BALDUR'S GATE: DESCENT INTO AVERNUS | Play-by-Post | Only $6
After a city gets teleported to Hell, you have to go yank it back outta there.
About the adventure
Elturel, the holy city, is famous for having its own sun, an orb of bright light that floats above the city, bathing the region in eternal sunlight. Some believe it was a gift from the sun god Amaunator to save the city from a great darkness long ago. Many pilgrims now travel to Elturel to see this great second sun, known as The Companion, turning Elturel into a sacred place of worship, faith, and goodness. But Zariel, the Archdevil of Avernus, will soon drag Elturel into hell to use its many souls as fodder in the Blood War... Find a way into the Hells. Save the holy city of Elturel. Stop Zariel the Archdevil once and for all. *** Designed for an adventuring party of four to six 1st-level characters, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure that begins in the cities of Elturel and Baldur’s Gate but soon leads to the Nine Hells. By the end of the adventure, the characters should be 13th level or higher.
Game style
Play By Post
Roleplay Heavy
Game themes
$6.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Sunday – 1:00 PM UTC
Aug 17 / Session 3
Session Duration / 1–3 hours
4 / 5 Seats Filled
GAME MASTER
DM_Alex | Zoological Gardens
he/him
5.0
(27)
Schedule
Each player will be charged when a session starts.
Report Adventure
Meet the Game Master
Less than a year on StartPlaying
138 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Teacher
Average response time: 2 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
DISCLAIMERS: 1) I use no A.I. to run or prep my games -- I believe in the real, human experience behind TTRPGs! 2) Enjoying the game is more important than money, always. Nothing makes me more sad than someone having to leave a game because they can't afford it. I'll always be flexible about that, no matter what! Now, more about my DMing style! *** I'm a children's librarian, writer, actor, and musician, but of all my ever-multiplying hobbies, I love running TTRPGs the most. I came to this site to run games for engaged groups who love telling stories, building worlds, and solving problems together.
View Profile →Reviews (27)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Creativity
Storytelling
Teacher
Ben
Played 22 sessions
Alex is a great GM. I am in my first play by post campaign and he is DMing it. He has Discord set up expertly, so that it is very easy to run the game and keep things organized. He is very helpful(I am bad at the tech side of the game) and his writing style as a DM is very engaging and descriptive of the world setting of the game. He has a real knack for drawing you into the world of the game. If you're looking for a good DM who is very helpful and runs fun games, Alex is the one for you!
GM James Pintado
New review
Played 19 sessions
Played a Middle Earth game and a Marvels PBP with this DM and I highly recommend. Great descriptions of the worlds and believable dialogue make DM Alex’s games a rare treat. Make a fun character and join the party.
Brock Lee
Played 19 sessions
Great Gm.
Jackson Vanbuskirk
Played 19 sessions
I've had a great experience in DM_Alex's game. This is my first time playing in Play by Post format and DM_Alex's help and game experience has been awesome! Direction for the party is clear, tooling support through discord is great, and of course the group is great :) Easy 5 star from me!
A.J. Falcon
Played 8 sessions
Alex is engaging and kind, his play by post are fun and give each participant a chance to shine, risk and reward hides behind every corner and the excitement for more is contagious. Take a chance, roll the dice!
Ali
Played 5 sessions
Communicates well with players and does their best to describe environments and keep things moving.
Character creation
Creating your character
Please make sure you have a D&D Beyond account (just the Free Tier will suffice, just make sure you join using the Campaign link so you have access to my shared content!) and a Discord account.
We have not delved into the official Descent into Avernus campaign yet! The party has only completed an introductory prologue, after which two players had to leave the campaign. Therefore, all new players will be starting at 2nd level! We currently have a fighter, Aella Snyder, who survived the prologue, and a Cleric.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Step 1: Create a Discord account, D&D Beyond account, and Owlbear Rodeo account (all free!). Step 2: Create a character (more info/guidance provided once you join the Discord)! All characters will start at 1st level. All Player's Handbook (2024) species, classes, and backgrounds are available to choose from. If you would like to choose something from a different source, just let me know and we will work something out! Mostly, I just want to make sure we are all viable to play in the setting of the Forgotten Realms (which is pretty easy to do!).
