The Vermillion Isles: A Nautical/Pirate Campaign & Setting

Creating your character

I like to start with one-on-one session zeros with all my players! During these sessions, we’ll chat about the rules of the game (especially helpful for new players), go over house rules, table etiquette, expectations, and boundaries. After that, we’ll dive into brainstorming character ideas and work together to create and develop your character. Once your character is ready, we’ll explore their background, motivations, and reasons for adventuring, weaving their story into the larger world of the campaign. It’s a great way to kick things off and make sure your character feels personal and connected! 5E: 2014 Level: 3 Feat: Each character begins with the option to choose one feat at level 1. Ability Scores: Utilise the Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8). Equipment: Start with the designated starting equipment.

Preparing for the session

Players are encouraged to approach the game with a positive attitude and a readiness to have fun! As this is an online game hosted on Roll20 and Zoom, we kindly request that each player has a functioning microphone and video camera. I highly recommend that players review the Tourist Guide to the Isles PDF and Video (links provided below). Character creation will take place during our Session Zero and in individual Character One-on-One sessions. These sessions aim to establish the character's backstory and delve into their goals and motivations. PDF https://drive.google.com/file/d/16tzlGsHiaV_bJSXhPlwVwYM7BMo-9WyG/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iSOsN3Bh7aHyG9kiRFY4-smm2_eWjj0-/view?usp=sharing Video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RnW7spttQROJCfB1EGD9uJ7r_FuKX_8H/view?usp=sharing – Cameras must remain on to enhance immersion, role-playing, and collaborative storytelling. – Maintain a good attitude and an open mind. – No experience necessary. – Be punctual. – Avoid dominating the spotlight; ensure everyone has a chance to shine, especially concerning their personal story arc. – Stay focused during the session; no distractions like other games or work. – Engage in collaborative storytelling. – Avoid characters that don’t fit with the party or setting, including murder hobos or evil characters. – Be kind, accepting, and refrain from bullying or degrading anyone. – Most importantly, a good attitude!

What JonnyDM brings to the table

– Always be prepared for the session. – Be helpful and understanding towards new TTRPG players or those new to 5e. – Maintain an easygoing attitude, emphasizing story, exploration, player motives, and impactful encounters over heavy dungeon crawls or combat. – Make fair and consistent rulings, considering the "rule of cool." – Remember, it's the players' story; I provide hooks and let them develop the rest. – Resolve any tech issues (working camera and audio) before the session starts. – Create a fully fleshed-out world with vibrant NPCs, villainous antagonists, and diverse characters. – Integrate each character into the main storyline. – Conduct a robust one-on-one session zero, to discuss rules, boundaries, character building, and flesh out your character's backstory and find ways to weave them into the plot; periodically check in with each player to align on character development. – Provide fair and challenging combat and social encounters. – Maintain kindness, understanding, and acceptance. –Most importantly, a good attitude!

Homebrew rules

Flanking During combat, Flanking is allowed. Flanking occurs when a creature and its allies surround an enemy, positioning themselves on opposite sides or corners of the enemyÌs space. This grants advantage on melee attack rolls for each flanking ally against the enemy. Health Potions The player has a choice when consuming a potion of healing. They can use an Action and receive the full amount of HP from the potion taken, or they can use a Bonus Action and roll as normal for the HP healed. This gives the player a little strategic freedom during combat. Action: If you use your Action to take the potion, you gain the full HP amount from that healing potion. Bonus: If you take the potion as a Bonus Action, you roll as normal to see how much healing you received. Hidden Death Saves In the unfortunate event that a character is struck down and dying, they must make death saving throws as usual. The results of the rolls will be hidden, however, and shown only to the Game Master and the player who rolled the death save. This minor adjustment brings back the tension, severity, and fear when a character is dying instead of reducing it to pass vs. failures. Counterspell The spell counterspell is no longer available. Instead, the spell is replaced with a contesting counterspell test to determine if the spell is successfully countered. Any class that generally has counterspell in their spell list can attempt to counter any spell, provided they can see the caster and have a levelled spell with the same school of magic as the spell being cast. Using counter this way still takes your reaction and a spell slot equal to the spell used to counter. If you meet these criteria, you roll 1d20 + proficiency + spell modifier + spell level. The player with the highest roll wins the contest. However, if you both roll the same, you roll on the wild magic table as the two spells collide in the air. For example, if a Shaman Orc casts a fireball at 3rd level and you can see the Orc, you can use your reaction to counter the fireball with lightning bolt, both being Evocation spells. Now, both will roll 1d20 + proficiency + spell modifier + 3 spell levels to see if the counter was a success. At higher levels. Starting at level 7, if you win a counterspell test, you may attempt to sling the spell back at the caster. You can sling up to a specific spell level based on your class level, as seen below. Starting at 15th level, when you win a counterspell test, you have advantage to hit with this spell, or you give disadvantage to the caster against the save for the spell. You can use the spell slinger ability 3/day.

How JonnyDM creates a safe table

I like to start with one-on-one session zeros with all my players! During these sessions, we’ll chat about the rules of the game (especially helpful for new players), go over house rules, table etiquette, expectations, and boundaries. After that, we’ll dive into brainstorming character ideas and work together to create and develop your character. Once your character is ready, we’ll explore their background, motivations, and reasons for adventuring, weaving their story into the larger world of the campaign. It’s a great way to kick things off and make sure your character feels personal and connected! Session 0 and Character Backstory One-on-One: Free Link to the Tourist Guide to the Isles Single page https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iSOsN3Bh7aHyG9kiRFY4-smm2_eWjj0-/view?usp=sharing Campaign Video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RnW7spttQROJCfB1EGD9uJ7r_FuKX_8H/view?usp=sharing