we go over group boundaries and expectations for the game. Typically, session zero lasts around 30 minutes to an hour, and afterwards, we will play through half of the first session (so it's really more like session 0.5). I use various colored cards that can be used similarly to X and O cards. Finally, there will be a check-in and check-out at the beginning and end of each session.