DUNGEONS OF DRAKKENHEIM: Choose Your Allies... carefully.

Creating your character

We have been developing our own character creation system for several years. It is built for developing slightly stronger than usual characters who are the protagonists of our cooperative storytelling and consist of four sections: 1. Childhood, 2. Adolescence, 3. Apprenticeship, and 4. Fate. The childhood and adolescence both feature tables to randomize the things in your past that you have no control over, such as your genetics. However, the system is designed for the player to veto anything and make a choice of something else. Simply put, no random roll is going to dictate what or who your character is. You can always make your own choice instead (other than the usual random dice rolls, of course!). In the Apprenticeship section you develop your character through making choices of how you want to focus your training before you became an adventurer. The Fate section provides you with some roleplaying and character suggestions which you are free to build in to your character or ignore. We have compiled 50 Lineages (Race/Heritage - not including the possibilities of lineages with two different parents), 16 Classes (with 340+ Subclasses), and 129 Occupations (Backgrounds) from multiple 5e and A5e sources and adjusted them to suit the A5e system. That creates the possibility of nearly 300 million possible character builds! The vast number of choices can be somewhat overwhelming, thus we created our custom character system both to narrow down the options for players without the need for players to read through hundreds of pages of options, and based it around the likelihood of being born into a certain lineage, heritage, and culture in our signature world of Valine. But we never want to take away choice! Rolling multiple times upon the table until an intiguing result comes up is not uncommon, especially for players that are less familiar with our world and the game in general! We will work with each player to create a character you can enjoy and that fits with your play style. Players that sign up within 48 hours that we cannot schedule a Session 0 for can choose from multiple pregenerated characters until they feel comfortable rolling up their own. Particularly in the early portion of the campaign, switching characters to find the best fit is encouraged and there will be several points in the story between Level 1 and Level 5 at which this option is provided. We'll talk you through every stage of the process to clarify any unfamiliar rules you encounter, and we are often available between sessions to clarify rules and abilities.

Preparing for the session

All you need is a free Discord account to join our server (https://discord.gg/85mapxn3Y7) and get access to the voice channel. A webcam is optional. We run the game in Founfry, which runs in your web browser, so nothing to download there. Some of our parties like to be on camera and see each other, some are fine with only using voice channels. We have several PDF documents to assist you in the game that deal with basic world lore, house rules, and needed clarifications. Those will be available in our discord server for your reference, as well as recaps of previous sessions to assist you in remembering important campaign events. Pregenerated characters will always be available in the event of last minute signups and/or character deaths.

What The Rob of Wonder brings to the table

I will provide: Foundry VTT hosting (runs in your browser) Ambient Sounds Music Optional House Rules Custom Art and Maps Player Aids as PDFs An online Campaign reference document I tend to run a fairly relaxed table. The aim is to have fun telling a collaborative story, and most of the time that means letting things flow with the natural energy of the group. But this is your game and I will use all the skills I have picked up from thirty years of TTRPGs, theatre, voice acting, storytelling, writing and other endeavours to bring the story to life for you and tailor the style as best I can to what the group wants. I use a handful of house rules that I have picked up over the years that I think enhance the game, and I offer others as options for the party to try out, adopt, or reject. I value feedback so that I can make this the experience that you want from the campaign. I tend to slightly favor the players in decision making - after all you are the heroes of the story - but not so much as to take away the challenge or the danger. Just enough to give you a slight edge when the dice turn against you. But if the dice REALLY turn against you, or your character makes a particularly egregious bad decision. Well... there are endless heroes to roll up!

Homebrew rules

Here is a brief overview of the homebrew rules (some optional to be voted on by the group as a whole)" - Custom Character Creation System - Luck and Inspiration Systems running in parallel - Limited Critical Hit and Fumble Tables add extra flavor. (Optional) - Degrees of Success for Skill Checks and Group Checks - Flanking Bonuses that increase with each additional attacker surrounding a target - Firing into combat carries a greater risk of hitting an ally - Reroll Initiative each round, better simulating the chaos of combat (Optional) - Adjusted Inititative tiebreakers favoring impulsive reactions and quick thinking - Reworked Magic System featuring five sources of magic (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal, Technology) and introducing Spell Legality.

How The Rob of Wonder creates a safe table

Safety documents and features discussed at Session 0 and available on the campaign Discord server for download and review. Regular check in sessions. Channels for Stars & Wishes, Debriefs, and an open invite to DM the GM at any time (usually respnds within a maximum of approx. 8 hrs.)