Smoke and Mirrors (Free Session Zero, Beginner Friendly)
Within a city of shadows and secrets a guild rises to prominence on the lips of the fearful and the blades of the ambitious. What name will you claim?
$10.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Tuesday - 12:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 3–6 hours
2 / 5 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
2/5
About the adventure
The city of Grimhaven is a bleak and depressing place to visitors, a home to its inhabitants, and a trove of treasures to the wise and capable. Lady Morgana and the Council of Five sit their thrones dividing the city into unfair portions, playing at their games with the lives of the poor and destitute while the middle-class work their fingers to the bone scraping out a living for themselves. The poor, however, are to the nobles a plague that needs exterminating. They stubbornly cling to life despite laws and unfair regulation that make it impossible for them to live above the murky waters of The Revs, the dilapidated underbelly of the pristine city. How do they stay alive? How do they push onward despite the best attempts of their betters? The answer is both something and nothing. A whispered tale that ignites the air at an ale house. A threatening promise to a guardsman stepping too close to a helpless woman. A proclamation, shouted moments before the hangman's noose snaps taut and drains the life from a captured thief. The Tattered Saints. A guild of exceptional individuals bent on changing Grimhaven for the better. Adventurers, thieves, fighters, and anyone with a silver tongue, all working together to stage grand heists to enable phantom thievery in a theatrical picking of the purse they affectionately refer to as "The Tithe." "None above us, None below us, all beside us." Welcome to Grimhaven, your home and the city your forefathers fought to settle. Are you a noble, secretly working to help the poor out of the kindness of your heart? Or perhaps only to avoid the embarassment of the Tithe? Perhaps you are an inhabitant of The Revs, drinking gutter water and eating roasted rats to stay alive, taking the initiative to be part of the tithe for the people you love? Or maybe you're just a person with a job, trying to make this city a better place for your children. Whether you are a descendant of one who fought in the Settling Wars, or just a nobody on the streets, there is opportunity here. A chance to change your own life, or perhaps the lives of many others. It all depends upon your choices. What name will you claim?
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Meet the Game Master
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Sets the Mood, Storytelling, Voices
Average response time: 24+ hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
I have been playing for 15 years and GMing for 10. I love new players, new groups, getting to know new people, and most of all running D&D! TTRPG's are my passion along with Voice acting, art, and music production. I use all of those passions to run my games and I feel that over my experience with running games I've developed those skills to be able to create incredible experiences for my players!
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
I will work with each player individually to create a character that fits with the world, crafting a backstory with you to source content to appear in-game. That's right, whatever you write down will likely come up. So be careful. If you wish to bring your own character and bakstory for me to review however, I ask that you do so *after* reading the info section in the discord to make sure that you fit in with the world. Happy playing, everyone!
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You will need a discord account and a Roll20 account in order to play! This game is hosted online and those two platforms are what I use in conjunction with eachother to create the best narrative, sound, and visual experience that I can!
What The Man of Long Letters brings to the table
What you'll get from me: Free character token art drawn by me from your description of your character (There will be a questionaire). Free session zero to talk about all the necessaries, not gonna charge for that. Voice acted characters and immersive roleplay Curated music playlists that set the scene Detailed maps and scenery pages in the VTT that immerse you in the world and provide visual scenes and aids for gameplay. Discounted rates in the event you want to get a full-body art piece of your character drawn up during or after the campaign. And most of all, the experience! A campaign tailored around your character, where your decisions will have real and lasting consequences on the world and how we play the game! If all that sounds appealing to you, then take my hand and come along with me on this journey through Grimhaven.
Homebrew rules
A few I employ: If you drink a potion, you can either do so as an action for the maximum ammount of healing OR a bonus action for a roll of the dice. Lesser Restoration can be used to remove one level of fatigue on one creature per day. This effect cannot be used more than once in one day on one creature, but *can* be used on multiple creatures in one day. You absolutely *CAN* have critical successes and failures on ability checks, saving throws, and skill checks. Main stats for classes are (somewhat) negotiable. Namely, intelligence-based warlocks can certainly be a thing. BUT it has to make sense, and ultimately any changes are decided by me and me alone, and must be approved before introducing to the game.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How The Man of Long Letters creates a safe table
I will conduct personal interviews with each player to determine their lines and veils, so as not to out anyone's potential trauma, then during session zero I will adress each one anonymouslyso that everyone knows and understands. I will also publish all safety rules and concerns in the discord so they can be viewed at all times, once again anonymous so no player knows who said what, but everyone understands that these topics are what they are. I also employ the X N O system during sessions and any player can, at any time, send a card to me or proclaim it out loud if they want. Aftercare will be optional in the form of after-game hangouts where we decompress, talk, and make sure we remember that we're all friends here.
Content warnings
Safety tools used