It's All Gone To Hell | Avernus | Descent Into Avernus | 5.5e

Creating your character

You'll build your Hero on D&D Beyond (free for players) using the 2024 D&D 5e rules, which I provide as part of the game. No purchases needed. Ever. Here's how it works: 1. Book your seat. 2. Get your Discord invite and access to your dedicated game channel: setting links, approved content, rule clarifications, all in one place. 3. Build your Hero. Ask questions in the channel; I answer fast. 4. Bring it to Session 0, where we shape backgrounds together as a group. One thing I'll ask of you: give your Hero a reason to be here. Not a backstory novel. A reason. Who do they owe? What do they want? What would they never do? That last one is the interesting one. Want to go deeper on background after Session 0? The Discord channel is always open.

Preparing for the session

Four things you need: - ✅ A microphone separate from your speakers. Don't have one? Ask me, I'll point you to a cheap good one. - ✅ A PC or Mac that runs Foundry VTT reliably. - ✅ Free accounts: D&D Beyond and Discord. - ✅ A group agreement on who takes notes. Even bullet points. Future you will be grateful, and my campaign website has your back either way. Three things that cost nothing: Remember this is a game. Be clear about what you want without being discourteous. Come ready to learn from the table as well as teach it.

What Egonaught brings to the table

What you get at my table - 🌟 A GM with 40 years behind the screen who still loves every minute of it. - 🌟 A story you live inside, not one you watch. Film noir bones. Horror in the walls. - 🌟 Talking that matters. Combat is an option. It is not the option. Scheme, investigate, bargain, deceive. NPCs assume you'll speak first; most of them don't want to die either. - 🌟 Fights that mean something. Less frequent. Often brutal. When the steel comes out, someone miscalculated. - 🌟 A world that remembers. Significant NPCs act on their own interests and respond to yours. Your choices change the game-world, and it does not forget. - 🌟 Your own campaign website with a summary of every session: what happened, who you met, which threads are still open. Miss a week, forget a name, lose the plot? It's written down and waiting. Few tables offer this. Mine do. - 🌟 As many voices as I can manage. I am not a voice actor AND I will make sure you can feel who's speaking. - 🌟 Everything on Foundry VTT: rules, maps, tokens, audio. Everything on D&D Beyond: the full 2024 rules. Everything on Discord: voice, text, and the community between sessions. Heroes are forged in the white heat of adversity. In the beginning, you might be nobodies. Session by session, you rise to meet a challenge the Gods themselves have set before you. I will cheer you on, but silently. The Gods are known to be jealous masters :)

Homebrew rules

The community area on our discord server contains a range of articles on the new D&D 5.5 rules and how we will make rulings on them. This is an open area where all players can discuss and contribute in turn. Specific examples of homebrew includes: - ⚖️ Heroic Inspiration can be gifted between characters. Because heroism shared is heroism doubled, and hoarded Inspiration helps no one. - ⚖️ Perkins Crits. Your critical hit maximises the extra damage die. When you land the big one, it feels big. - ⚖️ Death Saves are rolled blind. You won't know how close the edge is, and neither will the table. Bless matters. Exhaustion matters. Fear matters. All rolls revealed once your Hero is out of danger. Everything else runs on the 2024 rules, with our table's rulings documented in the Discord community area, where every player can read, question, and contribute. We do not support custom homebrew for individual players outside of reskinning of existing material.

How Egonaught creates a safe table

There will be a Session 0 for this adventure, and everyone should also bring up their expectations for the game. A lack of expectations has been the end of many campaigns; imagine being the player who brought an optimized multiclass fighter to a silly roleplay game or the GM who wanted Game of Thrones level intrigue but is now dealing with a bard named Seymour Butts. So be sure to ask what genre, what level, what type of gameplay, and what safety tools everyone wants.  As part of Session 0, we will use a Luxton Technique Discussion to identify the themes, content limits, and safety practices relevant to this table. You never need to disclose personal history, trauma, diagnoses, or the reason for a boundary. However, to determine whether this particular adventure can accommodate a boundary, the GM may need content-based clarification—for example, whether a concern covers all loss of character agency or only particular mechanics or depictions. You may provide that clarification in the group, privately to the GM, or not at all. The aim is to find a shared play experience that is workable and enjoyable for everyone. Not every requested limit can be accommodated in every adventure: a limit may conflict with an expected or central element of the game, or with another player’s needs. If we cannot find an approach that works for the whole table, that is a compatibility outcome, not a judgment on anyone’s boundary. A transcript of Session 0 will be provided on what the group has agreed regarding the Safety Tools listed, along with the outcome of the Luxton Technique discussion. Above the Table discussions will be held on request by a player or the GM.