"There Lies His Crown in Water Deep"

Creating your character

We'll be doing character creation all together during Session Zero! The game is designed to be compatible with D&D5e rules, so if you're familiar with that process at all you'll be right at home! Scores for statistics will be rolled with the 4-dice method (roll 4 dice and discard the lowest die), and then you can choose which statistic to assign that value to. This will keep a bit of chance in things but still let everyone customize their character how they want! Everyone will start at Level 2, and the campaign will see you ascend to Level 10 and possible even higher, depending on your choices! You don't need to have any reference materials or books, but a basic familiarity with Middle-Earth and the universe of the Lord of the Rings is helpful! If you've read the books or even just watched the movies you'll be right at home! The most important thing to bring is just your imagination and a sense of adventure!

Preparing for the session

Our sessions will meet on Discord, and a working mic is needed to talk to me and your other players. If you have a webcam, that's awesome, but not required! You can come into this game with no previous knowledge of D&D, as our first few sessions will cover the rules as we encounter them. If you do have previous experience, that's great and will help streamline our game sessions, but isn't necessary to sign up.

What Paul Willis brings to the table

Sessions will include custom-made maps and artwork that will immerse you in the world. I love to do voices and accents, and I think you'll find my NPCs fun and memorable! We'll try to follow the rules as best we can for situations like combat, but I always lean more toward Rule of Cool over Rules as Written ... so if you have a heroic maneuver you want to try out I promise to do my best to "yes, and" with you!

Homebrew rules

Because our adventure is set in Middle Earth, playable races are limited to Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, and Human. That being said, however, there may be some fun and fascinating story experiences to be had with a playable Goblin, Orc, or other classic D&D race! If you have your heart set on something like that, just make sure and talk it over with me during our Session Zero so we can make it work with the world we're playing in!

How Paul Willis creates a safe table

When we have a full group, I'll send out a link to everyone with the RPG Consent Checklist I usually use, and we'll talk over everything at the start of Session Zero to make sure we're all on the same page. My door is always open for players to contact me privately if they'd prefer to discuss it that way, too. Players can contact me at any time between sessions to discuss safety issues, ideas for their characters, story thoughts, etc. My open door policy is always in effect! We'll take a short break during our session, as well as take a few minutes at the end to talk over everything with people. I'm always looking for ways to improve the awesome collaborative story we're telling together! During sessions, I keep a text channel open so players can contact me privately/discreetly about anything they're feeling troubled by. I want everyone to feel safe and comfortable and have fun at my table, and I'll make every effort to help make that happen!