What DM_Alex | Zoological Gardens brings to the table
I have a very well-organized Discord server full of awesome maps and campaign notes; a paid Owlbear Rodeo account with constant live access, so you can follow the action no matter when you're able to take your turn; and a Master Tier D&D Beyond account to share access to the 2014 & 2024 Player's Handbook, the 2024 Monster Manual, the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as all my adventures/supplements! *** Weekly cost: Session 0 is free -- you will not be charged until we begin playing in character! The scheduled times are always only for your weekly charge only! Play will continue throughout the week. Please see my GM profile for more details on my super flexible refund policy. *** As game master, my goal is to get through the equivalent of one live play session per week, though it often ends up being more. That usually looks like AT LEAST three posts from me at least five days out of the week. I ask that players try to post at least twice per weekday (or five days out of the week). I track player turns to make sure no one is left behind. We usually are able to get through 2-4 scenes per week, equivalent to about 3 hours of live-action play! *** Communicating with your DM: Each of you will have a channel just visible for you and me if you have any questions, issues, or want to discuss anything you don’t want the rest of the party to know about yet. You can always dm me too but using your channel with me makes things easier to track across my various games, thus speeding up my response time! *** Discord channels: We will have an out-of-character (OOC) channel for general chatter and planning, and an in-character channel (IC) for narration and dialogue as your characters. *** Order of events: This is an asynchronous, play-by-post game, meaning we are working with players across different time zones. This sometimes means events will happen out of order, usually just a bit loosely (i.e. maybe different players are talking to different NPCs, or one player is shopping while another is investigating an alley). *** Ruleset and Game Platforms: 2024 Rules. We will be playing using the 2024 rules of D&D 5th edition (I'm totally open to 2014 stuff too, but my brain has shifted to 2024 in a lot of ways, so it may take some re-explaining every so often). D&D Beyond. Please make sure your character sheet is in our D&D Beyond Campaign and that it is linked to Discord. We may use the “maps” feature on occasion for combat! Avrae. Avrae is a robust Discord bot programmed for playing D&D, and it even links with your D&D Beyond character sheet, but it does have a teeny tiny learning curve*. It’s especially important to know for combat. *If you’re unfamiliar with Avrae, I will teach you, and either way you will learn as we go. If you’re extremely reticent, I can work with you to just do your rolls elsewhere and apply them to monsters myself. Again — I am flexible! I just want this to be fun without random weird coding stuff holding you back.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Platforms used
Safety
How DM_Alex | Zoological Gardens creates a safe table
Communication is always the best safety tool, but I like having a structured option for players to use! I know some people don’t like X cards, but they’re important because going in without a net can make or break the game for someone, especially online and especially text-based when tone is nearly impossible to convey. Even if nothing ever comes up, it’s good to have a system in place to help folks feel safe. Use these as often or as little as you’d like, but please know you can always send an “X”, “N”, or “O” to either me in a dm or to the game chat, whatever’s more comfortable for you. You do NOT have to explain why it’s bothering you; though you may need to specify what you’re X’ing or N’ing, you never have to elaborate on why: The X (“stop”) card means the scene has crossed a line for you and needs to stop; we will change the scene immediately. You can use these for anything, even topics you didn’t list ahead of time. Send an N (“near”) card as a warning if you feel we’re nearing content that could be close to a line for you that you’d thought we would be avoiding. It basically means you’re cool with what is happening, but would prefer to proceed with caution or just shift onto the next scene. The O (“okay”) card is a check-in card that just means you’re fine OOC with whatever’s going on, specifically in intense situations. It’s sort of a way to say “okay, this is pretty intense, but let’s keep going”.