Ballad for a Demon | A Short 5e Campaign
Savage creatures have abducted the living and the dead to their mysterious lair; only you can stop whatever god forsaken plan they have.
About the adventure
🌍🌍🌍〰️〰️|Exploration ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️〰️|Combat 🎭🎭🎭〰️〰️|Social RP & Drama 🧩🧩〰️〰️〰️|Puzzles 😂〰️〰️〰️〰️|Humor ## About the Campaign ## 🩸 Struggle | ☀ Hope | 👁 Desperation Seeking a night of respite after days of travel you find the nearby village offers only smoke and iron. A landscape that should be idyllic is now a war zone with vile creatures stalking the shadows. The smell of death overwhelms. Could you be the ray of hope these people need or are you already too late? ## What This Campaign Offers ## ⚔️ Tough but Fair Challenge - An intense battle experience, with savage enemies that will try to knock you down and tear you to shreds. However, cunning and charm can always ease the burden. 📖 Interactive Characters – The characters laid throughout the story have their own struggles, challenges and stories. However much you want to engage with them is your choice. 🌍 A Taste of Everything - This campaign has some social encounters, some dungeon exploration, some wilderness exploration, and many different combats. It has the ability to scratch many itches, and introduce many aspects to newcomers. ⏳ A Short Story - This campaign will run for about 4 to 5 sessions, usually; Enough time to explore the story, the game and the character, but not requiring a long term commitment. 📜 Myths and Rumors - Draw your own conclusions from your experiences, against the expectations set by history and by onlookers. ## In-Depth Campaign Structure ## Designed with beginners in mind, but with a hidden depth that challenges veterans to dig in, this campaign will take you into the depths of a mysterious cavern and old lore. The campaign has some fighting, the amount depending on both decisions and luck, and their difficulty also depending (or not) on how you engage with the game; Opportunities for social exploration, cave exploration and wilderness exploration, as well as puzzle solving. Although the campaign is initially aimed at beginner players, it is perfectly capable of being used with veteran players. It is created in such a way that the final result and the impacts of the decisions are Highly volatile based on your engagement; Beginner players and those unfamiliar with RPGs will deal with the "first glance" of things and have a very classic experience, while experienced players can try to delve deeper into the themes and situations proposed and find a very unusual and socially/emotionally complex experience.
Game style
Combat Heavy
Dungeon Crawl
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
About me
Hey there! I'm Erick, and I have been a regular RPG player since 2015, but I've been involved in the world of RPGs and have been a fan since I was a little kid, when my brother used to GM for me. I'm a big fan of game design in general; so I also enjoy creating content and tweaking the rules as needed. I've played a few other systems, but D&D 5th Edition is my favorite by far. RPGs are my favorite hobby, and I believe they have immense narrative, rational and therapeutic value. I am happy to teach newcomers and engage with veterans alike. Although I embrace heavy themes and take the narrative itself seriously within the game, our communion as writers and players is something very light and comfortable for me.
View Profile →Reviews (9)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Creativity
Teacher
Inclusive
Erick was the first DM I've had in my RPG experiences. And he was incredibly welcoming, attentive, and an all-around amazing person to have guiding me and helping me with my first games. His worldbuilding, characters, and stories are all really well thought out and fun to interact with. He is clearly passionate about his games and knows how to set the mood through music and narrative. Having him as a DM is a guaranteed fun time, and I can't wait to have more opportunities to play with him again!
I've had the pleasure of playing several Dungeons & Dragons sessions with Erick as the Dungeon Master, and I can confidently say it's been a great experience every time. He brings an impressive depth of knowledge to the table—not just with the rules and mechanics, but also with the lore and worldbuilding. His passion for tabletop RPGs shines through in every session, from the way he crafts engaging story arcs to the enthusiasm he brings to even the smallest interactions. He puts in a ton of effort behind the scenes to prepare rich narratives, being able to strike a light and fun tone as well as a deeper and more serious one. Whether you're a seasoned player or brand new to the game, he creates a space where everyone feels welcome and invested. His style of DMing makes it easy to get into character, take risks, and genuinely enjoy the unfolding story. It's always a blast to be part of his games, and I look forward to many more adventures led by him.
Character creation
Creating your character
We will create characters during our (free) first session, and use mostly standard 5e character creation rules, with the following caviats: 1. We’ll roll for attributes 2. All characters start with an additional feat 3. I'm not using the "Ability Bonuses" from the races, but instead, the most current version where you allocate attributes kinda at will. Once you've joined, I'll share a document that lists all of the races and classes I allow per standard. We'll create level 3 characters in Roll20.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You will need a discord account and a roll20 account to play. Once you join, there'll be a link to a discord server where I keep all the helpful links and info I got for you. You are more than welcome to talk to me about any preparation you'd like and any doubts you have, but as long as you feel prepared, we are good to go!
What Kire brings to the table
We'll use battlemaps for all scenes that include a scuffle, and mostly use theater of the mind for the rest of the scenes; although I do share the images that I use as reference for locations, when there are any. We'll use music to set the vibe as we play, as well as some sound effects, all integrated within Roll20. I got a firm grasp of the rules, and I am lax with them, trying to create a flow on scenes, without losing balance.
Homebrew rules
We're doing simplified rules: Drinking potions as bonus action, no encumbrance and starvation rules, and no worry about components for spellcasting. As I said before, too, everyone will start with an additional feat.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Kire creates a safe table
We will do a session 0 to explain the campaign, talk about styles, create characters and also for new players to learn the system and the tools. We will have macros on Roll20 to digitally use X, N and O cards, I will share a document for everyone's Lines and Veils, and we'll keep an open communication throughout the game as events occur. By standard, the campaign will include depictions of violence; The creatures you will fight are savages, and viscera will be aplenty. If you delve deeper into the characters the story revolve around, there is a lot of trauma in their backgrounds, but that is only accessible with much intent from the players, so easily avoidable if you'd like. I always ask everyone how they're feeling after the game, not only to debrief on possible sensitive themes, but also to check on how everyone's feeling about the gameplay.